Landuse/landcover (LULC) dynamics in northeast Thailand are driven by a host of scale dependent relationships that are observed at the pixel to landscape levels, but may be influenced by decisions made at the household and/or community levels. To understand complex systems, it is important to examine the interplay between scale, pattern, and process so that landscape form and landscape function may be inter-related.
Statistical relationships between plant biomass levels and selected social, biophysical, and geographical variables are assessed at nine different cell resolutions beginning at 30 m and extending to 1050 m. The basic intent is to examine the scale dependence of population and environment relationships in a northeast Thailand study site, a region that has experienced pronounced LULC change associated with deforestation and agricultural extensification and intensification to support lowland rice and upland cash crops. More subtle landscape changes are also occurring, those related to intra-annual crop phenologies and monsoonal rainfall patterns. For each variable and at successively coarser resolutions, cell values are calculated by hierarchical aggregation of the original 30 m grid. The beta-values of each variable are assessed and the R2-values of each multiple regression model are tracked over the nine spatial resolutions.