Land use change (LUC) affects carbon stocks, biodiversity, and other sustainability factors. Concerns about LUC impacts drive the biofuel sustainability debate and hinder biofuel expansion. LUC is currently either predicted through biofuels through use of economic models or estimated through remote sensing data. Both of these methods have drawbacks. A next generation, multi-faceted approach to characterizing LUC that combines farmer-based reporting, remote sensing data, and aerial images while accounting for error will accurately, efficiently, and inexpensively quantify and characterize LUC at high spatial resolution.
The project team is working together to develop this approach with sponsorship from the United States Department of Agriculture.