Sample records for national land imaging

  1. Comparison of U.S. Forest Land AreaEstimates From Forest Inventory and Analysis, National Resources Inventory, and Four Satellite Image-Derived Land Cover Data Sets

    Treesearch

    Mark D. Nelson; Ronald E. McRoberts; Veronica C. Lessard

    2005-01-01

    Our objective was to test one application of remote sensing technology for complementing forest resource assessments by comparing a variety of existing satellite image-derived land cover maps with national inventory-derived estimates of United States forest land area. National Resources Inventory (NRI) 1997 estimates of non-Federal forest land area differed by 7.5...

  2. National Land Imaging Requirements (NLIR) Pilot Project summary report: summary of moderate resolution imaging user requirements

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Vadnais, Carolyn; Stensaas, Gregory

    2014-01-01

    Under the National Land Imaging Requirements (NLIR) Project, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is developing a functional capability to obtain, characterize, manage, maintain and prioritize all Earth observing (EO) land remote sensing user requirements. The goal is a better understanding of community needs that can be supported with land remote sensing resources, and a means to match needs with appropriate solutions in an effective and efficient way. The NLIR Project is composed of two components. The first component is focused on the development of the Earth Observation Requirements Evaluation System (EORES) to capture, store and analyze user requirements, whereas, the second component is the mechanism and processes to elicit and document the user requirements that will populate the EORES. To develop the second component, the requirements elicitation methodology was exercised and refined through a pilot project conducted from June to September 2013. The pilot project focused specifically on applications and user requirements for moderate resolution imagery (5–120 meter resolution) as the test case for requirements development. The purpose of this summary report is to provide a high-level overview of the requirements elicitation process that was exercised through the pilot project and an early analysis of the moderate resolution imaging user requirements acquired to date to support ongoing USGS sustainable land imaging study needs. The pilot project engaged a limited set of Federal Government users from the operational and research communities and therefore the information captured represents only a subset of all land imaging user requirements. However, based on a comparison of results, trends, and analysis, the pilot captured a strong baseline of typical applications areas and user needs for moderate resolution imagery. Because these results are preliminary and represent only a sample of users and application areas, the information from this report should only

  3. Analysing land cover and land use change in the Matobo National Park and surroundings in Zimbabwe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Scharsich, Valeska; Mtata, Kupakwashe; Hauhs, Michael; Lange, Holger; Bogner, Christina

    2016-04-01

    Natural forests are threatened worldwide, therefore their protection in National Parks is essential. Here, we investigate how this protection status affects the land cover. To answer this question, we analyse the surface reflectance of three Landsat images of Matobo National Park and surrounding in Zimbabwe from 1989, 1998 and 2014 to detect changes in land cover in this region. To account for the rolling countryside and the resulting prominent shadows, a topographical correction of the surface reflectance was required. To infer land cover changes it is not only necessary to have some ground data for the current satellite images but also for the old ones. In particular for the older images no recent field study could help to reconstruct these data reliably. In our study we follow the idea that land cover classes of pixels in current images can be transferred to the equivalent pixels of older ones if no changes occurred meanwhile. Therefore we combine unsupervised clustering with supervised classification as follows. At first, we produce a land cover map for 2014. Secondly, we cluster the images with clara, which is similar to k-means, but suitable for large data sets. Whereby the best number of classes were determined to be 4. Thirdly, we locate unchanged pixels with change vector analysis in the images of 1989 and 1998. For these pixels we transfer the corresponding cluster label from 2014 to 1989 and 1998. Subsequently, the classified pixels serve as training data for supervised classification with random forest, which is carried out for each image separately. Finally, we derive land cover classes from the Landsat image in 2014, photographs and Google Earth and transfer them to the other two images. The resulting classes are shrub land; forest/shallow waters; bare soils/fields with some trees/shrubs; and bare light soils/rocks, fields and settlements. Subsequently the three different classifications are compared and land changes are mapped. The main changes are

  4. Image-based change estimation for land cover and land use monitoring

    Treesearch

    Jeremy Webb; C. Kenneth Brewer; Nicholas Daniels; Chris Maderia; Randy Hamilton; Mark Finco; Kevin A. Megown; Andrew J. Lister

    2012-01-01

    The Image-based Change Estimation (ICE) project resulted from the need to provide estimates and information for land cover and land use change over large areas. The procedure uses Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot locations interpreted using two different dates of imagery from the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). In order to determine a suitable...

  5. The CEOS constellation for land surface imaging

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Bailey, G.B.; Berger, Marsha; Jeanjean, H.; Gallo, K.P.

    2007-01-01

    A constellation of satellites that routinely and frequently images the Earth's land surface in consistently calibrated wavelengths from the visible through the microwave and in spatial detail that ranges from sub-meter to hundreds of meters would offer enormous potential benefits to society. A well-designed and effectively operated land surface imaging satellite constellation could have great positive impact not only on the quality of life for citizens of all nations, but also on mankind's very ability to sustain life as we know it on this planet long into the future. The primary objective of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Land Surface Imaging (LSI) Constellation is to define standards (or guidelines) that describe optimal future LSI Constellation capabilities, characteristics, and practices. Standards defined for a LSI Constellation will be based on a thorough understanding of user requirements, and they will address at least three fundamental areas of the systems comprising a Land Surface Imaging Constellation: the space segments, the ground segments, and relevant policies and plans. Studies conducted by the LSI Constellation Study Team also will address current and shorter-term problems and issues facing the land remote sensing community today, such as seeking ways to work more cooperatively in the operation of existing land surface imaging systems and helping to accomplish tangible benefits to society through application of land surface image data acquired by existing systems. 2007 LSI Constellation studies are designed to establish initial international agreements, develop preliminary standards for a mid-resolution land surface imaging constellation, and contribute data to a global forest assessment.

  6. Some key techniques of SPOT-5 image processing in new national land and resources investigation project

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xue, Changsheng; Li, Qingquan; Li, Deren

    2004-02-01

    In 1988, the detail information on land resource was investigated in China. Fourteen years later, it has changed a lot. It is necessary that the second land resource detailed investigation should be implemented. On this condition, the New National Land and Resources Investigation Project in China, which will last 12 years, has been started since 1999. The project is directly under the administration of the Ministry of Land and Resource (MLR). It was organized and implemented By China Geological, China Land Surveying and Planning Institute (CLSPI) and Information Center of MLR. It is a grand and cross century project supported by the Central Finance, based on State and public interests and strategic characteristics. Up to now, "Land Use Dynamic Monitoring By Remote Sensing," "Arable Land Resource Investigation," "Rural Collective Land Property Right Investgiation," "Establishment of Public Consulting Standardization of Cadastral Information," "Land Resource Fundamental Maps and Data Updating," "Urban Land Price Investigation and Intensive Utilization Potential Capacity Evaluation," "Farmland Classification, Gradation, and Evaluation," "Land Use Database Construction at City or County Level" 8 subprojects have had the preliminary achievements. In this project, SPOT-1/2/4 and Landsat-7 TM data were always applied to monitor land use dynamic change as the main data resource. Certainly, IRS, CBERS-2, and IKONOS data also were tested in small areas. In 2002, the SPOT-5 data, whose spatial resolution of the panchromatic image is 2.5 meters and the spectral one is 10 meters, were applied into update the land use base map at the 1:10000 scale in 26 Chinese cities. The purpose in this paper is to communicate the experience of SPOT-5 image processing with the colleagues.

  7. Analysing land cover and land use change in the Ruma National Park and surroundings in Kenya

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Scharsich, Valeska; Ochuodho Otieno, Dennis; Bogner, Christina

    2017-04-01

    The change of land use and land cover (LULC) is often driven by the growth of human population. In the Lambwe valley, Kenya, the most important reason for accelerated settlement in the last decades was the control of the tsetse fly, the biological vector of trypanosomes. Since the huge efforts of tsetse control in the 1970s, the population of the Lambwe valley in Kenya increased rapidly and therefore the cultivated area expanded. This amplified the pressure on the forested areas at higher elevations and the Ruma National Park which occupies one third of the Lambwe valley. Here, we investigate possible effects of this pressure on the land cover in the Lambwe valley and in particular in the Ruma National Park. To answer this question, we analysed the surface reflectance of three Landsat images of Ruma National Park and its surroundings from 1984, 2002 and 2014. To compensate for the lack of ground data we inferred past land use and land cover from recent observations combining Google Earth images and change detection. By supervised classification with Random Forests, we identified four land use and land cover types, namely the forest dominant at the high elevation; dense shrub land; savanna; and sparsely covered soil including bare light soils with little vegetation, fields and settlements. Subsequently, we compared the three classifications and identified LULC changes that occurred between 1984 and 2014. We observed an increase of agricultural area in the western part of the Lambwe valley, where high elevation vegetation was dominant. This goes hand in hand with farming on higher slopes and a decrease of forest. In the National Park itself the savanna increased by about 8% and the proportion of sparsely covered soil decreased by about 10%. This might be due to the fire management in the park and the recovering of burned areas.

  8. Advances in U.S. Land Imaging Capabilities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stryker, T. S.

    2017-12-01

    Advancements in Earth observations, cloud computing, and data science are improving everyday life. Information from land-imaging satellites, such as the U.S. Landsat system, helps us to better understand the changing landscapes where we live, work, and play. This understanding builds capacity for improved decision-making about our lands, waters, and resources, driving economic growth, protecting lives and property, and safeguarding the environment. The USGS is fostering the use of land remote sensing technology to meet local, national, and global challenges. A key dimension to meeting these challenges is the full, free, and open provision of land remote sensing observations for both public and private sector applications. To achieve maximum impact, these data must also be easily discoverable, accessible, and usable. The presenter will describe the USGS Land Remote Sensing Program's current capabilities and future plans to collect and deliver land remote sensing information for societal benefit. He will discuss these capabilities in the context of national plans and policies, domestic partnerships, and international collaboration. The presenter will conclude with examples of how Landsat data is being used on a daily basis to improve lives and livelihoods.

  9. National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Faundeen, John L.; Longhenry, Ryan

    2018-06-13

    The National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive is managed on behalf of the Secretary of the Interior by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth Resources Observation and Science Center. The Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992 (51 U.S.C. §601) directed the U.S. Department of the Interior to establish a permanent global archive consisting of imagery over land areas obtained from satellites orbiting the Earth. The law also directed the U.S. Department of the Interior, delegated to the U.S. Geological Survey, to ensure proper storage and preservation of imagery, and timely access for all parties. Since 2008, these images have been available at no cost to the user.

  10. Generation of a U.S. national urban land use product

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Falcone, James A.; Homer, Collin G.

    2012-01-01

    Characterization of urban land uses is essential for many applications. However, differentiating among thematically-detailed urban land uses (residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, recreational, etc.) over broad areas is challenging, in part because image-based solutions are not ideal for establishing the contextual basis for identifying economic function and use. At present no current United States national-scale mapping exists for urban land uses similar to the classical Anderson Level II classification. This paper describes a product that maps urban land uses, and is linked to and corresponds with the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2006. In this product, NLCD urban pixels, in addition to their current imperviousness intensity classification, are assigned one of nine urban use classes based on information drawn from multiple data sources. These sources include detailed infrastructure information, population characteristics, and historical land use. The result is a method for creating a 30 m national-scale grid providing thematically-detailed urban land use information which complements the NLCD. Initial results for 10 major metropolitan areas are provided as an on-line link. Accuracy assessment of initial products yielded an overall accuracy of 81.6 percent.

  11. Pathway to future sustainable land imaging: the compact hyperspectral prism spectrometer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kampe, Thomas U.; Good, William S.

    2017-09-01

    NASA's Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) program, managed through the Earth Science Technology Office, aims to develop technologies that will provide future Landsat-like measurements. SLI aims to develop a new generation of smaller, more capable, less costly payloads that meet or exceed current imaging capabilities. One projects funded by this program is Ball's Compact Hyperspectral Prism Spectrometer (CHPS), a visible-to-shortwave imaging spectrometer that provides legacy Landsat data products as well as hyperspectral coverage suitable for a broad range of land science products. CHPS exhibits extremely low straylight and accommodates full aperture, full optical path calibration needed to ensure the high radiometric accuracy demanded by SLI measurement objectives. Low polarization sensitivity in visible to near-infrared bands facilitates coastal water science as first demonstrated by the exceptional performance of the Operational Land Imager. Our goal is to mature CHPS imaging spectrometer technology for infusion into the SLI program. Our effort builds on technology development initiated by Ball IRAD investment and includes laboratory and airborne demonstration, data distribution to science collaborators, and maturation of technology for spaceborne demonstration. CHPS is a three year program with expected exiting technology readiness of TRL-6. The 2013 NRC report Landsat and Beyond: Sustaining and Enhancing the Nations Land Imaging Program recommended that the nation should "maintain a sustained, space-based, land-imaging program, while ensuring the continuity of 42-years of multispectral information." We are confident that CHPS provides a path to achieve this goal while enabling new science measurements and significantly reducing the cost, size, and volume of the VSWIR instrument.

  12. Harmonizing estimates of forest land area from national-level forest inventory and satellite imagery

    Treesearch

    Bonnie Ruefenacht; Mark D. Nelson; Mark Finco

    2009-01-01

    Estimates of forest land area are derived both from national-level forest inventories and satellite image-based map products. These estimates can differ substantially within subregional extents (e.g., states or provinces) primarily due to differences in definitions of forest land between inventory- and image-based approaches. We present a geospatial modeling approach...

  13. Landsat: a global land imaging program

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Byrnes, Raymond A.

    2012-01-01

    Landsat satellites have continuously acquired space-based images of the Earth's land surface, coastal shallows, and coral reefs across four decades. The Landsat Program, a joint effort of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was established to routinely gather land imagery from space. In practice, NASA develops remote-sensing instruments and spacecraft, launches satellites, and validates their performance. The USGS then assumes ownership and operation of the satellites, in addition to managing all ground-data reception, archiving, product generation, and distribution. The result of this program is a visible, long-term record of natural and human-induced changes on the global landscape.

