Ecosystems and Land System Change

Projects

Catalytic Collaborative Funding Initiative – The CAT Program. Resilience of Forest Ecosystem Services to Global Change: the IGER Initiative. Temple University, Office of the Vice-president for Research, College of Liberal Arts, College of Science and Technology.

Characterization and mapping of palm swamp peatland degradation and associated carbon emissions in the Peruvian Amazon $34,346. CIFOR

Characterization of multiannual land cover changes in the Peruvian Amazonia. CIFOR

Spatial and temporal analysis of pressures on Colombian Ecosystems. Temple University, Universidad de Medellin

Annual faculty grant competition. Workshop on emerging social, ecological and climatic challenges for natural conservation and rural development in post-conflict landscapes in Colombia. Institute for Latin American Studies, Columbia University.

Cross Cutting Initiative. Laying the foundations for the implementation of a collaborative research/training program for monitoring agricultural expansion in the tropical Eastern savannas of Colombia. Earth Institute, Columbia University.

Fires in Western Amazonia: Understanding and Modeling the Roles of Climatic, Social, Demographic, and Land-Use Change. NSF

Publications

Calderón-Caro, J., Morales-Gómez, L.M., Gutiérrez-Vélez, V.H., González-Caro, S., Benavides, A.M., 2024. Modeling proximate causes of deforestation in Antioquia, Colombia. Regional Environmental Change 24, 1–14.

Marcus, MS^†, Hergoualc’h, K, Coronado, ENH and Gutiérrez-Vélez, VH. 2024. Spatial distribution of degradation and deforestation of palm swamp peatlands and associated carbon emissions in the Peruvian Amazon. Journal of Environmental Management, 351, p.119665.

Lapola D. et al._. 2023. The drivers and impacts of Amazon forest degradation. Science.379:6630. 11p.

Wiese D^†, Stroup AM, Maiti A, Harris G, Lynch S, Vucetic S, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Henry KA. 2021. Measuring Neighborhood Landscapes: Associations between neighborhood’s landscape characteristics and colon cancer survival. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 18. 4728.

Glinskis E^†, Gutierrez-Velez VH. 2019 Quantifying and understanding carbon emissions from land cover changes between large and small oil palm expansion regimes in the Peruvian Amazon. Land Use Policy. 80: 95-106

Bolivar JM., Gutierrez-Velez VH, ,and Sierra CA. 2018. Carbon stocks in aboveground biomass for Colombian mangroves with associated uncertainties. Regional Studies in Marine Science 18:145-155.

Anaya JA, Gutiérrez-Vélez VH, Pacheco-Pascagaza AM, Palomino-Ángel S, Han N, Balzter H. 2020. Drivers of forest loss in a megadiverse hotspot on the Pacific Coast of Colombia. Remote Sensing. 12(1235).

Schwartz NB, Uriarte M, DeFries R, Bedka K., Fernandes K., Gutierrez-Velez V., Pinedo-Vásquez M. 2017. Fragmentation increases wind disturbance impacts on forest structure and carbon stocks in a western Amazonian landscape”. Ecological applications. 27: 1901–1915.

Schwartz, NB, Uriarte, M, DeFries., Gutierrez-Velez, V., Pinedo-Vásquez, M. 2017. Land-use dynamics influence estimates of carbon sequestration potential in tropical second-growth forest. Environmental Research Letters 12(7).

Sierra CA, Mahecha M, Poveda G, Álvarez-Dávila E, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Reu B, Feilhauer H, Anáya J, Armenteras D, Benavides AM, Buendia C, Duque Á, Estupiñan-Suarez LM, González C, Gonzalez-Caro S, Jimenez R, Kraemer G, Londoño MC, Orrego S.A, Posada JM, Ruiz-Carrascal D, Skowronek S. 2017. Monitoring ecological change during rapid socio-economic and political transitions: Colombian ecosystems in the post-conflict era. Environmental Science & Policy 76:40-49.

Baptiste B, Pinedo-Vasquez M, Gutierrez-Velez V, Andrade GI, Vieira P, Ming Lee T, Estupiñán L. 2017. Greening Peace in Colombia. Nature Ecology and Evolution. 2: 0102.

