Land cover and land use changes can result from climatic variability and climate changes, as well as from direct and indirect human drivers, such as growth in population and consumption. In this study, we aimed to examine whether major factors driving landscape changes (expressed in vegetation cover) in Israel, a densely populated country in the eastern Mediterranean Basin, are related to physical drivers or to human causes. To this end, we calculated statistical trends in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI–a spectral index representing vegetation cover) from a 14-year MODIS time series, between 2000 and 2014, to identify areas where vegetation cover has either increased or decreased. We chose 125 study areas where statistically significant changes in NDVI were found and used time series of monthly rainfall, Landsat images, Google Earth images and environmental GIS layers to identify the type and cause of landscape changes. The two most common general classes driving la

Remote sensing of night-lights has been enhanced in recent years with the availability of the new VIIRS Day and Night band, the commercial EROS-B satellite and astronaut photographs from the International Space Station. However, dedicated space-borne multispectral sensors offering radiance calibrated night lights imagery are yet to be launched. Here we examined the capabilities of Landsat 8 to acquire night time light images of the Earth. Examining seven night-time Landsat 8 scenes, we found that brightly lit areas in both urban (Berlin, Las Vegas, Nagoya and Tel-Aviv) and gas flares (Basra, Kuwait) areas were detected in all eight bands of Landsat 8. The threshold for detection of lit areas was approximately 0.4W/m.sup.2/[mu]m/sr in bands 1-5 and 8 of Landsat 8. This threshold level was higher than Landsat dark noise levels, and slightly lower than post launch Landsat 8 OLI band dependent noise equivalent radiance difference levels. Drawing on this, we call on the USGS to plan an ann

To access, purchase, authenticate, or subscribe to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10113-015-0862-6 Byline: Noam Levin (1) Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Geography, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt Scopus, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel Article History: Registration Date: 11/08/2015 Online Date: 05/09/2015 Article note: The online version of the original article can be found under doi: 10.1007/s10113-015-0848-4. The online version of the original article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10113-015-0848-4.

To access, purchase, authenticate, or subscribe to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00267-016-0725-z Byline: Noam Levin (1,2), Naama Tessler (3), Andrew Smith (2), Clive McAlpine (2) Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Geography, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel (2) School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD, Australia (3) Department of Biology and Environment, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa-Oranim, Tivon, Israel Article History: Registration Date: 10/06/2016 Online Date: 22/06/2016 Article note: The online version of the original article can be found under doi: 10.1007/s00267-016-0715-1. The online version of the original article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00267-016-0715-1.

Context

In the last decade the city of Istanbul has suffered a gradual decrease in green areas because of the growing need for space for new settlements, trade and industry. Landscape continuity analysis takes its starting point from the analysis of built areas rather than the landscape in between. This study aimed to demonstrate the applicability of landscape continuity analysis within a region adjacent to a large metropolis—Istanbul—that is utilised for multiple purposes and composed of an important amount of green areas including Belgrade Forest. The general framework of this research consists of two major steps: 1) quantification of the inferred influence of human activities on green areas; and 2) evaluation of the compatibility between the inferred influence of human activities, and implemented planning decisions (particularly the Forest Management Plan). The results support the use of landscape continuity analysis as a timesaving and cost-effective supplementary tool in decision-making

In the Mediterranean Sea, socio-economic drivers may accelerate the process of exclusive economic zone (EEZ) declarations. Despite the challenges, the EEZ declarations may provide important opportunities for leveraging change to national policy towards the development of large-scale conservation of marine ecosystems and biodiversity in this zone. Using the Mediterranean Sea as a case study, we aim to highlight a set of best practices that will maximize the potential for the development of large-scale marine conservation initiatives. These include a range of approaches, such as using surrogates to fill the many biodiversity data gaps in the region, further the development of consistent and open access databases, and the utilization of technological developments to improve monitoring, research and surveillance of less accessible and under-explored marine areas. The integration of Mediterranean-wide and local conservation efforts, the facilitation of transboundary collaboration, and the

•We have simulated virtual oil spills in Israel’s exclusive economic zone.•Realistic ocean and weather conditions were used.•Spills were released near ship routes, mooring buoys, gas wells and pipes.•Seasonal oil spill probability maps were created per infrastructure type.•High probability areas were identified and related to ocean and weather patterns.

