Program

Training Courses: September 16, 2014

Two optional training courses will be offered on the first day of the conference:

Option 1: Introduction to landscape state-and-transition simulation modeling. This course is designed for those that are new to state-and-transition simulation modeling tools. The course covers state-and-transition modeling concepts, how to create simple models of landscape vegetation change using the ST-Sim software, and how to run those models and interpret the results.

Option 2: Advanced concepts in landscape state-and-transition simulation modeling. This course is designed for those that have previous experience with state-and-transition simulation models (including VDDT, TELSA, Path or ST-Sim), and would like to learn how to take advantage of the advanced features provided in ST-Sim. The course will focus on some of the new advanced features of ST-Sim, including both spatially-explicit raster capabilities and the new stock-flow module (for tracking costs and carbon).

The two sessions will run concurrently from 08:30 to 16:30 and will include lunch, breaks, a training manual and sample data sets.

Presentations: September 17-18, 2014

• Keynote address by Dr. Tom Loveland. Dr. Loveland is one of USGS's leading thinkers on remote sensing and land change science. Tom led the Landsat 8 Science Team, is co-director of the Geographic Information Center of Excellence at South Dakota State University, and has published numerous scientific papers. He is involved in virtually all aspects of USGS science at the EROS center, including carbon research, LANDFIRE, Landsat science, land cover mapping, and LULC modeling.

Wednesday September 17th
8:30	Introductions
8:45	Keynote Address by Dr. Tom Loveland, U.S. Geological Survey From land cover mapping to land change science: Dynamic monitoring of a changing landscape
9:30	Colin Daniel, University of Toronto and Apex Resource Management Solutions Ltd. State-and-transition simulation models: theory and practice
10:00	Jennifer Costanza, North Carolina State University Assessing landscape impacts of potential bioenergy production scenarios using spatially explicit state-and-transition simulation models
10:30	Break
11:00	Benjamin Sleeter, U.S. Geological Survey Development of a state-and-transition simulation model to simulate the impacts of land-use and vegetation change on ecosystem carbon dynamics: A methodological approach for national resource assessment
11:30	Eric Sundquist, U.S. Geological Survey Application of state-and-transition simulation modeling to reconstruction of historical trends in carbon storage in the conterminous U.S.
12:00	Lunch
13:00	Kori Blankenship, The Nature Conservancy Simulating the historical range of variability in fire-adapted ecosystems
13:30	Priya Shahani, USDA Forest Service Representing temporal variability in wildfire disturbances in state-and-transition models used for land management planning and assessment
14:00	Tamara Wilson, U.S. Geological Survey State-and-transition simulation modeling of land use threats to protected areas in Mediterranean California
14:30	Break
15:00	Amanda Swearingen, University of Wisconsin- Madison Modeling management and climate disturbances to evaluate landscape scale conservation efficacy
15:30	Gillian Donald, Donald Functional & Applied Ecology Inc. and Fort McMurray Métis Local 1935 State-and-transition simulation modeling of oil sands mine reclamation in the boreal forest of northern Alberta, Canada
16:00	Jason Sherba, U.S. Geological Survey Downscaling and spatial reapportionment of coarse scale global land-use/land-cover projections for use in region-level state-and-transition simulation modeling
16:30	Poster Session Until 18:00
19:00	Social evening of food and drink at The Mainline (shuttle available from the hotel)

Thursday, September 18th
8:30	Brian Miller, Colorado State University Combining species distribution models and state-and-transition simulations to support resource management under climate change
9:00	Megan Creutzburg, Portland State University Climate change, management and future sage-grouse habitat in southeastern Oregon
9:30	Louis Provencher, The Nature Conservancy of Nevada Landscape Conservation Forecasting™ with federally listed species in southwest Utah
10:00	Jeff Campbell, Spatial Solutions Inc. Feed the engine! Utilizing spatial imagery to feed the ST-Sim engine
10:30	Break
11:00	Ann Lynch, USDA Forest Service Using state-and-transition models in an integrated landscape assessment to inform Forest Plan Revision in the Arizonan Sky Island Ecosystem
11:30	Rachel Sleeter, U.S. Geological Survey Methods used to parameterize the spatially-explicit components of a state-and-transition simulation model
12:00	Lunch
13:00	Leonardo Frid, Apex Resource Management Solutions Ltd. Developing state-and-transition simulation models for the Rangeland Vegetation Simulator using NRCS ecological site descriptions
13:30	Catherine Jarnevich, U.S. Geological Survey Optimizing buffelgrass management with differing levels of aridity and treatment options
14:00	Break
14:30	Jim Smith, The Nature Conservancy, Colin Daniel, University of Toronto and Apex Resource Management Solutions Ltd., and Jeff Morisette, DOI North Central Climate Science Center Presentation and discussion on the future of state-and-transition simulation modeling tools
16:00	Adjourn