  14. Landsat: A Global Land-Imaging Project

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Headley, Rachel

    2010-01-01

    Across nearly four decades since 1972, Landsat satellites continuously have acquired space-based images of the Earth's land surface, coastal shallows, and coral reefs. The Landsat Program, a joint effort of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was established to routinely gather land imagery from space; consequently, NASA develops remote-sensing instruments and spacecraft, then launches and validates the satellites. The USGS then assumes ownership and operation of the satellites, in addition to managing all ground-data reception, archiving, product generation, and distribution. The result of this program is a visible, long-term record of natural and human-induced changes on the global landscape.

  15. Landsat: A global land-imaging mission

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    ,

    2012-01-01

    Across four decades since 1972, Landsat satellites have continuously acquired space-based images of the Earth's land surface, coastal shallows, and coral reefs. The Landsat Program, a joint effort of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was established to routinely gather land imagery from space. NASA develops remote-sensing instruments and spacecraft, then launches and validates the performance of the instruments and satellites. The USGS then assumes ownership and operation of the satellites, in addition to managing all ground reception, data archiving, product generation, and distribution. The result of this program is a long-term record of natural and human induced changes on the global landscape.

  16. The National Land Cover Database

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Homer, Collin G.; Fry, Joyce A.; Barnes, Christopher A.

    2012-01-01

    The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) serves as the definitive Landsat-based, 30-meter resolution, land cover database for the Nation. NLCD provides spatial reference and descriptive data for characteristics of the land surface such as thematic class (for example, urban, agriculture, and forest), percent impervious surface, and percent tree canopy cover. NLCD supports a wide variety of Federal, State, local, and nongovernmental applications that seek to assess ecosystem status and health, understand the spatial patterns of biodiversity, predict effects of climate change, and develop land management policy. NLCD products are created by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium, a partnership of Federal agencies led by the U.S. Geological Survey. All NLCD data products are available for download at no charge to the public from the MRLC Web site: http://www.mrlc.gov.

  17. Completion of the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 1992-2001 Land Cover Change Retrofit Product

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium has supported the development of two national digital land cover products: the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) 1992 and National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001. Substantial differences in imagery, legends, and methods betwe...

  18. Several problems in regard to national land management

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Dong Wenlang

    1983-09-21

    This article examines several problems with regard to land management in China. National land management is defined as development of the territorial land (including the earth's surface and underground), territorial waters and territorial air space under the jurisdiction of a sovereign country. The Chinese State Council established the Bureau of National Land Management in 1981. Areas of concern include natural resources, or land resources (including continental land, rivers and lakes, territorial waters and what is beneath the waters and the airspace above the waters, also the continental shelves), mineral resources and biological resources; social resources, which include human resources, intellectualmore » resources, social and cultural traditions, and the material and technical foundations of a society. Untapped resources of land, waters, forests, grasslands and minerals are to be developed through reclamation, mining, and engineering projects. Geography and national land economics are the theoretical and applied sciences directly related to national land management.« less

  19. 43 CFR 3811.2-4 - Lands in national forests.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... Lands Subject to Location and Purchase § 3811.2-4 Lands in national forests. For mining claims in national forests, see § 3811.1. ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Lands in national forests. 3811.2-4...

  20. 43 CFR 3811.2-4 - Lands in national forests.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... Lands Subject to Location and Purchase § 3811.2-4 Lands in national forests. For mining claims in national forests, see § 3811.1. ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Lands in national forests. 3811.2-4...

  1. 43 CFR 3811.2-4 - Lands in national forests.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... Lands Subject to Location and Purchase § 3811.2-4 Lands in national forests. For mining claims in national forests, see § 3811.1. ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Lands in national forests. 3811.2-4...

  2. 43 CFR 3811.2-4 - Lands in national forests.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... Lands Subject to Location and Purchase § 3811.2-4 Lands in national forests. For mining claims in national forests, see § 3811.1. ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Lands in national forests. 3811.2-4...

  3. Finding pathways to national-scale land-sector sustainability.

    PubMed

    Gao, Lei; Bryan, Brett A

    2017-04-12

    The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets under Agenda 2030 of the United Nations map a coherent global sustainability ambition at a level of detail general enough to garner consensus amongst nations. However, achieving the global agenda will depend heavily on successful national-scale implementation, which requires the development of effective science-driven targets tailored to specific national contexts and supported by strong national governance. Here we assess the feasibility of achieving multiple SDG targets at the national scale for the Australian land-sector. We scaled targets to three levels of ambition and two timeframes, then quantitatively explored the option space for target achievement under 648 plausible future environmental, socio-economic, technological and policy pathways using the Land-Use Trade-Offs (LUTO) integrated land systems model. We show that target achievement is very sensitive to global efforts to abate emissions, domestic land-use policy, productivity growth rate, and land-use change adoption behaviour and capacity constraints. Weaker target-setting ambition resulted in higher achievement but poorer sustainability outcomes. Accelerating land-use dynamics after 2030 changed the targets achieved by 2050, warranting a longer-term view and greater flexibility in sustainability implementation. Simultaneous achievement of multiple targets is rare owing to the complexity of sustainability target implementation and the pervasive trade-offs in resource-constrained land systems. Given that hard choices are needed, the land-sector must first address the essential food/fibre production, biodiversity and land degradation components of sustainability via specific policy pathways. It may also contribute to emissions abatement, water and energy targets by capitalizing on co-benefits. However, achieving targets relevant to the land-sector will also require substantial contributions from other sectors such as clean energy, food systems

  4. Finding pathways to national-scale land-sector sustainability

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gao, Lei; Bryan, Brett A.

    2017-04-01

    The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets under Agenda 2030 of the United Nations map a coherent global sustainability ambition at a level of detail general enough to garner consensus amongst nations. However, achieving the global agenda will depend heavily on successful national-scale implementation, which requires the development of effective science-driven targets tailored to specific national contexts and supported by strong national governance. Here we assess the feasibility of achieving multiple SDG targets at the national scale for the Australian land-sector. We scaled targets to three levels of ambition and two timeframes, then quantitatively explored the option space for target achievement under 648 plausible future environmental, socio-economic, technological and policy pathways using the Land-Use Trade-Offs (LUTO) integrated land systems model. We show that target achievement is very sensitive to global efforts to abate emissions, domestic land-use policy, productivity growth rate, and land-use change adoption behaviour and capacity constraints. Weaker target-setting ambition resulted in higher achievement but poorer sustainability outcomes. Accelerating land-use dynamics after 2030 changed the targets achieved by 2050, warranting a longer-term view and greater flexibility in sustainability implementation. Simultaneous achievement of multiple targets is rare owing to the complexity of sustainability target implementation and the pervasive trade-offs in resource-constrained land systems. Given that hard choices are needed, the land-sector must first address the essential food/fibre production, biodiversity and land degradation components of sustainability via specific policy pathways. It may also contribute to emissions abatement, water and energy targets by capitalizing on co-benefits. However, achieving targets relevant to the land-sector will also require substantial contributions from other sectors such as clean energy, food systems

  5. 43 CFR 3101.5 - National Wildlife Refuge System lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false National Wildlife Refuge System lands. 3101.5 Section 3101.5 Public Lands: Interior Regulations Relating to Public Lands (Continued) BUREAU OF... Leases § 3101.5 National Wildlife Refuge System lands. ...

  6. 43 CFR 3101.5 - National Wildlife Refuge System lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false National Wildlife Refuge System lands. 3101.5 Section 3101.5 Public Lands: Interior Regulations Relating to Public Lands (Continued) BUREAU OF... Leases § 3101.5 National Wildlife Refuge System lands. ...

  7. 43 CFR 3101.5 - National Wildlife Refuge System lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false National Wildlife Refuge System lands. 3101.5 Section 3101.5 Public Lands: Interior Regulations Relating to Public Lands (Continued) BUREAU OF... Leases § 3101.5 National Wildlife Refuge System lands. ...

  8. 43 CFR 3101.5 - National Wildlife Refuge System lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false National Wildlife Refuge System lands. 3101.5 Section 3101.5 Public Lands: Interior Regulations Relating to Public Lands (Continued) BUREAU OF... Leases § 3101.5 National Wildlife Refuge System lands. ...

  9. 43 CFR 2650.4-6 - National wildlife refuge system lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false National wildlife refuge system lands... SELECTIONS Alaska Native Selections: Generally § 2650.4-6 National wildlife refuge system lands. (a) Every conveyance which includes lands within the national wildlife refuge system shall, as to such lands, provide...

  10. 43 CFR 2650.4-6 - National wildlife refuge system lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false National wildlife refuge system lands... SELECTIONS Alaska Native Selections: Generally § 2650.4-6 National wildlife refuge system lands. (a) Every conveyance which includes lands within the national wildlife refuge system shall, as to such lands, provide...

  11. 43 CFR 2650.4-6 - National wildlife refuge system lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false National wildlife refuge system lands... SELECTIONS Alaska Native Selections: Generally § 2650.4-6 National wildlife refuge system lands. (a) Every conveyance which includes lands within the national wildlife refuge system shall, as to such lands, provide...

  12. 43 CFR 2650.4-6 - National wildlife refuge system lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false National wildlife refuge system lands... SELECTIONS Alaska Native Selections: Generally § 2650.4-6 National wildlife refuge system lands. (a) Every conveyance which includes lands within the national wildlife refuge system shall, as to such lands, provide...

  13. Commentary: A cautionary tale regarding use of the National Land Cover Dataset 1992

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Thogmartin, Wayne E.; Gallant, Alisa L.; Knutson, Melinda G.; Fox, Timothy J.; Suarez, Manuel J.

    2004-01-01

    Digital land-cover data are among the most popular data sources used in ecological research and natural resource management. However, processes for accurate land-cover classification over large regions are still evolving. We identified inconsistencies in the National Land Cover Dataset 1992, the most current and available representation of land cover for the conterminous United States. We also report means to address these inconsistencies in a bird-habitat model. We used a Geographic Information System (GIS) to position a regular grid (or lattice) over the upper midwestern United States and summarized the proportion of individual land covers in each cell within the lattice. These proportions were then mapped back onto the lattice, and the resultant lattice was compared to satellite paths, state borders, and regional map classification units. We observed mapping inconsistencies at the borders between mapping regions, states, and Thematic Mapper (TM) mapping paths in the upper midwestern United States, particularly related to grass I and-herbaceous, emergent-herbaceous wetland, and small-grain land covers. We attributed these discrepancies to differences in image dates between mapping regions, suboptimal image dates for distinguishing certain land-cover types, lack of suitable ancillary data for improving discrimination for rare land covers, and possibly differences among image interpreters. To overcome these inconsistencies for the purpose of modeling regional populations of birds, we combined grassland-herbaceous and pasture-hay land-cover classes and excluded the use of emergent-herbaceous and small-grain land covers. We recommend that users of digital land-cover data conduct similar assessments for other regions before using these data for habitat evaluation. Further, caution is advised in using these data in the analysis of regional land-cover change because it is not likely that future digital land-cover maps will repeat the same problems, thus resulting in

  14. 77 FR 50985 - National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-08-23

    ... National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land... implementation of the National Forest System Land Management Rule. The meeting is open to the public. The purpose...

  15. Hazard avoidance via descent images for safe landing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yan, Ruicheng; Cao, Zhiguo; Zhu, Lei; Fang, Zhiwen

    2013-10-01

    In planetary or lunar landing missions, hazard avoidance is critical for landing safety. Therefore, it is very important to correctly detect hazards and effectively find a safe landing area during the last stage of descent. In this paper, we propose a passive sensing based HDA (hazard detection and avoidance) approach via descent images to lower the landing risk. In hazard detection stage, a statistical probability model on the basis of the hazard similarity is adopted to evaluate the image and detect hazardous areas, so that a binary hazard image can be generated. Afterwards, a safety coefficient, which jointly utilized the proportion of hazards in the local region and the inside hazard distribution, is proposed to find potential regions with less hazards in the binary hazard image. By using the safety coefficient in a coarse-to-fine procedure and combining it with the local ISD (intensity standard deviation) measure, the safe landing area is determined. The algorithm is evaluated and verified with many simulated descent downward looking images rendered from lunar orbital satellite images.

  16. National land-cover data and national agricultural census estimates of agricultural land use in the northeastern United States

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The landscape of the northeastern United States is diverse and patchy, a complex mixture of forest, agriculture, and developed lands. Many urgent social and environmental issues require spatially-referenced information on land use, a need filled by the National Land-Cover Data (NLCD). The accuracy o...

  17. Land use and land cover (LULC) of the Republic of the Maldives: first national map and LULC change analysis using remote-sensing data.

    PubMed

    Fallati, Luca; Savini, Alessandra; Sterlacchini, Simone; Galli, Paolo

    2017-08-01

    The Maldives islands in recent decades have experienced dramatic land-use change. Uninhabited islands were turned into new resort islands; evergreen tropical forests were cut, to be replaced by fields and new built-up areas. All these changes happened without a proper monitoring and urban planning strategy from the Maldivian government due to the lack of national land-use and land-cover (LULC) data. This study aimed to realize the first land-use map of the entire Maldives archipelago and to detect land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) using high-resolution satellite images and socioeconomic data. Due to the peculiar geographic and environmental features of the archipelago, the land-use map was obtained by visual interpretation and manual digitization of land-use patches. The images used, dated 2011, were obtained from Digital Globe's WorldView 1 and WorldView 2 satellites. Nine land-use classes and 18 subclasses were identified and mapped. During a field survey, ground control points were collected to test the geographic and thematic accuracy of the land-use map. The final product's overall accuracy was 85%. Once the accuracy of the map had been checked, LULCC maps were created using images from the early 2000s derived from Google Earth historical imagery. Post-classification comparison of the classified maps showed that growth of built-up and agricultural areas resulted in decreases in forest land and shrubland. The LULCC maps also revealed an increase in land reclamation inside lagoons near inhabited islands, resulting in environmental impacts on fragile reef habitat. The LULC map of the Republic of the Maldives produced in this study can be used by government authorities to make sustainable land-use planning decisions and to provide better management of land use and land cover.

