Taff Receives Fulbright Fellowship

Greg Taff, a doctoral student of Professor Stephen J. Walsh, received a Fulbright fellowship to conduct research in Latvia for the 2003 – 2004 academic year. Greg is studying landuse and landcover change (LULCC) in Gauja National Park, Latvia. He is assessing the effects of post-Soviet policy changes and land restitution within the Park on LULCC, and the resultant effects on key fauna habitats. Greg is assessing LULCC using a time series of Landsat TM satellite images of the Park, with the aid of other base layers of GIS data. The focus of Greg’s research is to determine the changes in composition and configuration of landuse and landcover in the Park, discover which policy changes and which stakeholder actions are substantially influencing this LULCC, and assess the effects of these changes on key fauna habitats. To do so, Greg is interviewing stakeholders of the Park, including Park management, mayors of towns in and near the Park, personnel from Latvia’s Ministry of Environment and the State Forest Service, as well as representatives from forest owners associations and environmental NGO’s, Park landowners, and academic experts on ecology and the Park’s history.

Related Site

• http://www.unc.edu/depts/geog/lcsal/new/latvia/