RESEARCH
Global Change in Local Places
Blue Ridge/Piedmont of North Carolina
SITE DESCRIPTION:
Twelve North Carolina counties, with a combined land area of 13,300 km2 (5,100 mi2) constitute the study area. Three counties lie within the Blue Ridge and nine are in the Piedmont. Forsyth County, the location of Winston-Salem (266,000 population) is 75% urban. Only one other county exceeds 50% urban, and two counties are completely rural. Furniture, textiles, and garments, food processing, electronics, and tobacco products dominate local manufacturing. Argiculturalists produce poultry, beef cattle, tobacco, corn, and hay. Resource and extractive industries yield pulpwood, lumber, and cut and crushed stone. Tourists are increasingly attracted to the western part of the region for downhill skiing and summer recreation. This changing mix and intensity of land covers and human activities result in growing fossil fuel consumption for home heating, transportation, and power generation, and consequent alterations in the complex patterns of emissions of radiatively active gases and aerosols, albedo, surface roughness, and evapotranspiration rates.
SITE IMAGE:
GCLP PERSONNEL:
Neal Lineback - Principal investigator
Mike Mayfield- Remote sensing, greenhouse gases
Pete Soule - Driving forces
Art Rex - GIS
Jennifer DeHart - Analog studies, driving forces, mitigation,
Wendy McGuire - GIS, databases
Brian Witcher - Greenhouse gases, databases
Taylor Dellinger - Greenhouse gases, databases
Lori Felix - GIS, home page, databases, remote sensing
Kent Rothrock - Remote sensing, area studies
Audrey Reynolds - Databases
SELECTED RESULTS:
| Global Warming Potential, by Sector |
More results will soon follow...
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