India, June 1 -- For most of the past four decades, observations from the Landsat satellite record show that humans have dominated changes to the U.S. landscape. Recent research revealed a shift in that trend, suggesting that disasters might be catching up.
In a NASA-funded study published in Nature Geoscience, scientists analyzed nearly 35 years of data from NASA/USGS Landsat satellites to better understand what has been shaping the continental U.S. landscape. The researchers, led by former Landsat science team member Zhe Zhu, found that "human-directed disturbances" like logging, agricultural expansion, and construction have declined, while "wild disturbances" like wildfires and hurricanes - disasters that can be influenced by human acti...