  18. Land-Use Scenarios: National-Scale Housing-Density ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    EPA announced the availability of the final report, Land-Use Scenarios: National-Scale Housing-Density Scenarios Consistent with Climate Change Storylines. This report describes the scenarios and models used to generate national-scale housing density scenarios for the conterminous US to the year 2100 as part of the Integrated Climate and Land Use Scenarios (ICLUS) project. The report was prepared by the Global Change Research Program (GCRP) in the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) of the Office of Research and Development (ORD) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The ICLUS report describes the methods used to develop land-use scenarios by decade from the year 2000 to 2100 that are consistent with these storylines.

  19. Monitoring Urban Land Cover/land Use Change in Algiers City Using Landsat Images (1987-2016)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bouchachi, B.; Zhong, Y.

    2017-09-01

    Monitoring the Urban Land Cover/Land Use change detection is important as one of the main driving forces of environmental change because Urbanization is the biggest changes in form of Land, resulting in a decrease in cultivated areas. Using remote sensing ability to solve land resources problems. The purpose of this research is to map the urban areas at different times to monitor and predict possible urban changes, were studied the annual growth urban land during the last 29 years in Algiers City. Improving the productiveness of long-term training in land mapping, were have developed an approach by the following steps: 1) pre-processing for improvement of image characteristics; 2) extract training sample candidates based on the developed methods; and 3) Derive maps and analyzed of Algiers City on an annual basis from 1987 to 2016 using a Supervised Classifier Support Vector Machine (SVMs). Our result shows that the strategy of urban land followed in the region of Algiers City, developed areas mostly were extended to East, West, and South of Central Regions. The urban growth rate is linked with National Office of Statistics data. Future studies are required to understand the impact of urban rapid lands on social, economy and environmental sustainability, it will also close the gap in data of urbanism available, especially on the lack of reliable data, environmental and urban planning for each municipality in Algiers, develop experimental models to predict future land changes with statistically significant confidence.

  20. A comprehensive change detection method for updating the National Land Cover Database to circa 2011

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Jin, Suming; Yang, Limin; Danielson, Patrick; Homer, Collin G.; Fry, Joyce; Xian, George

    2013-01-01

    The importance of characterizing, quantifying, and monitoring land cover, land use, and their changes has been widely recognized by global and environmental change studies. Since the early 1990s, three U.S. National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products (circa 1992, 2001, and 2006) have been released as free downloads for users. The NLCD 2006 also provides land cover change products between 2001 and 2006. To continue providing updated national land cover and change datasets, a new initiative in developing NLCD 2011 is currently underway. We present a new Comprehensive Change Detection Method (CCDM) designed as a key component for the development of NLCD 2011 and the research results from two exemplar studies. The CCDM integrates spectral-based change detection algorithms including a Multi-Index Integrated Change Analysis (MIICA) model and a novel change model called Zone, which extracts change information from two Landsat image pairs. The MIICA model is the core module of the change detection strategy and uses four spectral indices (CV, RCVMAX, dNBR, and dNDVI) to obtain the changes that occurred between two image dates. The CCDM also includes a knowledge-based system, which uses critical information on historical and current land cover conditions and trends and the likelihood of land cover change, to combine the changes from MIICA and Zone. For NLCD 2011, the improved and enhanced change products obtained from the CCDM provide critical information on location, magnitude, and direction of potential change areas and serve as a basis for further characterizing land cover changes for the nation. An accuracy assessment from the two study areas show 100% agreement between CCDM mapped no-change class with reference dataset, and 18% and 82% disagreement for the change class for WRS path/row p22r39 and p33r33, respectively. The strength of the CCDM is that the method is simple, easy to operate, widely applicable, and capable of capturing a variety of natural and

  1. MISR Browse Images: Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX)

    Atmospheric Science Data Center

    2013-04-02

    ... MISR Browse Images: Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX) These MISR Browse images provide a ... over the region observed during the NASA Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX). CLPX involved ground, airborne, and satellite measurements ...

  2. 43 CFR 3140.7 - Lands within the National Park System.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Lands within the National Park System... Lands within the National Park System. Conversions of existing oil and gas leases and valid claims based on mineral locations to combined hydrocarbon leases within units of the National Park System shall be...

  3. 43 CFR 3140.7 - Lands within the National Park System.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Lands within the National Park System... Lands within the National Park System. Conversions of existing oil and gas leases and valid claims based on mineral locations to combined hydrocarbon leases within units of the National Park System shall be...

  4. 43 CFR 3140.7 - Lands within the National Park System.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Lands within the National Park System... Lands within the National Park System. Conversions of existing oil and gas leases and valid claims based on mineral locations to combined hydrocarbon leases within units of the National Park System shall be...

  5. 43 CFR 3140.7 - Lands within the National Park System.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Lands within the National Park System... Lands within the National Park System. Conversions of existing oil and gas leases and valid claims based on mineral locations to combined hydrocarbon leases within units of the National Park System shall be...

  6. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01)

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    LaMotte, Andrew E.

    2016-01-01

    This 30-meter data set represents land use and land cover for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-partition.jpg). The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (http://www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004), (see: http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp). The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping zones. A total of 68 mapping zones (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg), were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  7. Completion of the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 1992–2001 Land Cover Change Retrofit product

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Fry, J.A.; Coan, Michael; Homer, Collin G.; Meyer, Debra K.; Wickham, J.D.

    2009-01-01

    The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium has supported the development of two national digital land cover products: the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) 1992 and National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001. Substantial differences in imagery, legends, and methods between these two land cover products must be overcome in order to support direct comparison. The NLCD 1992-2001 Land Cover Change Retrofit product was developed to provide more accurate and useful land cover change data than would be possible by direct comparison of NLCD 1992 and NLCD 2001. For the change analysis method to be both national in scale and timely, implementation required production across many Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) path/rows simultaneously. To meet these requirements, a hybrid change analysis process was developed to incorporate both post-classification comparison and specialized ratio differencing change analysis techniques. At a resolution of 30 meters, the completed NLCD 1992-2001 Land Cover Change Retrofit product contains unchanged pixels from the NLCD 2001 land cover dataset that have been cross-walked to a modified Anderson Level I class code, and changed pixels labeled with a 'from-to' class code. Analysis of the results for the conterminous United States indicated that about 3 percent of the land cover dataset changed between 1992 and 2001.

  8. 78 FR 34034 - National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-06-06

    ... National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land... purpose of the Committee is to provide advice and recommendations on the implementation of the National...

  9. Vegetative Succession in Recently Deglaciated Land in Kenai Fjords National Park

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Green, C.; Klein, A. G.; Cairns, D. M.

    2017-12-01

    Poleward vegetation expansion has affected Alaska for decades and due to recently increased rates of warming, the expansion will accelerate. Glacial recession in Kenai Fjords National Park has exposed previously ice-covered land with vegetation succession occurring just a few years following glacial retreat. Land cover changes in recently deglaciated areas are affected by surface-air interactions, temperature gradients, and ecosystem development. Using satellite images from Landsat 5, 7, and 8 and the previous extents of four retreating glaciers from 1985 to 2015 within Kenai Fjords National Park, this study examines the relationship between deglaciation rates and vegetation greening. The glaciers, Exit (-15.04 m/yr), Petrof (-31.12 m/yr), Lowell (-33.14 m/yr), and Yalik (-51.32 m/yr) were selected based on their location, whether they were land or lake terminating, and their average retreat rate measured between 1985 and 2015. These glaciers have also been extensively studied. Combining historic glacier extents with 371 summer (JJA) Landsat images gathered from Google's Earth Engine platform we identified annual summer changes in NDVI of locations that were deglaciated between 1985, 1995, 2005, and 2015. Summer temperature maximums were determined to be more correlated with deglaciation, as measured using NDSI, than mean summer temperatures. Using NDVI, heightened deglaciation rates were found to be reasonably correlated with vegetation succession. The faster retreating glaciers, Lowell and Yalik, exhibited higher mean and maximum rates of increase of NDVI in their terminus areas than Exit and Petrof, the two slower retreating glaciers.

  10. 43 CFR 3811.2-2 - Lands in national parks and monuments.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Lands in national parks and monuments... SUBJECT TO LOCATION Lands Subject to Location and Purchase § 3811.2-2 Lands in national parks and monuments. The Mining in the Parks Act (16 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.), effectively withdrew all National Parks and...

  11. 43 CFR 3811.2-2 - Lands in national parks and monuments.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Lands in national parks and monuments... SUBJECT TO LOCATION Lands Subject to Location and Purchase § 3811.2-2 Lands in national parks and monuments. The Mining in the Parks Act (16 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.), effectively withdrew all National Parks and...

  12. 43 CFR 3811.2-2 - Lands in national parks and monuments.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Lands in national parks and monuments... SUBJECT TO LOCATION Lands Subject to Location and Purchase § 3811.2-2 Lands in national parks and monuments. The Mining in the Parks Act (16 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.), effectively withdrew all National Parks and...

  13. 43 CFR 3811.2-2 - Lands in national parks and monuments.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Lands in national parks and monuments... SUBJECT TO LOCATION Lands Subject to Location and Purchase § 3811.2-2 Lands in national parks and monuments. The Mining in the Parks Act (16 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.), effectively withdrew all National Parks and...

  14. 76 FR 37826 - Public Land Order No. 7773; Emergency Withdrawal of Public and National Forest System Lands...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-06-28

    ...] Public Land Order No. 7773; Emergency Withdrawal of Public and National Forest System Lands, Coconino and... Forest System lands from location and entry under the 1872 Mining Law for a period of 6 months under the... described above aggregate approximately 1,010,776 acres public and National Forest System lands in Coconino...

  15. Advanced Land Imager Assessment System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chander, Gyanesh; Choate, Mike; Christopherson, Jon; Hollaren, Doug; Morfitt, Ron; Nelson, Jim; Nelson, Shar; Storey, James; Helder, Dennis; Ruggles, Tim; hide

    2008-01-01

    The Advanced Land Imager Assessment System (ALIAS) supports radiometric and geometric image processing for the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) instrument onboard NASA s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. ALIAS consists of two processing subsystems for radiometric and geometric processing of the ALI s multispectral imagery. The radiometric processing subsystem characterizes and corrects, where possible, radiometric qualities including: coherent, impulse; and random noise; signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs); detector operability; gain; bias; saturation levels; striping and banding; and the stability of detector performance. The geometric processing subsystem and analysis capabilities support sensor alignment calibrations, sensor chip assembly (SCA)-to-SCA alignments and band-to-band alignment; and perform geodetic accuracy assessments, modulation transfer function (MTF) characterizations, and image-to-image characterizations. ALIAS also characterizes and corrects band-toband registration, and performs systematic precision and terrain correction of ALI images. This system can geometrically correct, and automatically mosaic, the SCA image strips into a seamless, map-projected image. This system provides a large database, which enables bulk trending for all ALI image data and significant instrument telemetry. Bulk trending consists of two functions: Housekeeping Processing and Bulk Radiometric Processing. The Housekeeping function pulls telemetry and temperature information from the instrument housekeeping files and writes this information to a database for trending. The Bulk Radiometric Processing function writes statistical information from the dark data acquired before and after the Earth imagery and the lamp data to the database for trending. This allows for multi-scene statistical analyses.

  16. A proposed periodic national inventory of land use land cover change

    Treesearch

    Hans T. Schreuder; Paul W. Snook; Raymond L. Czaplewski; Glenn P. Catts

    1986-01-01

    Three alternatives using digital thematic mapper (TM), analog TM, and a combination of either digital or analog TM data with low altitude photography are discussed for level I and level II land use/land cover classes for a proposed national inventory. Digital TM data should prove satisfactory for estimating acreage in level I classes, although estimates of precision...

  17. 78 FR 23219 - National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-04-18

    ... National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land... Federal Advisory Committee Act. The purpose of the committee is to provide advice and recommendations on...

  18. 76 FR 81911 - National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-12-29

    ... National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule AGENCY: USDA Forest Service. ACTION: Notice of intent... intends to establish the National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land... (FACA), the Committee is being established to provide advice and recommendations on the implementation...

  19. 78 FR 9883 - National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-02-12

    ... National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land... Advisory Committee Act. The purpose of the committee is to provide advice and recommendations on the...

  20. 78 FR 68811 - National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-11-15

    ... National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land... (FACA) (Pub. L. 92-463). The purpose of the Committee is to provide advice and recommendations on the...

  1. 78 FR 46565 - National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-01

    ... National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land... Committee Act (FACA) (Pub. L. 92-463). The purpose of the Committee is to provide advice and recommendations...

  2. Land Cover Indicators for U.S. National Climate Assessments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Channan, S.; Thomson, A. M.; Collins, K. M.; Sexton, J. O.; Torrens, P.; Emanuel, W. R.

    2014-12-01

    Land is a critical resource for human habitat and for the vast majority of human activities. Many natural resources are derived from terrestrial ecosystems or otherwise extracted from the landscape. Terrestrial biodiversity depends on land attributes as do people's perceptions of the value of land, including its value for recreation or tourism. Furthermore, land surface properties and processes affect weather and climate, and land cover change and land management affect emissions of greenhouse gases. Thus, land cover with its close association with climate is so pervasive that a land cover indicator is of fundamental importance to U.S. national climate assessments and related research. Moderate resolution remote sensing products (MODIS) were used to provide systematic data on annual distributions of land cover over the period 2001-2012. Selected Landsat observations and data products further characterize land cover at higher resolution. Here we will present the prototype for a suite of land cover indicators including land cover maps as well as charts depicting attributes such as composition by land cover class, statistical indicators of landscape characteristics, and tabular data summaries indispensable for communicating the status and trends of U.S. land cover at national, regional and state levels.