The Survey of Western Palestine of the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) (Conder & Kitchener, 1871-1877) is well recognized for its planimetric precision and accuracy by modern standards (Levin, 2006). The PEF survey map of Western Palestine was prepared between the years 1871-1877, and was published in 1881. The map depicts the landscape in great detail (scale of 1:63,360) and includes built-up areas and different natural features. The map is accompanied by three memoir books (Conder et al., 1881), which describe the map in detail, and an additional book on the flora and fauna of Palestine (Tristram, 1884). The PEF map [...]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12562/abstract Byline: Salit Kark, Eran Brokovich, Tessa Mazor, Noam Levin Keywords: deep sea; fossil fuels; hydrocarbons; marine biodiversity; marine conservation; natural gas; offshore drilling; oil; biodiversidad marina; combustible fosil; conservacion marina; excavacion petrolera en mar abierto; gas natural; mar profundo; petroleo Abstract Globally, extensive marine areas important for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning are undergoing exploration and extraction of oil and natural gas resources. Such operations are expanding to previously inaccessible deep waters and other frontier regions, while conservation-related legislation and planning is often lacking. Conservation challenges arising from offshore hydrocarbon development are wide-ranging. These challenges include threats to ecosystems and marine species from oil spills, negati

Over the years, Israel's centralized national planning framework and the intense competition on the limited available land played a crucial factor in designing the spatial distribution of the protected areas in Israel. When examining the spatial properties of the protected areas, it was found that they do not adequately represent the variety of the ecosystems in Israel. According to the systematic conservation planning approach, we aimed to examine how optimization algorithms (e.g., MARXAN) would inform us on high priority areas for conservation. We created proxies for anthropogenic disturbance, and for the susceptibility of designating new protected areas subject to existing national and regional land use master plans. Our conservation targets were defined on the basis of the spatial distribution of 461 endangered vertebrate and plant species (red species), as well as by defining and mapping 21 main ecosystems. The results highlight the limited options of significantly improving the

•Successful conservation often requires collaboration across international boundaries.•A wide range of strategies have been used to advance cross-boundary collaboration in conservation.•Collaboration can reduce the cost and area required to achieve conservation targets.•Collaboration also has limitations; for example it may lead to top-down decisions and parochialism.•We present a framework for incorporating collaboration considerations into systematic conservation planning.

Land use regression (LUR) models rely on air pollutant measurements for their development, and are therefore limited to recent periods where such measurements are available. Here we propose an approach to overcome this gap and calculate LUR models several decades before measurements were available. We first developed a LUR model for NOx using annual averages of NOx at all available air quality monitoring sites in Israel between 1991 and 2011 with time as one of the independent variables. We then reconstructed historical spatial data (e.g., road network) from historical topographic maps to apply the model's prediction to each year from 1961 to 2011. The model's predictions were then validated against independent estimates about the national annual NOx emissions from on-road vehicles in a top-down approach. The model's cross validated R2 was 0.74, and the correlation between the model's annual averages and the national annual NOx emissions between 1965 and 2011 was 0.75. Information abo

•Active dunes with contrasting orientations were found on Moreton Island, Australia.•We examined wind regime from measuring stations, global and regional reanalyses.•Ocean facing stations were best correlated with the PRECIS regional reanalysis.•Wind regime varied between the ocean and bay sides of Moreton Island.•Coastal dune form was explained by wind regime and the island’s topography.

This paper examines changes in Israel's landscape by comparing two time periods, 1881 and 2011. For this purpose we compared land cover derived from the Palestine Exploration Fund historical map to a present land cover map that was compiled from 38 different present-day GIS layers. The research aims were (1) to quantitatively examine what were the changes in Israel's landscape between 1881 and 2011; (2) to identify and explain spatial patterns in these landscape changes. Landscape transformation was categorized into five classes: 'residual bare' (no change in natural vegetation, mostly in desert areas); 'residual' (i.e. remnant; no change in natural vegetation class); 'transformed' (changes between different natural vegetation areas); 'replaced' (area which became managed); 'removed' (no or minimal natural vegetation). We found that only 21% of the area retained similar landscape classes as in the past, with the largest changes taking place in ecoregions that were favorable for develo