Conceptualizing Pattern Analysis of Spectral Change Relative to Ecosystem Status

Change is recognized as being intrinsic to ecosystems, but is also the essence of instability and the outgrowth of situations that lack sustainability. Change is arguably the most fundamental symptom for onset of abnormality in ecosystem function, and change in change cannot be detected without sufficient monitoring to determine spatial and temporal aspects of characteristic change regimes across landscapes. It must also be recognized that change can be associated with either restoration or degradation. A suite of recent developments in change detection using compressed multiband image data provides increased flexibility and practicality for systematic change detection on a regional basis. Combining such capability with conceptual extensions of spatial pattern analysis through echelons can provide a methodology for systematically monitoring spatial structure of spectral change across landscapes in order to profile characteristic broad scale regimes of change and to indicate trends in those regimes. Implementing these analytical scenarios with new generations of computers and remote sensors could lend a further dimension to tracking of ecosystem status over major regions.