  3. Effects of satellite image spatial aggregation and resolution on estimates of forest land area

    Treesearch

    M.D. Nelson; R.E. McRoberts; G.R. Holden; M.E. Bauer

    2009-01-01

    Satellite imagery is being used increasingly in association with national forest inventories (NFIs) to produce maps and enhance estimates of forest attributes. We simulated several image spatial resolutions within sparsely and heavily forested study areas to assess resolution effects on estimates of forest land area, independent of other sensor characteristics. We...

  4. 75 FR 52550 - Land Acquisitions; Tohono O'odham Nation, Arizona

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-08-26

    ... DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Bureau of Indian Affairs Land Acquisitions; Tohono O'odham Nation... consisting of 53.54 acres of land into trust for the Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona on July 23, 2010. This...--Indian Affairs decided to accept Parcel 2, consisting of 53.54 acres of land into trust for the Tohono O...

  5. 77 FR 2563 - Public Land Order No. 7787; Withdrawal of Public and National Forest System Lands in the Grand...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-01-18

    ... 35138] Public Land Order No. 7787; Withdrawal of Public and National Forest System Lands in the Grand...: This order withdraws approximately 1,006,545 acres of public and National Forest System lands from... National Forest, 800 South 6th Street, Williams, Arizona 86046, (928) 635-8367. Persons who use a...

  6. NCA-LDAS land analysis: Development and performance of a multisensory, multivariate land data assimilation for the National Climate Assessment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumar, S.; Jasinski, M. F.; Mocko, D. M.; Rodell, M.; Borak, J.; Li, B.; Beaudoing, H. K.; Peters-Lidard, C. D.

    2017-12-01

    This presentation will describe one of the first successful examples of multisensor, multivariate land data assimilation, encompassing a large suite of soil moisture, snow depth, snow cover and irrigation intensity environmental data records (EDRs) from Scanning Multi-channel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I), the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT), the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E and AMSR2), the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission and the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission. The analysis is performed using the NASA Land Information System (LIS) as an enabling tool for the U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA). The performance of NCA Land Data Assimilation System (NCA-LDAS) is evaluated by comparing to a number of hydrological reference data products. Results indicate that multivariate assimilation provides systematic improvements in simulated soil moisture and snow depth, with marginal effects on the accuracy of simulated streamflow and ET. An important conclusion is that across all evaluated variables, assimilation of data from increasingly more modern sensors (e.g. SMOS, SMAP, AMSR2, ASCAT) produces more skillful results than assimilation of data from older sensors (e.g. SMMR, SSM/I, AMSR-E). The evaluation also indicates high skill of NCA-LDAS when compared with other land analysis products. Further, drought indicators based on NCA-LDAS output suggest a trend of longer and more severe droughts over parts of Western U.S. during 1979-2015, particularly in the Southwestern U.S.

  7. 77 FR 60277 - National Public Lands Day, 2012

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-10-03

    ... communities across our country will join together to restore the lands and waters we share, and families... reminded of the varied roles our public lands play in our national life. These areas boost tourism and...

  8. Development of 2010 national land cover database for the Nepal.

    PubMed

    Uddin, Kabir; Shrestha, Him Lal; Murthy, M S R; Bajracharya, Birendra; Shrestha, Basanta; Gilani, Hammad; Pradhan, Sudip; Dangol, Bikash

    2015-01-15

    Land cover and its change analysis across the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is realized as an urgent need to support diverse issues of environmental conservation. This study presents the first and most complete national land cover database of Nepal prepared using public domain Landsat TM data of 2010 and replicable methodology. The study estimated that 39.1% of Nepal is covered by forests and 29.83% by agriculture. Patch and edge forests constituting 23.4% of national forest cover revealed proximate biotic interferences over the forests. Core forests constituted 79.3% of forests of Protected areas where as 63% of area was under core forests in the outside protected area. Physiographic regions wise forest fragmentation analysis revealed specific conservation requirements for productive hill and mid mountain regions. Comparative analysis with Landsat TM based global land cover product showed difference of the order of 30-60% among different land cover classes stressing the need for significant improvements for national level adoption. The online web based land cover validation tool is developed for continual improvement of land cover product. The potential use of the data set for national and regional level sustainable land use planning strategies and meeting several global commitments also highlighted. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. 32 CFR 644.409 - Procedures for Interchange of National Forest Lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Procedures for Interchange of National Forest... Interests § 644.409 Procedures for Interchange of National Forest Lands. (a) General. The interchange of national forest lands is accomplished in three steps: first, agreement must be reached between the two...

  10. 75 FR 41886 - Public Land Order No. 7744; Withdrawal of National Forest System Land for Inyan Kara Area; WY

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-07-19

    ... National Forest System land other than the mining laws (30 U.S.C. Ch. 2). 3. This withdrawal will expire 20... Order No. 7744; Withdrawal of National Forest System Land for Inyan Kara Area; WY AGENCY: Bureau of Land... Forest System land from location and entry under the United States mining laws for a period of 20 years...

  11. Classification and Mapping of Agricultural Land for National Water-Quality Assessment

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Gilliom, Robert J.; Thelin, Gail P.

    1997-01-01

    Agricultural land use is one of the most important influences on water quality at national and regional scales. Although there is great diversity in the character of agricultural land, variations follow regional patterns that are influenced by environmental setting and economics. These regional patterns can be characterized by the distribution of crops. A new approach to classifying and mapping agricultural land use for national water-quality assessment was developed by combining information on general land-use distribution with information on crop patterns from agricultural census data. Separate classification systems were developed for row crops and for orchards, vineyards, and nurseries. These two general categories of agricultural land are distinguished from each other in the land-use classification system used in the U.S. Geological Survey national Land Use and Land Cover database. Classification of cropland was based on the areal extent of crops harvested. The acreage of each crop in each county was divided by total row-crop area or total orchard, vineyard, and nursery area, as appropriate, thus normalizing the crop data and making the classification independent of total cropland area. The classification system was developed using simple percentage criteria to define combinations of 1 to 3 crops that account for 50 percent or more or harvested acreage in a county. The classification system consists of 21 level I categories and 46 level II subcategories for row crops, and 26 level I categories and 19 level II subcategories for orchards, vineyards, and nurseries. All counties in the United States with reported harvested acreage are classified in these categories. The distribution of agricultural land within each county, however, must be evaluated on the basis of general land-use data. This can be done at the national scale using 'Major Land Uses of the United States,' at the regional scale using data from the national Land Use and Land Cover database, or at

  12. A zone-based approach to identifying urban land uses using nationally-available data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Falcone, James A.

    Accurate identification of urban land use is essential for many applications in environmental study, ecological assessment, and urban planning, among other fields. However, because physical surfaces of land cover types are not necessarily related to their use and economic function, differentiating among thematically-detailed urban land uses (single-family residential, multi-family residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) using remotely-sensed imagery is a challenging task, particularly over large areas. Because the process requires an interpretation of tone/color, size, shape, pattern, and neighborhood association elements within a scene, it has traditionally been accomplished via manual interpretation of aerial photography or high-resolution satellite imagery. Although success has been achieved for localized areas using various automated techniques based on high-spatial or high-spectral resolution data, few detailed (Anderson Level II equivalent or greater) urban land use mapping products have successfully been created via automated means for broad (multi-county or larger) areas, and no such product exists today for the United States. In this study I argue that by employing a zone-based approach it is feasible to map thematically-detailed urban land use classes over large areas using appropriate combinations of non-image based predictor data which are nationally and publicly available. The approach presented here uses U.S. Census block groups as the basic unit of geography, and predicts the percent of each of ten land use types---nine of them urban---for each block group based on a number of data sources, to include census data, nationally-available point locations of features from the USGS Geographic Names Information System, historical land cover, and metrics which characterize spatial pattern, context (e.g. distance to city centers or other features), and measures of spatial autocorrelation. The method was demonstrated over a four-county area surrounding the

  13. Low-Altitude AVIRIS Data for Mapping Land Cover in Yellowstone National Park: Use of Isodata Clustering Techniques

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Spruce, Joseph P.

    2001-01-01

    Northeast Yellowstone National Park (YNP) has a diversity of forest, range, and wetland cover types. Several remote sensing studies have recently been done in this area, including the NASA Earth Observations Commercial Applications Program (EOCAP) hyperspectral project conducted by Yellowstone Ecosystems Studies (YES) on the use of hyperspectral imaging for assessing riparian and in-stream habitats. In 1999, YES and NASA's Commercial Remote Sensing Program Office began collaborative study of this area, assessing the potential of synergistic use of hyperspectral, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and multiband thermal data for mapping forest, range, and wetland land cover. Since the beginning, a quality 'reference' land cover map has been desired as a tool for developing and validating other land cover maps produced during the project. This paper recounts an effort to produce such a reference land cover map using low-altitude Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data and unsupervised classification techniques. The main objective of this study is to assess ISODATA classification for mapping land cover in Northeast YNP using select bands of low-altitude AVIRIS data. A secondary, more long-term objective is to assess the potential for improving ISODATA-based classification of land cover through use of principal components analysis and minimum noise fraction (MNF) techniques. This paper will primarily report on work regarding the primary research objective. This study focuses on an AVIRIS cube acquired on July 23, 1999, by the confluence of Soda Butte Creek with the Lamar River. Range and wetland habitats dominate the image with forested habitats being a comparatively minor component of the scene. The scene generally tracks from southwest to northeast. Most of the scene is valley bottom with some lower side slopes occurring on the western portion. Elevations within the AVIRIS scene range from approximately 1998 to 2165 m above sea level, based on US

  14. Low Altitude AVIRIS Data for Mapping Land Cover in Yellowstone National Park: Use of Isodata Clustering Techniques

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Spruce, Joe

    2001-01-01

    Yellowstone National Park (YNP) contains a diversity of land cover. YNP managers need site-specific land cover maps, which may be produced more effectively using high-resolution hyperspectral imagery. ISODATA clustering techniques have aided operational multispectral image classification and may benefit certain hyperspectral data applications if optimally applied. In response, a study was performed for an area in northeast YNP using 11 select bands of low-altitude AVIRIS data calibrated to ground reflectance. These data were subjected to ISODATA clustering and Maximum Likelihood Classification techniques to produce a moderately detailed land cover map. The latter has good apparent overall agreement with field surveys and aerial photo interpretation.

  15. National climate assessment technical report on the impacts of climate and land use and land cover change

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Loveland, Thomas; Mahmood, Rezaul; Patel-Weynand, Toral; Karstensen, Krista; Beckendorf, Kari; Bliss, Norman; Carleton, Andrew

    2012-01-01

    This technical report responds to the recognition by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and the National Climate Assessment (NCA) of the importance of understanding how land use and land cover (LULC) affects weather and climate variability and change and how that variability and change affects LULC. Current published, peer-reviewed, scientific literature and supporting data from both existing and original sources forms the basis for this report's assessment of the current state of knowledge regarding land change and climate interactions. The synthesis presented herein documents how current and future land change may alter environment processes and in turn, how those conditions may affect both land cover and land use by specifically investigating, * The primary contemporary trends in land use and land cover, * The land-use and land-cover sectors and regions which are most affected by weather and climate variability,* How land-use practices are adapting to climate change, * How land-use and land-cover patterns and conditions are affecting weather and climate, and * The key elements of an ongoing Land Resources assessment. These findings present information that can be used to better assess land change and climate interactions in order to better assess land management and adaptation strategies for future environmental change and to assist in the development of a framework for an ongoing national assessment.

  16. Land mine detection using multispectral image fusion

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Clark, G.A.; Sengupta, S.K.; Aimonetti, W.D.

    1995-03-29

    Our system fuses information contained in registered images from multiple sensors to reduce the effects of clutter and improve the ability to detect surface and buried land mines. The sensor suite currently consists of a camera that acquires images in six bands (400nm, 500nm, 600nm, 700nm, 800nm and 900nm). Past research has shown that it is extremely difficult to distinguish land mines from background clutter in images obtained from a single sensor. It is hypothesized, however, that information fused from a suite of various sensors is likely to provide better detection reliability, because the suite of sensors detects a varietymore » of physical properties that are more separable in feature space. The materials surrounding the mines can include natural materials (soil, rocks, foliage, water, etc.) and some artifacts. We use a supervised learning pattern recognition approach to detecting the metal and plastic land mines. The overall process consists of four main parts: Preprocessing, feature extraction, feature selection, and classification. These parts are used in a two step process to classify a subimage. We extract features from the images, and use feature selection algorithms to select only the most important features according to their contribution to correct detections. This allows us to save computational complexity and determine which of the spectral bands add value to the detection system. The most important features from the various sensors are fused using a supervised learning pattern classifier (the probabilistic neural network). We present results of experiments to detect land mines from real data collected from an airborne platform, and evaluate the usefulness of fusing feature information from multiple spectral bands.« less

  17. 1st Manned Lunar Landing and 1st Robotic Mars Landing Commemorative Release: Viking 1 Landing Site in Chryse Planitia - Infrared Image

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2002-07-22

    This NASA Mars Odyssey image of NASA Viking 1 landing site was taken to commemorate the anniversaries of NASA Apollo 11 landing on the Moon and Viking 1 landing on Mars -- July 20, 1969 and July 20, 1976, respectively.

  18. Multispectral image fusion for detecting land mines

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Clark, G.A.; Sengupta, S.K.; Aimonetti, W.D.

