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On the origin of virtual wetlands by means of computer aided selection or the preservation of favoured places in the struggle for functional wetlands
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- Author / Creator
- Lappin, Kerri Lynne
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To aid in reclamation planning for the Genesee Coal Mine in Alberta, I qualified the pre-mined state of wetlands and measured land use and land cover (LULC) change between 1982 and 2007. A generalized linear model (GLM) was developed to explain the presence of wetlands on the pre-mined landscape. Environmental variables used to model the distribution of the wetlands included categorical LULC variables (agricultural land, vegetation, roads, structures, rivers, streams and tributaries), and elevation or elevation-derived terrain variables (slope, terrain ruggedness index, compound topographic index, sinks). Results from the model suggest that pre-mined wetland presence is best explained by agricultural land use, distance to tributaries, terrain ruggedness, distance to rivers, and the interaction between agriculture and roads. Landscape metrics were used to measure changes in landscape fragmentation and wetland structure. Differences in metric values suggest that the landscape has more surface water, less forested or vegetated land cover, and greater fragmentation.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Spring 2010
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.