Fernandes, K, Verchot, L., Baethgen, W, Gutierrez-Velez, V, Pinedo-Vasquez, M. Martius, C. 2017. Heightened fire probability in Indonesia in non-drought conditions: the effect of increasing temperatures. Environmental research letters. 12(5): 054002

Hergoualc’h K, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Menton M, Verchot LV. 2017. Characterizing peat palm forest degradation in the Peruvian Amazon from space and on the ground: An exploratory study in the Peruvian Amazon. Forest Ecology and Management. 393: 63-73

Schwartz NB, Uriarte M, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Baethgen W, DeFries R, Fernandes K, Pinedo-Vasquez M. 2015. Climate, landowner residency, and land cover predict local scale fire activity in the Western Amazon. Global Environmental Change. 31: 144-153.

Gutierrez-Velez VH, Uriarte M, DeFries RS, Pinedo‐Vasquez M, Fernandes K, Ceccato P, K, Baethgen WE, & Padoch C. 2014. Land cover change interacts with drought severity to change fire regimes in Western Amazonia. Ecological Applications. 24: 1323-1340.

Meyfroidt P, Carlson KM, Fagan ME, Gutiérrez-Vélez VH, Macedo MN, Curran LM, DeFries RS, Dyer GA, Gibbs HK, Lambin EF, Morton DC, Robiglio V. 2014. Multiple pathways of commodity crop expansion in tropical forest landscapes. Environmental Research Letters. 9. 13.

Uriarte M, Pinedo‐Vasquez M, DeFries RS, Fernandes K, Gutierrez-Velez V, Baethgen WE, & Padoch C. 2012. Depopulation of rural landscapes exacerbates fire activity in the Western Amazon. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). 109: 21546-21550.

Gutiérrez-Velez VH, DeFries R, Pinedo-Vasquez M, Uriarte, M, Padoch C, Baethgen W, Fernandes K & Lim Y. 2011. High-yield oil palm expansion spares land at the expense of forests in the Peruvian Amazon. Environmental Research Letters. 6. 5pp

Gutiérrez-Velez VH & MacDicken K. 2008. Quantifying the Direct Social and Governmental Costs of Illegal logging in the Bolivian, Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon. Forest Policy and Economics. 10: 248-256.

Earth Observation and Biodiversity Decision-making

Projects

Integrated multi-project impact assessment for the contribution of NASA Earth Observation products to support biodiversity decision-making in Colombia. NASA

Advancing tools to support and test an integrated biodiversity monitoring system for Colombia’s Protected Areas. NASA

Integration of Earth observations for decision making on biodiversity management and conservation in Colombia: Consolidation of the Colombian Biodiversity Observation Network. NASA

Implementation of Essential Biodiversity Variables for biodiversity assessment and monitoring at the subnational level in Colombia. USAID, NAS

Assessing biodiversity change (ABC): Integration of ground-based and satellite-derived information to detect changes in ecosystem functioning in Colombia. German Ministry of Education and Research

Publications

Lara Henao W, Londoño-Murcia MC, Gonzalez Garzón, I; Gutierrez Velez,VH. 2022. ecochange: An R-package to derive biodiversity indicators processing spatial ecosystem variables. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 13:11, 2379-2388

Estupinan-Suarez LM, Gans F, Brenning A, Gutierrez–Velez VH, Londono MC, Pabon–Moreno, DE, Poveda G, Reichstein M, Reu B, Sierra CA. 2021. A regional Earth system data lab for understanding ecosystem dynamics: An example from northern South America. Frontiers in Earth Science 9, 574.

Mahecha MD, Gans F, Brandt, G, Christiansen R, Cornell SE, Fomferra N, Kraemer G, Peters J, Bodesheim P, Camps-Valls G, Donges JF, Dorigo W, Estupinan-Suarez LM, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Gutwin M, Jung M, Londoño MC, Miralles DG, Papastefanou P, Reichstein M. 2020. Earth system data cubes unravel global multivariate dynamics. Earth System Dynamics 11, 201–234.