    1995-04-01

    This report details a system which fuses information contained in registered images from multiple sensors to reduce the effects of clutter and improve the ability to detect surface and buried land mines. The sensor suite currently consists of a camera that acquires images in six bands (400nm, 500nm, 600nm, 700nm, 800nm and 900nm). Past research has shown that it is extremely difficult to distinguish land mines from background clutter in images obtained from a single sensor. It is hypothesized, however, that information fused from a suite of various sensors is likely to provide better detection reliability, because the suite ofmore » sensors detects a variety of physical properties that are more separable in feature space. The materials surrounding the mines can include natural materials (soil, rocks, foliage, water, etc.) and some artifacts.« less

  19. 77 FR 33234 - Public Land Order No. 7790; Withdrawal of Public Lands for the Parting of the Ways National...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-06-05

    ...] Public Land Order No. 7790; Withdrawal of Public Lands for the Parting of the Ways National Historic Site; Wyoming AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior. ACTION: Public land order. SUMMARY: This order withdraws 40 acres of public land from settlement, sale, location, and entry under the general land laws...

  20. The Application Research of National Geography Census Data in the Departmental Investigation and Management-Taking Land Management as AN Example

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jiang, N.

    2018-04-01

    According to the "Natural priority, Status quo priority" principle of acquisition, the national geography census data has the characteristics of objectivity, impartiality and accuracy. It provides a new perspective for the management and decision-making support of other industries as a "third party" and plays an important role in the professional management and investigation of various departments including land, transportation, forestry and water conservancy. Taking land resources supervision as an example, the Yellow River Delta efficient eco-economic zone as the research area, based on the national geographic census data and the land survey data, this paper established the correspondence of the two types of data through the reclassification of the land cover classification data, calculated the spatial coincidence rate of the same land class and the circulation relations among different land classes through the spatial overlay analysis and the calculation of space transfer matrix, quantified the differences between the data and objectively analysed the causes of the differences; On this basis, combined with land supervision hot spots, supplemented by multi-source remote sensing images and socio-economic data, analysed the application of geographic census data in the land regulation from multi-point.

  1. Image Analysis for Facility Siting: a Comparison of Lowand High-altitude Image Interpretability for Land Use/land Cover Mapping

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Borella, H. M.; Estes, J. E.; Ezra, C. E.; Scepan, J.; Tinney, L. R.

    1982-01-01

    For two test sites in Pennsylvania the interpretability of commercially acquired low-altitude and existing high-altitude aerial photography are documented in terms of time, costs, and accuracy for Anderson Level II land use/land cover mapping. Information extracted from the imagery is to be used in the evaluation process for siting energy facilities. Land use/land cover maps were drawn at 1:24,000 scale using commercially flown color infrared photography obtained from the United States Geological Surveys' EROS Data Center. Detailed accuracy assessment of the maps generated by manual image analysis was accomplished employing a stratified unaligned adequate class representation. Both 'area-weighted' and 'by-class' accuracies were documented and field-verified. A discrepancy map was also drawn to illustrate differences in classifications between the two map scales. Results show that the 1:24,000 scale map set was more accurate (99% to 94% area-weighted) than the 1:62,500 scale set, especially when sampled by class (96% to 66%). The 1:24,000 scale maps were also more time-consuming and costly to produce, due mainly to higher image acquisition costs.

  2. Land-cover change research at the U.S. Geological Survey-assessing our nation's dynamic land surface

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wilson, Tamara S.

    2011-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed an unprecedented, 27-year assessment of land-use and land-cover change for the conterminous United States. For the period 1973 to 2000, scientists generated estimates of change in major types of land use and land cover, such as development, mining, agriculture, forest, grasslands, and wetlands. To help provide the insight that our Nation will need to make land-use decisions in coming decades, the historical trends data is now being used by the USGS to help model potential future land use/land cover under different scenarios, including climate, environmental, economic, population, public policy, and technological change.

  3. National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Faundeen, John L.; Kelly, Francis P.; Holm, Thomas M.; Nolt, Jenna E.

    2013-01-01

    The National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive (NSLRSDA) resides at the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. Through the Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992, the U.S. Congress directed the Department of the Interior (DOI) to establish a permanent Government archive containing satellite remote sensing data of the Earth's land surface and to make this data easily accessible and readily available. This unique DOI/USGS archive provides a comprehensive, permanent, and impartial observational record of the planet's land surface obtained throughout more than five decades of satellite remote sensing. Satellite-derived data and information products are primary sources used to detect and understand changes such as deforestation, desertification, agricultural crop vigor, water quality, invasive plant species, and certain natural hazards such as flood extent and wildfire scars.

  4. Terrestrial ecosystems: national inventory of vegetation and land use

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Gergely, Kevin J.; McKerrow, Alexa

    2013-11-12

    The Gap Analysis Program (GAP)/Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (LANDFIRE) National Terrestrial Ecosystems Data represents detailed data on the vegetation and land-use patterns of the United States, including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. This national dataset combines detailed land cover data generated by the GAP with LANDFIRE data (http://www.landfire.gov/). LANDFIRE is an interagency vegetation, fire, and fuel characteristics mapping program sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.

  5. Sustainable Land Imaging User Requirements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Z.; Snyder, G.; Vadnais, C. M.

    2017-12-01

    The US Geological Survey (USGS) Land Remote Sensing Program (LRSP) has collected user requirements from a range of applications to help formulate the Landsat 9 follow-on mission (Landsat 10) through the Requirements, Capabilities and Analysis (RCA) activity. The USGS is working with NASA to develop Landsat 10, which is scheduled to launch in the 2027 timeframe as part of the Sustainable Land Imaging program. User requirements collected through RCA will help inform future Landsat 10 sensor designs and mission characteristics. Current Federal civil community users have provided hundreds of requirements through systematic, in-depth interviews. Academic, State, local, industry, and international Landsat user community input was also incorporated in the process. Emphasis was placed on spatial resolution, temporal revisit, and spectral characteristics, as well as other aspects such as accuracy, continuity, sampling condition, data access and format. We will provide an overview of the Landsat 10 user requirements collection process and summary results of user needs from the broad land imagining community.

  6. Retrieval of land cover information under thin fog in Landsat TM image

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wei, Yuchun

    2008-04-01

    Thin fog, which often appears in remote sensing image of subtropical climate region, has resulted in the low image quantity and bad image mapping. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the image processing method to retrieve land cover information under thin fog. In this paper, the Landsat TM image near the Taihu Lake that is in the subtropical climate zone of China was used as an example, and the workflow and method used to retrieve the land cover information under thin fog have been built based on ENVI software and a single TM image. The basic step covers three parts: 1) isolating the thin fog area in image according to the spectral difference of different bands; 2) retrieving the visible band information of different land cover types under thin fog from the near-infrared bands according to the relationships between near-infrared bands and visible bands of different land cover types in the area without fog; 3) image post-process. The result showed that the method in the paper is easy and suitable, and can be used to improve the quantity of TM image mapping more effectively.

  7. Updating the 2001 National Land Cover Database land cover classification to 2006 by using Landsat imagery change detection methods

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Xian, George; Homer, Collin G.; Fry, Joyce

    2009-01-01

    The recent release of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001, which represents the nation's land cover status based on a nominal date of 2001, is widely used as a baseline for national land cover conditions. To enable the updating of this land cover information in a consistent and continuous manner, a prototype method was developed to update land cover by an individual Landsat path and row. This method updates NLCD 2001 to a nominal date of 2006 by using both Landsat imagery and data from NLCD 2001 as the baseline. Pairs of Landsat scenes in the same season in 2001 and 2006 were acquired according to satellite paths and rows and normalized to allow calculation of change vectors between the two dates. Conservative thresholds based on Anderson Level I land cover classes were used to segregate the change vectors and determine areas of change and no-change. Once change areas had been identified, land cover classifications at the full NLCD resolution for 2006 areas of change were completed by sampling from NLCD 2001 in unchanged areas. Methods were developed and tested across five Landsat path/row study sites that contain several metropolitan areas including Seattle, Washington; San Diego, California; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Jackson, Mississippi; and Manchester, New Hampshire. Results from the five study areas show that the vast majority of land cover change was captured and updated with overall land cover classification accuracies of 78.32%, 87.5%, 88.57%, 78.36%, and 83.33% for these areas. The method optimizes mapping efficiency and has the potential to provide users a flexible method to generate updated land cover at national and regional scales by using NLCD 2001 as the baseline.

  8. Mapping land cover from satellite images: A basic, low cost approach

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Elifrits, C. D.; Barney, T. W.; Barr, D. J.; Johannsen, C. J.

    1978-01-01

    Simple, inexpensive methodologies developed for mapping general land cover and land use categories from LANDSAT images are reported. One methodology, a stepwise, interpretive, direct tracing technique was developed through working with university students from different disciplines with no previous experience in satellite image interpretation. The technique results in maps that are very accurate in relation to actual land cover and relative to the small investment in skill, time, and money needed to produce the products.

  9. Exploring National Environmental Policy Act processes across federal land management agencies

    Treesearch

    Marc J. Stern; Michael J. Mortimer

    2009-01-01

    Broad discretion is granted at all levels throughout federal land management agencies regarding compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). We explored the diversity of procedures employed in NEPA processes across four agencies, the USDA Forest Service, The USDI National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...

  10. Study on Remote Sensing Image Characteristics of Ecological Land: Case Study of Original Ecological Land in the Yellow River Delta

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    An, G. Q.

    2018-04-01

    Takes the Yellow River Delta as an example, this paper studies the characteristics of remote sensing imagery with dominant ecological functional land use types, compares the advantages and disadvantages of different image in interpreting ecological land use, and uses research results to analyse the changing trend of ecological land in the study area in the past 30 years. The main methods include multi-period, different sensor images and different seasonal spectral curves, vegetation index, GIS and data analysis methods. The results show that the main ecological land in the Yellow River Delta included coastal beaches, saline-alkaline lands, and water bodies. These lands have relatively distinct spectral and texture features. The spectral features along the beach show characteristics of absorption in the green band and reflection in the red band. This feature is less affected by the acquisition year, season, and sensor type. Saline-alkali land due to the influence of some saline-alkaline-tolerant plants such as alkali tent, Tamarix and other vegetation, the spectral characteristics have a certain seasonal changes, winter and spring NDVI index is less than the summer and autumn vegetation index. The spectral characteristics of a water body generally decrease rapidly with increasing wavelength, and the reflectance in the red band increases with increasing sediment concentration. In conclusion, according to the spectral characteristics and image texture features of the ecological land in the Yellow River Delta, the accuracy of image interpretation of such ecological land can be improved.

  11. ACCOUNTING FOR BIOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOGENIC FACTORS IN NATIONAL LAND-BASED CARBON BUDGETS

    EPA Science Inventory

    Efforts to quantify net greenhouse gas emissions at the national scale, as required by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, must include both industrial emissions and the net flux associated with the land base. In this study, data on current land use, rates ...

  12. The CEOS-Land Surface Imaging Constellation Portal for GEOSS: A resource for land surface imaging system information and data access

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Holm, Thomas; Gallo, Kevin P.; Bailey, Bryan

    2010-01-01

    The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites is an international group that coordinates civil space-borne observations of the Earth, and provides the space component of the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). The CEOS Virtual Constellations concept was implemented in an effort to engage and coordinate disparate Earth observing programs of CEOS member agencies and ultimately facilitate their contribution in supplying the space-based observations required to satisfy the requirements of the GEOSS. The CEOS initially established Study Teams for four prototype constellations that included precipitation, land surface imaging, ocean surface topography, and atmospheric composition. The basic mission of the Land Surface Imaging (LSI) Constellation [1] is to promote the efficient, effective, and comprehensive collection, distribution, and application of space-acquired image data of the global land surface, especially to meet societal needs of the global population, such as those addressed by the nine Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs) of agriculture, biodiversity, climate, disasters, ecosystems, energy, health, water, and weather. The LSI Constellation Portal is the result of an effort to address important goals within the LSI Constellation mission and provide resources to assist in planning for future space missions that might further contribute to meeting those goals.

  13. 1st Manned Lunar Landing and 1st Robotic Mars Landing Commemorative Release: Viking 1 Landing Site in Chryse Planitia - Visible Image

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2002-07-22

    NASA Viking 1 landing site is shown in this commemorative image from NASA Mars Odyssey spacecraft to celebrate the July 20, 1969 and 1976 anniversaries of NASA Apollo 11 and Viking 1 landings on the Moon and Mars, respectively.

  14. Monitoring urban land cover change by updating the national land cover database impervious surface products

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Xian, George Z.; Homer, Collin G.

    2009-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001 is widely used as a baseline for national land cover and impervious conditions. To ensure timely and relevant data, it is important to update this base to a more recent time period. A prototype method was developed to update the land cover and impervious surface by individual Landsat path and row. This method updates NLCD 2001 to a nominal date of 2006 by using both Landsat imagery and data from NLCD 2001 as the baseline. Pairs of Landsat scenes in the same season from both 2001 and 2006 were acquired according to satellite paths and rows and normalized to allow calculation of change vectors between the two dates. Conservative thresholds based on Anderson Level I land cover classes were used to segregate the change vectors and determine areas of change and no-change. Once change areas had been identified, impervious surface was estimated for areas of change by sampling from NLCD 2001 in unchanged areas. Methods were developed and tested across five Landsat path/row study sites that contain a variety of metropolitan areas. Results from the five study areas show that the vast majority of impervious surface changes associated with urban developments were accurately captured and updated. The approach optimizes mapping efficiency and can provide users a flexible method to generate updated impervious surface at national and regional scales.

  15. United states national land cover data base development? 1992-2001 and beyond

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Yang, L.

