D - Land use modelling

During the 2nd phase of STORMA subprogramme D aimed at the generation of techniques and models for the spatially explicit characterization of land cover and the development of an integrated land use model SITE (SImulation of Terrestrial Environment) for the entire STORMA research area. Further to this, subprogramme D established a central data management system for the storage, visualization and distribution of STORMA data. Hence, this subprogramme generated information about the land cover within the STORMA region and about the dynamic and interactions of processes that influence the stability at the rainforest margin. The work has been carried out for selected study sites within the STORMA project region as well as for the entire area incorporating data at the plot level (A to F plots in Toro, field plots in Nopu and Bariri), the village level (census data of subprogramme A) and the regional level (regionalized meteorological data, satellite data). The output of these research activities are either static for one point in time (land cover), or temporally dynamic (land use models) information products that serve as a fundament for the evaluation of the status and potential pathways of change of the forest margin areas with regard to multiple factors and processes.