Sierra CA, Mahecha M, Poveda G, Álvarez-Dávila E, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Reu B, Feilhauer H, Anáya J, Armenteras D, Benavides AM, Buendia C, Duque Á, Estupiñan-Suarez LM, González C, Gonzalez-Caro S, Jimenez R, Kraemer G, Londoño MC, Orrego S.A, Posada JM, Ruiz-Carrascal D, Skowronek S. 2017. Monitoring ecological change during rapid socio-economic and political transitions: Colombian ecosystems in the post-conflict era. Environmental Science & Policy 76:40-49.

Baptiste B, Pinedo-Vasquez M, Gutierrez-Velez V, Andrade GI, Vieira P, Ming Lee T, Estupiñán L. 2017. Greening Peace in Colombia. Nature Ecology and Evolution. 2: 0102.

Applied Remote Sensing and Spatial Modeling Methods

Projects

Integrated multi-project impact assessment for the contribution of NASA Earth Observation products to support biodiversity decision-making in Colombia. NASA

Advancing tools to support and test an integrated biodiversity monitoring system for Colombia’s Protected Areas. NASA

Integration of Earth observations for decision making on biodiversity management and conservation in Colombia: Consolidation of the Colombian Biodiversity Observation Network. NASA

Big Data Science Applications for Understanding Social and Environmental Risks for the Transmission of Zika and Other Mosquito Borne Diseases in Eastern U.S. Temple University, Office of the Vice-president for Research, College of Liberal Arts, College of Public Health, College of Science and Technology

Publications

Gutierrez-Velez VH, Rodriguez J, Lara W, Sarmiento V. 2021. Probabilistic approximation to change and no change in multispectral remote sensing. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 42:19, 7428-7453

Gutierrez-Velez VH & Wiese D. 2020. Sampling bias mitigation for species occurrence modeling using Machine Learning Methods. Ecological informatics. 58. 101091.

Wiese D^†, Escalante A, Murphy H, Henry K, Gutierrez-Velez, VH. 2019. Integrating environmental and neighborhood factors in MaxEnt modeling to predict species distributions: A case study of Aedes albopictus in southeastern Pennsylvania. PLOS ONE. 14(10): e0223821. 

Gutiérrez-Velez VH, DeFries R. 2013. Annual multi-resolution detection of land cover conversion to oil palm in the Peruvian Amazon. Remote Sensing of Environment. 129: 154-167.

Gutiérrez-Velez VH & Pontius Jr. RG. 2012. Influence of carbon mapping and land change modelling on the prediction of carbon emissions from deforestation. Environmental Conservation. 39: 325-336.

Gutiérrez V, Zapata M, Usma C, Laguado W & Santacruz A. 2006. Maximizing the profitability of forestry projects under the Clean Development Mechanism using a forest management optimization model. Forest Ecology and Management. 226: 341-350.

Convergent Sustainability Science

Projects

Catalytic Collaborative Funding Initiative – The CAT Program. Catalyzing convergence research on health and well-being through a Bio3Science-Sustainability framework. Temple University, Office of the Vice-president for Research, College of Liberal Arts, College of Science and Technology

How Does Infrastructure Shape Equity and Well-being across the Urban-Rural Gradient? NSF

Publications

Gutierrez-Velez VH, Gilbert MR, Kinsey D, Behm JE. 2022. Beyond the urban and the rural: conceptualizing a new generation of infrastructure systems to enable rural-urban sustainability. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. 56, 101177.

Karkun SS, Pearsall H, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Gilbert MR. 2021. Measuring Equity through Spatial Variability of Infrastructure Systems across the Urban-Rural Gradient. Land 10.

Pearsall H, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Gilbert MR, Hoque S, Eakin H, Brondizio ES, Solecki W, Toran L, Baka JE, Behm JE. 2021. Advancing equitable health and well-being across urban–rural sustainable infrastructure systems. npj Urban Sustainability 1, 1–6.

Wiese D, Stroup AM, Maiti A, Harris G, Lynch S, Vucetic S, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Henry KA. 2021. Measuring Neighborhood Landscapes: Associations between neighborhood’s landscape characteristics and colon cancer survival. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 18. 4728.

Croog R, Hayes-Conroy A, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Saenz-Montoya A. 2018. Real world food justice and the enigma of the scholar-activist label: A reflection on research values. ACME. 17(4): 1024:1044.