    2008-01-01

    An accurate, up-to-date and spatially-explicate national land cover database is required for monitoring the status and trends of the nation's terrestrial ecosystem, and for managing and conserving land resources at the national scale. With all the challenges and resources required to develop such a database, an innovative and scientifically sound planning must be in place and a partnership be formed among users from government agencies, research institutes and private sectors. In this paper, we summarize major scientific and technical issues regarding the development of the NLCD 1992 and 2001. Experiences and lessons learned from the project are documented with regard to project design, technical approaches, accuracy assessment strategy, and projecti imiplementation.Future improvements in developing next generation NLCD beyond 2001 are suggested, including: 1) enhanced satellite data preprocessing in correction of atmospheric and adjacency effect and the topographic normalization; 2) improved classification accuracy through comprehensive and consistent training data and new algorithm development; 3) multi-resolution and multi-temporal database targeting major land cover changes and land cover database updates; 4) enriched database contents by including additional biophysical parameters and/or more detailed land cover classes through synergizing multi-sensor, multi-temporal, and multi-spectral satellite data and ancillary data, and 5) transform the NLCD project into a national land cover monitoring program. ?? 2008 IEEE.

  16. 78 FR 13316 - National Forest System Land Management Planning Directives

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-02-27

    ... responsibilities. It should be used in conjunction with the FSH. FSH 1909.12--Land Management Planning Handbook... management planning. Forest Service Handbook 1909.15, section 31.12 (57 FR 43208; September 18, 1992... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service RIN 0596-AD06 National Forest System Land Management...

  17. The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium: 20 years of development and integration of USA national land cover data

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wickham, James D.; Homer, Collin G.; Vogelmann, James E.; McKerrow, Alexa; Mueller, Rick; Herold, Nate; Coluston, John

    2014-01-01

    The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium demonstrates the national benefits of USA Federal collaboration. Starting in the mid-1990s as a small group with the straightforward goal of compiling a comprehensive national Landsat dataset that could be used to meet agencies’ needs, MRLC has grown into a group of 10 USA Federal Agencies that coordinate the production of five different products, including the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), the Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP), the Cropland Data Layer (CDL), the Gap Analysis Program (GAP), and the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (LANDFIRE). As a set, the products include almost every aspect of land cover from impervious surface to detailed crop and vegetation types to fire fuel classes. Some products can be used for land cover change assessments because they cover multiple time periods. The MRLC Consortium has become a collaborative forum, where members share research, methodological approaches, and data to produce products using established protocols, and we believe it is a model for the production of integrated land cover products at national to continental scales. We provide a brief overview of each of the main products produced by MRLC and examples of how each product has been used. We follow that with a discussion of the impact of the MRLC program and a brief overview of future plans.

  18. 32 CFR 644.408 - Interchange of national forest and military and civil works lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Interchange of national forest and military and... Property and Easement Interests § 644.408 Interchange of national forest and military and civil works lands. 16 U.S.C. 505a, 505b authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture, with respect to national forest lands...

  19. Research on image evidence in land supervision and GIS management

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Qiu; Wu, Lixin

    2006-10-01

    Land resource development and utilization brings many problems. The numbers, the scale and volume of illegal land use cases are on the increasing. Since the territory is vast, and the land violations are concealment, it is difficulty for an effective land supervision and management. In this paper, the concepts of evidence, and preservation of evidence were described first. The concepts of image evidence (IE), natural evidence (NE), natural preservation of evidence (NPE), general preservation of evidence (GPE) were proposed based on the characteristics of remote sensing image (RSI) which has a characteristic of objectiveness, truthfulness, high spatial resolution, more information included. Using MapObjects and Visual Basic 6.0, under the Access management to implement the conjunction of spatial vector database and attribute data table; taking RSI as the data sources and background layer; combining the powerful management of geographic information system (GIS) for spatial data, and visual analysis, a land supervision and GIS management system was design and implemented based on NPE. The practical use in Beijing shows that the system is running well, and solved some problems in land supervision and management.

  20. Photometric characterization of the Chang'e-3 landing site using LROC NAC images

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Clegg-Watkins, R. N.; Jolliff, B. L.; Boyd, A.; Robinson, M. S.; Wagner, R.; Stopar, J. D.; Plescia, J. B.; Speyerer, E. J.

    2016-07-01

    China's robotic Chang'e-3 spacecraft, carrying the Yutu rover, touched down in Mare Imbrium on the lunar surface on 14 December 2013. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) imaged the site both before and after landing. Multi-temporal NAC images taken before and after the landing, phase-ratio images made from NAC images taken after the landing, and Hapke photometric techniques were used to evaluate surface changes caused by the disturbance of regolith at the landing site (blast zone) by the descent engines of the Chang'e-3 spacecraft. The reflectance of the landing site increased by 10 ± 1% (from I/F = 0.040 to 0.044 at 30° phase angle) as a result of the landing, a value similar to reflectance increases estimated for the Apollo, Luna, and Surveyor landing sites. The spatial extent of the disturbed area at the Chang'e-3 landing site, 2530 m2, also falls close to what is predicted on the basis of correlations between lander mass, thrust, and blast zone areas for the historic landed missions. A multi-temporal ratio image of the Chang'e-3 landing site reveals a main blast zone (slightly elongate in the N-S direction; ∼75 m across N-S and ∼43 m across in the E-W direction) and an extended diffuse, irregular halo that is less reflective than the main blast zone (extending ∼40-50 m in the N-S direction and ∼10-15 m in the E-W direction beyond the main blast zone). The N-S elongation of the blast zone likely resulted from maneuvering during hazard avoidance just prior to landing. The phase-ratio image reveals that the blast zone is less backscattering than surrounding undisturbed areas. The similarities in magnitude of increased reflectance between the Chang'e-3 landing site and the Surveyor, Apollo, and Luna landing sites suggest that lunar soil reflectance changes caused by interaction with rocket exhaust are not significantly altered over a period of 40-50 years. The reflectance changes are independent of regolith composition

  1. A land-use and land-cover modeling strategy to support a national assessment of carbon stocks and fluxes

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sohl, Terry L.; Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Zhu, Zhiliang; Sayler, Kristi L.; Bennett, Stacie; Bouchard, Michelle; Reker, Ryan R.; Hawbaker, Todd J.; Wein, Anne M.; Liu, Shuguang; Kanengieter, Ronald L.; Acevedo, William

    2012-01-01

    Changes in land use, land cover, disturbance regimes, and land management have considerable influence on carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes within ecosystems. Through targeted land-use and land-management activities, ecosystems can be managed to enhance carbon sequestration and mitigate fluxes of other GHGs. National-scale, comprehensive analyses of carbon sequestration potential by ecosystem are needed, with a consistent, nationally applicable land-use and land-cover (LULC) modeling framework a key component of such analyses. The U.S. Geological Survey has initiated a project to analyze current and projected future GHG fluxes by ecosystem and quantify potential mitigation strategies. We have developed a unique LULC modeling framework to support this work. Downscaled scenarios consistent with IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) were constructed for U.S. ecoregions, and the FORE-SCE model was used to spatially map the scenarios. Results for a prototype demonstrate our ability to model LULC change and inform a biogeochemical modeling framework for analysis of subsequent GHG fluxes. The methodology was then successfully used to model LULC change for four IPCC SRES scenarios for an ecoregion in the Great Plains. The scenario-based LULC projections are now being used to analyze potential GHG impacts of LULC change across the U.S.

  2. Thematic accuracy of the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001 land cover for Alaska

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Selkowitz, D.J.; Stehman, S.V.

    2011-01-01

    The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001 Alaska land cover classification is the first 30-m resolution land cover product available covering the entire state of Alaska. The accuracy assessment of the NLCD 2001 Alaska land cover classification employed a geographically stratified three-stage sampling design to select the reference sample of pixels. Reference land cover class labels were determined via fixed wing aircraft, as the high resolution imagery used for determining the reference land cover classification in the conterminous U.S. was not available for most of Alaska. Overall thematic accuracy for the Alaska NLCD was 76.2% (s.e. 2.8%) at Level II (12 classes evaluated) and 83.9% (s.e. 2.1%) at Level I (6 classes evaluated) when agreement was defined as a match between the map class and either the primary or alternate reference class label. When agreement was defined as a match between the map class and primary reference label only, overall accuracy was 59.4% at Level II and 69.3% at Level I. The majority of classification errors occurred at Level I of the classification hierarchy (i.e., misclassifications were generally to a different Level I class, not to a Level II class within the same Level I class). Classification accuracy was higher for more abundant land cover classes and for pixels located in the interior of homogeneous land cover patches. ?? 2011.

  3. Land use/cover classification in the Brazilian Amazon using satellite images.

    PubMed

    Lu, Dengsheng; Batistella, Mateus; Li, Guiying; Moran, Emilio; Hetrick, Scott; Freitas, Corina da Costa; Dutra, Luciano Vieira; Sant'anna, Sidnei João Siqueira

    2012-09-01

    Land use/cover classification is one of the most important applications in remote sensing. However, mapping accurate land use/cover spatial distribution is a challenge, particularly in moist tropical regions, due to the complex biophysical environment and limitations of remote sensing data per se. This paper reviews experiments related to land use/cover classification in the Brazilian Amazon for a decade. Through comprehensive analysis of the classification results, it is concluded that spatial information inherent in remote sensing data plays an essential role in improving land use/cover classification. Incorporation of suitable textural images into multispectral bands and use of segmentation-based method are valuable ways to improve land use/cover classification, especially for high spatial resolution images. Data fusion of multi-resolution images within optical sensor data is vital for visual interpretation, but may not improve classification performance. In contrast, integration of optical and radar data did improve classification performance when the proper data fusion method was used. Of the classification algorithms available, the maximum likelihood classifier is still an important method for providing reasonably good accuracy, but nonparametric algorithms, such as classification tree analysis, has the potential to provide better results. However, they often require more time to achieve parametric optimization. Proper use of hierarchical-based methods is fundamental for developing accurate land use/cover classification, mainly from historical remotely sensed data.

  4. Land use/cover classification in the Brazilian Amazon using satellite images

    PubMed Central

    Lu, Dengsheng; Batistella, Mateus; Li, Guiying; Moran, Emilio; Hetrick, Scott; Freitas, Corina da Costa; Dutra, Luciano Vieira; Sant’Anna, Sidnei João Siqueira

    2013-01-01

    Land use/cover classification is one of the most important applications in remote sensing. However, mapping accurate land use/cover spatial distribution is a challenge, particularly in moist tropical regions, due to the complex biophysical environment and limitations of remote sensing data per se. This paper reviews experiments related to land use/cover classification in the Brazilian Amazon for a decade. Through comprehensive analysis of the classification results, it is concluded that spatial information inherent in remote sensing data plays an essential role in improving land use/cover classification. Incorporation of suitable textural images into multispectral bands and use of segmentation-based method are valuable ways to improve land use/cover classification, especially for high spatial resolution images. Data fusion of multi-resolution images within optical sensor data is vital for visual interpretation, but may not improve classification performance. In contrast, integration of optical and radar data did improve classification performance when the proper data fusion method was used. Of the classification algorithms available, the maximum likelihood classifier is still an important method for providing reasonably good accuracy, but nonparametric algorithms, such as classification tree analysis, has the potential to provide better results. However, they often require more time to achieve parametric optimization. Proper use of hierarchical-based methods is fundamental for developing accurate land use/cover classification, mainly from historical remotely sensed data. PMID:24353353

  5. 77 FR 472 - National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-01-05

    ... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule; Correction AGENCY: USDA Forest Service. ACTION... for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1 (800) 877-8339 between 8...

  6. Earth Observing-1 Advanced Land Imager: Radiometric Response Calibration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mendenhall, J. A.; Lencioni, D. E.; Evans, J. B.

    2000-01-01

    The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) is one of three instruments to be flown on the first Earth Observing mission (EO-1) under NASA's New Millennium Program (NMP). ALI contains a number of innovative features, including a wide field of view optical design, compact multispectral focal plane arrays, non-cryogenic HgCdTe detectors for the short wave infrared bands, and silicon carbide optics. This document outlines the techniques adopted during ground calibration of the radiometric response of the Advanced Land Imager. Results from system level measurements of the instrument response, signal-to-noise ratio, saturation radiance, and dynamic range for all detectors of every spectral band are also presented.

  7. Multirotor micro air vehicle autonomous landing system based on image markers recognition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Skoczylas, Marcin; Gadomer, Lukasz; Walendziuk, Wojciech

    2017-08-01

    In this paper the idea of an autonomic drone landing system which bases on different markers detection, is presented. The issue of safe autonomic drone landing is one of the major aspects connected with drone missions. The idea of the proposed system is to detect the landing place, marked with an image called marker, using one of the image recognition algorithms, and heading during the landing procedure to this place. Choosing the proper marker, which allows the greatest quality of the recognition system, is the main problem faced in this paper. Seven markers are tested and compared. The achieved results are described and discussed.

  8. Validation of national land-cover characteristics data for regional water-quality assessment

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Zelt, Ronald B.; Brown, Jesslyn F.; Kelley, M.S.

    1995-01-01

    Land-cover information is used routinely to support the interpretation of water-quality data. The Prototype 1990 Conterminous US Land Cover Characteristics Data Set, developed primarily from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data, was made available to the US Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. The study described in this paper explored the utility of the 1990 national data set for developing quantitative estimates of the areal extent of principal land-cover types within large areal units. Land-cover data were collected in 1993 at 210 sites in the Central Nebraska Basins, one of the NAWQA study units. Median percentage-corn estimates for each sampling stratum wre used to produce areally weighted estimates of the percentage-corn cover for hydrologic units. Comparison of those areal estimates with an independent source of 1992 land-cover data showed good agreement. -Authors

  9. Study on Classification Accuracy Inspection of Land Cover Data Aided by Automatic Image Change Detection Technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xie, W.-J.; Zhang, L.; Chen, H.-P.; Zhou, J.; Mao, W.-J.

