ABSTRACT
Changes in urban environment ecosystems, as discussed in Chapter 8, often happen in small areas within a city and over relatively short periods. Changes in the rural environment are different and, if anything, the symbiotic relationship between humans and the natural environment is stronger in the rural ecosystem. Changes in this landscape may take place over much larger areas, possibly thousands of kilometers, and over a much longer time span. Remote sensing is a useful monitoring tool, as it can use its multiple temporal and spatial scales to develop landscape indicators, such as vegetation indices, to help assess these changes.