    2018-04-01

    The purpose of carrying out national geographic conditions monitoring is to obtain information of surface changes caused by human social and economic activities, so that the geographic information can be used to offer better services for the government, enterprise and public. Land cover data contains detailed geographic conditions information, thus has been listed as one of the important achievements in the national geographic conditions monitoring project. At present, the main issue of the production of the land cover data is about how to improve the classification accuracy. For the land cover data quality inspection and acceptance, classification accuracy is also an important check point. So far, the classification accuracy inspection is mainly based on human-computer interaction or manual inspection in the project, which are time consuming and laborious. By harnessing the automatic high-resolution remote sensing image change detection technology based on the ERDAS IMAGINE platform, this paper carried out the classification accuracy inspection test of land cover data in the project, and presented a corresponding technical route, which includes data pre-processing, change detection, result output and information extraction. The result of the quality inspection test shows the effectiveness of the technical route, which can meet the inspection needs for the two typical errors, that is, missing and incorrect update error, and effectively reduces the work intensity of human-computer interaction inspection for quality inspectors, and also provides a technical reference for the data production and quality control of the land cover data.

  10. Identification of cultivated land using remote sensing images based on object-oriented artificial bee colony algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Nan; Zhu, Xiufang

    2017-04-01

    Cultivated land resources is the key to ensure food security. Timely and accurate access to cultivated land information is conducive to a scientific planning of food production and management policies. The GaoFen 1 (GF-1) images have high spatial resolution and abundant texture information and thus can be used to identify fragmentized cultivated land. In this paper, an object-oriented artificial bee colony algorithm was proposed for extracting cultivated land from GF-1 images. Firstly, the GF-1 image was segmented by eCognition software and some samples from the segments were manually identified into 2 types (cultivated land and non-cultivated land). Secondly, the artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm was used to search for classification rules based on the spectral and texture information extracted from the image objects. Finally, the extracted classification rules were used to identify the cultivated land area on the image. The experiment was carried out in Hongze area, Jiangsu Province using wide field-of-view sensor on the GF-1 satellite image. The total precision of classification result was 94.95%, and the precision of cultivated land was 92.85%. The results show that the object-oriented ABC algorithm can overcome the defect of insufficient spectral information in GF-1 images and obtain high precision in cultivated identification.

  11. National climate assessment technical report on the impacts of climate and land use and land cover change

    Treesearch

    Thomas Loveland; Rezaul Mahmood; Toral Patel-Weynand; Krista Karstensen; Kari Beckendorf; Norman Bliss; Andrew Carleton

    2012-01-01

    This technical report responds to the recognition by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and the National Climate Assessment (NCA) of the importance of understanding how land use and land cover (LULC) affects weather and climate variability and change and how that variability and change affects LULC. Current published, peer-reviewed, scientific literature...

  12. Applications of national land cover maps in United States forestry

    Treesearch

    Kurt H. Riitters; Gregory A. Reams

    2008-01-01

    Land cover maps derived from satellite imagery have a long and varied history of uses in United States forestry science and management. This article reviews recent developments concerning the use of national- to continental-scale land cover maps for inventory, monitoring, and resource assessment in the U.S. Forest Service. The use of mid-scale digital resolution...

  13. In flight image processing on multi-rotor aircraft for autonomous landing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Henry, Richard, Jr.

    An estimated $6.4 billion was spent during the year 2013 on developing drone technology around the world and is expected to double in the next decade. However, drone applications typically require strong pilot skills, safety, responsibilities and adherence to regulations during flight. If the flight control process could be safer and more reliable in terms of landing, it would be possible to further develop a wider range of applications. The objective of this research effort is to describe the design and evaluation of a fully autonomous Unmanned Aerial system (UAS), specifically a four rotor aircraft, commonly known as quad copter for precise landing applications. The full landing autonomy is achieved by image processing capabilities during flight for target recognition by employing the open source library OpenCV. In addition, all imaging data is processed by a single embedded computer that estimates a relative position with respect to the target landing pad. Results shows a reduction on the average offset error by 67.88% in comparison to the current return to lunch (RTL) method which only relies on GPS positioning. The present work validates the need for relying on image processing for precise landing applications instead of the inexact method of a commercial low cost GPS dependency.

  14. 14 CFR 136.37 - Overflights of national parks and tribal lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Overflights of national parks and tribal... COMMERCIAL AIR TOURS AND NATIONAL PARKS AIR TOUR MANAGEMENT National Parks Air Tour Management § 136.37 Overflights of national parks and tribal lands. (a) General. A commercial air tour operator may not conduct...

  15. 14 CFR 136.37 - Overflights of national parks and tribal lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Overflights of national parks and tribal... COMMERCIAL AIR TOURS AND NATIONAL PARKS AIR TOUR MANAGEMENT National Parks Air Tour Management § 136.37 Overflights of national parks and tribal lands. (a) General. A commercial air tour operator may not conduct...

  16. 14 CFR 136.37 - Overflights of national parks and tribal lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Overflights of national parks and tribal... COMMERCIAL AIR TOURS AND NATIONAL PARKS AIR TOUR MANAGEMENT National Parks Air Tour Management § 136.37 Overflights of national parks and tribal lands. (a) General. A commercial air tour operator may not conduct...

  17. 14 CFR 136.37 - Overflights of national parks and tribal lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Overflights of national parks and tribal... COMMERCIAL AIR TOURS AND NATIONAL PARKS AIR TOUR MANAGEMENT National Parks Air Tour Management § 136.37 Overflights of national parks and tribal lands. (a) General. A commercial air tour operator may not conduct...

  18. 14 CFR 136.37 - Overflights of national parks and tribal lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Overflights of national parks and tribal... COMMERCIAL AIR TOURS AND NATIONAL PARKS AIR TOUR MANAGEMENT National Parks Air Tour Management § 136.37 Overflights of national parks and tribal lands. (a) General. A commercial air tour operator may not conduct...

  19. Mechanical Energy Propagation and Backscattering in Nominally Dry Soil: Imaging Buried Land Mines

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sen, Surajit

    2003-04-01

    The imaging of shallow buried objects in a complex medium, e.g., nominally dry sand, is an outstanding challenge. Such imaging is of relevance in connection with the detection and subsequent imaging of buried non-metallic anti-personnel land mines and in other applications. It has been shown that gentle mechanical impulses and low frequency sound waves with frequencies roughly between 150-350 Hz or so can penetrate distances of up to a foot in sand. Hence, such signals can potentially be useful in the detection and perhaps in the imaging of shallow buried objects. It is presently unclear whether high frequency signals can be effectively used to image shallow buried objects. Impulses can typically penetrate larger distances into sand and soil. Both impulses and continuous sound waves can be used for imaging shallow buried objects. The talk shall briefly review the state-of-the-art in low frequency sound propagation in soil and shall discuss the current understanding of impulse propagation and backscattering in nominally dry sand beds. It will be argued that impulse based imaging may have the potential to be a simple and fast way to detect and image small non-metallic mines. Research supported by the National Science Foundation Grant No. NSF-CMS 0070055.

  20. The Use of 3d City Models Form Oblique Images on Land Administration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bakici, S.; Erkek, B.; Ayyildiz, E.; Özmüş, L.

    2017-11-01

    The article 718 of the civil law saying "The ownership on property includes the air above and terrain layers below to an extent providing benefit. The structures, plants and sources are included in the content of this ownership reserving the legal restrictions" and the cadastre law no. 3402 envisage 3D Cadastre. 3D data is required in order to perform 3D cadastre. To meet this requirement, oblique photogrammetry arises as the main data acquisition method. The data obtained by this method is used as base in 3D Cadastre and Land Administration activities. 3D cadastre required in the context of land administration activities in Turkey demands high resolution aerial oblique images to be used in services such as real estate value assessment & marketing in urban areas, urban planning, unlicensed construction monitoring & city administration and making location data (national address data etc.) intelligent.

  1. Thematic Accuracy Assessment of the 2011 National Land Cover Database (NLCD)

    EPA Science Inventory

    Accuracy assessment is a standard protocol of National Land Cover Database (NLCD) mapping. Here we report agreement statistics between map and reference labels for NLCD 2011, which includes land cover for ca. 2001, ca. 2006, and ca. 2011. The two main objectives were assessment o...

  2. Completion of the 2011 National Land Cover Database for the conterminous United States – Representing a decade of land cover change information

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Homer, Collin G.; Dewitz, Jon; Yang, Limin; Jin, Suming; Danielson, Patrick; Xian, George Z.; Coulston, John; Herold, Nathaniel; Wickham, James; Megown, Kevin

    2015-01-01

    The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) provides nationwide data on land cover and land cover change at the native 30-m spatial resolution of the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM). The database is designed to provide five-year cyclical updating of United States land cover and associated changes. The recent release of NLCD 2011 products now represents a decade of consistently produced land cover and impervious surface for the Nation across three periods: 2001, 2006, and 2011 (Homer et al., 2007; Fry et al., 2011). Tree canopy cover has also been produced for 2011 (Coluston et al., 2012; Coluston et al., 2013). With the release of NLCD 2011, the database provides the ability to move beyond simple change detection to monitoring and trend assessments. NLCD 2011 represents the latest evolution of NLCD products, continuing its focus on consistency, production, efficiency, and product accuracy. NLCD products are designed for widespread application in biology, climate, education, land management, hydrology, environmental planning, risk and disease analysis, telecommunications and visualization, and are available for no cost at http://www.mrlc.gov. NLCD is produced by a Federal agency consortium called the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC) (Wickham et al., 2014). In the consortium arrangement, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) leads NLCD land cover and imperviousness production for the bulk of the Nation; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) completes NLCD land cover for the conterminous U.S. (CONUS) coastal zones; and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) designs and produces the NLCD tree canopy cover product. Other MRLC partners collaborate through resource or data contribution to ensure NLCD products meet their respective program needs (Wickham et al., 2014).

  3. A land-use and land-cover modeling strategy to support a national assessment of carbon stocks and fluxes

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sohl, Terry L.; Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Zhu, Zhi-Liang; Sayler, Kristi L.; Bennett, Stacie; Bouchard, Michelle; Reker, Ryan R.; Hawbaker, Todd; Wein, Anne; Liu, Shu-Guang; Kanengleter, Ronald; Acevedo, William

    2012-01-01

    Changes in land use, land cover, disturbance regimes, and land management have considerable influence on carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes within ecosystems. Through targeted land-use and landmanagement activities, ecosystems can be managed to enhance carbon sequestration and mitigate fluxes of other GHGs. National-scale, comprehensive analyses of carbon sequestration potential by ecosystem are needed, with a consistent, nationally applicable land-use and land-cover (LULC) modeling framework a key component of such analyses. The U.S. Geological Survey has initiated a project to analyze current and projected future GHG fluxes by ecosystem and quantify potential mitigation strategies. We have developed a unique LULC modeling framework to support this work. Downscaled scenarios consistent with IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) were constructed for U.S. ecoregions, and the FORE-SCE model was used to spatially map the scenarios. Results for a prototype demonstrate our ability to model LULC change and inform a biogeochemical modeling framework for analysis of subsequent GHG fluxes. The methodology was then successfully used to model LULC change for four IPCC SRES scenarios for an ecoregion in the Great Plains. The scenario-based LULC projections are now being used to analyze potential GHG impacts of LULC change across the U.S.

  4. OVERVIEW OF US NATIONAL LAND-COVER MAPPING PROGRAM

    EPA Science Inventory

    Because of escalating costs amid growing needs for large-scale, satellite-based landscape information, a group of US federal agencies agreed to pool resources and operate as a consortium to acquire the necessary data land-cover mapping of the nation . The consortium was initiated...

  5. Completion of the 2011 National Land Cover Database for the Conterminous United States – Representing a Decade of Land Cover Change Information

    EPA Science Inventory

    The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) provides nationwide data on land cover and land cover change at the native 30-m spatial resolution of the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM). The database is designed to provide five-year cyclical updating of United States land cover and associat...

  6. Trend analysis of GIMMS and MODIS NDVI time series for establishing a land degradation neutrality national baseline

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gichenje, Helene; Godinho, Sergio

    2017-04-01

    Land degradation is a key global environment and development problem that is recognized as a priority by the international development community. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the global community in 2015, and include a goal related to land degradation and the accompanying target to achieve a land degradation-neutral (LDN) world by 2030. The LDN concept encompasses two joint actions of reducing the rate of degradation and increasing the rate of restoration. Using Kenya as the study area, this study aims to develop and test a spatially explicit methodology for assessing and monitoring the operationalization of a land degradation neutrality scheme at the national level. Time series analysis is applied to Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) satellite data records, based on the hypothesis that the resulting NDVI residual trend would enable successful detection of changes in vegetation photosynthetic capacity and thus serve as a proxy for land degradation and regeneration processes. Two NDVI data sets are used to identify the spatial and temporal distribution of degraded and regenerated areas: the long term coarse resolution (8km, 1982-2015) third generation Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) NDVI3g data record; and the shorter-term finer resolution (250m, 2001-2015) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived NDVI data record. Climate data (rainfall, temperature and soil moisture) are used to separate areas of human-induced vegetation productivity decline from those driven by climate dynamics. Further, weekly vegetation health (VH) indexes (4km, 1982-2015) developed by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), are assessed as indicators for early detection and monitoring of land degradation by estimating vegetation stress (moisture, thermal and combined conditions).

  7. Nowitna National Wildlife Refuge land cover mapping project users guide

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Markon, Carl J.

    1988-01-01

    Title III of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA 1980) established the Nowitna National Wildlife Refuge (NNWR).  Section 304 of the Act requires the Secretary of Interior to "prepare, and from time to time revise, a comprehensive conservation plan" for the refuge.  

  8. 75 FR 71138 - Land Acquisitions; Navajo Nation, Arizona

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-11-22

    ... of land into trust for the Navajo Nation of Arizona on November 10, 2010. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION... Indians before transfer of title to the property occurs. On November 10, 2010, the Assistant Secretary... 21 North, Range 11 East, Gila and Salt River Meridian, Coconino County, Arizona, described as follows...

  9. Sea-land segmentation for infrared remote sensing images based on superpixels and multi-scale features

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lei, Sen; Zou, Zhengxia; Liu, Dunge; Xia, Zhenghuan; Shi, Zhenwei

    2018-06-01

    Sea-land segmentation is a key step for the information processing of ocean remote sensing images. Traditional sea-land segmentation algorithms ignore the local similarity prior of sea and land, and thus fail in complex scenarios. In this paper, we propose a new sea-land segmentation method for infrared remote sensing images to tackle the problem based on superpixels and multi-scale features. Considering the connectivity and local similarity of sea or land, we interpret the sea-land segmentation task in view of superpixels rather than pixels, where similar pixels are clustered and the local similarity are explored. Moreover, the multi-scale features are elaborately designed, comprising of gray histogram and multi-scale total variation. Experimental results on infrared bands of Landsat-8 satellite images demonstrate that the proposed method can obtain more accurate and more robust sea-land segmentation results than the traditional algorithms.

  10. Completion of the 2006 National Land Cover Database Update for the Conterminous United States

    EPA Science Inventory

    Under the organization of the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium, the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) has been updated to characterize both land cover and land cover change from 2001 to 2006. An updated version of NLCD 2001 (Version 2.0) is also provided....

  11. A multitemporal (1979-2009) land-use/land-cover dataset of the binational Santa Cruz Watershed

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    2011-01-01

    Trends derived from multitemporal land-cover data can be used to make informed land management decisions and to help managers model future change scenarios. We developed a multitemporal land-use/land-cover dataset for the binational Santa Cruz watershed of southern Arizona, United States, and northern Sonora, Mexico by creating a series of land-cover maps at decadal intervals (1979, 1989, 1999, and 2009) using Landsat Multispectral Scanner and Thematic Mapper data and a classification and regression tree classifier. The classification model exploited phenological changes of different land-cover spectral signatures through the use of biseasonal imagery collected during the (dry) early summer and (wet) late summer following rains from the North American monsoon. Landsat images were corrected to remove atmospheric influences, and the data were converted from raw digital numbers to surface reflectance values. The 14-class land-cover classification scheme is based on the 2001 National Land Cover Database with a focus on "Developed" land-use classes and riverine "Forest" and "Wetlands" cover classes required for specific watershed models. The classification procedure included the creation of several image-derived and topographic variables, including digital elevation model derivatives, image variance, and multitemporal Kauth-Thomas transformations. The accuracy of the land-cover maps was assessed using a random-stratified sampling design, reference aerial photography, and digital imagery. This showed high accuracy results, with kappa values (the statistical measure of agreement between map and reference data) ranging from 0.80 to 0.85.

  12. Satellite images for land cover monitoring - Navigating through the maze

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Künzer, Claudia; Fosnight, Gene

    2001-01-01

    The focus of this publication is satellite systems for land cover monitoring. On the reverse is a table that compares a selection of these systems, whose data are globally available in a form suitable for land cover analysis. We hope the information presented will help you assess the utility of remotely sensed image to meet your needs.

  13. Generating a National Land Cover Dataset for Mexico at 30m Spatial Resolution in the Framework of the NALCMS Project.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Llamas, R. M.; Colditz, R. R.; Ressl, R.; Jurado Cruz, D. A.; Argumedo, J.; Victoria, A.; Meneses, C.

    2017-12-01

    The North American Land Change Monitoring System (NALCMS) is a tri-national initiative for mapping land cover across Mexico, United States and Canada, integrating efforts of institutions from the three countries. At the continental scale the group released land cover and change maps derived from MODIS image mosaics at 250m spatial resolution for 2005 and 2010. Current efforts are based on 30m Landsat images for 2010 ± 1 year. Each country uses its own mapping approach and sources for ancillary data, while ensuring that maps are produced in a coherent fashion across the continent. This paper presents the methodology and final land cover map of Mexico for the year 2010 that was later integrated into a continental map. The principal input for Mexico was the Monitoring Activity Data for Mexico (MAD-MEX) land cover map (version 4.3), derived from all available mostly cloud-free images for the year 2010. A total of 35 classes were regrouped to 15 classes of the NALCMS legend present in Mexico. Next, various issues of the automatically generated MAD-MEX land cover mosaic were corrected, such as: filling areas of no data due no cloud-free observation or gaps in Landsat 7 ETM+ images, filling inland water bodies which were left unclassified due to masking issues, relabeling isolated unclassified of falsely classified pixels, structural mislabeling due to data gaps, reclassifying areas of adjacent scenes with significant class disagreements and correcting obvious misclassifications, mostly of water and urban areas. In a second step minor missing areas and rare class snow and ice were digitized and a road network was added. A product such as NALCMS land cover map at 30m for North America is an unprecedented effort and will be without doubt an important source of information for many users around the world who need coherent land cover data over a continental domain as an input for a wide variety of environmental studies. The product release to the general public is expected

  14. GPS Imaging of Global Vertical Land Motion for Sea Level Studies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hammond, W. C.; Blewitt, G.; Hamlington, B. D.

    2015-12-01

    Coastal vertical land motion contributes to the signal of local relative sea level change. Moreover, understanding global sea level change requires understanding local sea level rise at many locations around Earth. It is therefore essential to understand the regional secular vertical land motion attributable to mantle flow, tectonic deformation, glacial isostatic adjustment, postseismic viscoelastic relaxation, groundwater basin subsidence, elastic rebound from groundwater unloading or other processes that can change the geocentric height of tide gauges anchored to the land. These changes can affect inferences of global sea level rise and should be taken into account for global projections. We present new results of GPS imaging of vertical land motion across most of Earth's continents including its ice-free coastlines around North and South America, Europe, Australia, Japan, parts of Africa and Indonesia. These images are based on data from many independent open access globally distributed continuously recording GPS networks including over 13,500 stations. The data are processed in our system to obtain solutions aligned to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF08). To generate images of vertical rate we apply the Median Interannual Difference Adjusted for Skewness (MIDAS) algorithm to the vertical times series to obtain robust non-parametric estimates with realistic uncertainties. We estimate the vertical land motion at the location of 1420 tide gauges locations using Delaunay-based geographic interpolation with an empirically derived distance weighting function and median spatial filtering. The resulting image is insensitive to outliers and steps in the GPS time series, omits short wavelength features attributable to unstable stations or unrepresentative rates, and emphasizes long-wavelength mantle-driven vertical rates.

  15. Analysis On Land Cover In Municipality Of Malang With Landsat 8 Image Through Unsupervised Classification

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nahari, R. V.; Alfita, R.

    2018-01-01

    Remote sensing technology has been widely used in the geographic information system in order to obtain data more quickly, accurately and affordably. One of the advantages of using remote sensing imagery (satellite imagery) is to analyze land cover and land use. Satellite image data used in this study were images from the Landsat 8 satellite combined with the data from the Municipality of Malang government. The satellite image was taken in July 2016. Furthermore, the method used in this study was unsupervised classification. Based on the analysis towards the satellite images and field observations, 29% of the land in the Municipality of Malang was plantation, 22% of the area was rice field, 12% was residential area, 10% was land with shrubs, and the remaining 2% was water (lake/reservoir). The shortcoming of the methods was 25% of the land in the area was unidentified because it was covered by cloud. It is expected that future researchers involve cloud removal processing to minimize unidentified area.

  16. Land-use and land-cover change in montane mainland southeast Asia.

    PubMed

    Fox, Jefferson; Vogler, John B

    2005-09-01

    This paper summarizes land-cover and land-use change at eight sites in Thailand, Yunnan (China), Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos over the last 50 years. Project methodology included incorporating information collected from a combination of semiformal, key informant, and formal household interviews with the development of spatial databases based on aerial photographs, satellite images, topographic maps, and GPS data. Results suggest that land use (e.g. swidden cultivation) and land cover (e.g. secondary vegetation) have remained stable and the minor amount of land-use change that has occurred has been a change from swidden to monocultural cash crops. Results suggest that two forces will increasingly determine land-use systems in this region. First, national land tenure policies-the nationalization of forest lands and efforts to increase control over upland resources by central governments-will provide a push factor making it increasingly difficult for farmers to maintain their traditional swidden land-use practices. Second, market pressures-the commercialization of subsistence resources and the substitution of commercial crops for subsistence crops-will provide a pull factor encouraging farmers to engage in new and different forms of commercial agriculture. These results appear to be robust as they come from eight studies conducted over the last decade. But important questions remain in terms of what research protocols are needed, if any, when linking social science data with remotely sensed data for understanding human-environment interactions.

  17. Pollution, contamination and future land use at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

    PubMed

    Burger, J; Gochfeld, M; Shukla, S; Jeitner, C; Ramos, R; Tsipoura, Nellie; Donio, M

    2008-10-01

    Scientists interested in contamination normally deal only with pollution itself, not with people's perceptions of pollution or the relationship between pollution and land use. The overall objective of this article was to examine the relationship between people's perceptions of pollution and their views on future land use. People were interviewed at an Earth Day Festival near the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) on Long Island, New York. On an open-ended question, people thought that BNL should be left as it is, or maintained as a preserve, park or conservation area, or used for environmental research. Almost no one thought that it should be used for housing or industrial purposes. When asked to rate a list of possible future land uses, maintaining BNL as a National Environmental Research Park for research and for recreation were rated the highest (nuclear storage was rated the lowest). This was consistent with the subjects' views that pollution was the greatest concern about BNL. The congruence between perceptions about concerns or problems and future land use preferences suggests a unified view of management of contaminated sites, such as BNL, at least among a group of people whose environmental interests were evident by their presence at the event.

  18. Development of the USGS national land-cover database over two decades

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Xian, George Z.; Homer, Collin G.; Yang, Limin; Weng, Qihao

    2011-01-01

    Land-cover composition and change have profound impacts on terrestrial ecosystems. Land-cover and land-use (LCLU) conditions and their changes can affect social and physical environments by altering ecosystem conditions and services. Information about LCLU change is often used to produce landscape-based metrics and evaluate landscape conditions to monitor LCLU status and trends over a specific time interval (Loveland et al. 2002; Coppin et al. 2004; Lunetta et al. 2006). Continuous, accurate, and up-to-date land-cover data are important for natural resource and ecosystem management and are needed to support consistent monitoring of landscape attributes over time. Large-area land-cover information at regional, national, and global scales is critical for monitoring landscape variations over large areas.

  19. Classification of leafy spurge with earth observing-1 advanced land imager

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Stitt, S.; Root, R.; Brown, K.; Hager, S.; Mladinich, C.; Anderson, G.L.; Dudek, K.; Bustos, M.R.; Kokaly, R.

    2006-01-01

    Leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula L.) is an invasive exotic plant that can completely displace native plant communities. Automated techniques for monitoring the location and extent of leafy spurge, especially if available on a seasonal basis, could add greatly to the effectiveness of control measures. As part of a larger study including multiple sensors, this study examines the utility of mapping the location and extent of leafy spurge in Theodore Roosevelt National Park using Earth Observing-1 satellite Advanced Land Imager (ALI) scanner data. An unsupervised classification methodology was used producing accuracies in the range of 59% to 66%. Existing field studies, with their associated limitations, were used for identifying class membership and accuracy assessment. This sensor could be useful for broad landscape scale mapping of leafy spurge, from which control measures could be based.

  20. 78 FR 58555 - Public Land Order No. 7821; Withdrawal of National Forest System Land for Steamboat Rock Picnic...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-09-24

    ...; Withdrawal of National Forest System Land for Steamboat Rock Picnic Grounds; South Dakota AGENCY: Bureau of... the Steamboat Rock Picnic Grounds within the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota. DATES... Steamboat Rock Picnic Grounds. Order By virtue of the authority vested in the Secretary of the Interior by...

  1. Video guidance, landing, and imaging systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schappell, R. T.; Knickerbocker, R. L.; Tietz, J. C.; Grant, C.; Rice, R. B.; Moog, R. D.

    1975-01-01

    The adaptive potential of video guidance technology for earth orbital and interplanetary missions was explored. The application of video acquisition, pointing, tracking, and navigation technology was considered to three primary missions: planetary landing, earth resources satellite, and spacecraft rendezvous and docking. It was found that an imaging system can be mechanized to provide a spacecraft or satellite with a considerable amount of adaptability with respect to its environment. It also provides a level of autonomy essential to many future missions and enhances their data gathering ability. The feasibility of an autonomous video guidance system capable of observing a planetary surface during terminal descent and selecting the most acceptable landing site was successfully demonstrated in the laboratory. The techniques developed for acquisition, pointing, and tracking show promise for recognizing and tracking coastlines, rivers, and other constituents of interest. Routines were written and checked for rendezvous, docking, and station-keeping functions.

  2. SOUTHWEST REGIONAL GAP LAND COVER

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Gap Analysis Program is a national inter-agency program that maps the distribution

    of plant communities and selected animal species and compares these distributions with land

    stewardship to identify gaps in biodiversity protection. GAP uses remote satellite imag...

  3. Land classification of south-central Iowa from computer enhanced images

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lucas, J. R.; Taranik, J. V.; Billingsley, F. C. (Principal Investigator)

    1977-01-01

    The author has identified the following significant results. Enhanced LANDSAT imagery was most useful for land classification purposes, because these images could be photographically printed at large scales such as 1:63,360. The ability to see individual picture elements was no hindrance as long as general image patterns could be discerned. Low cost photographic processing systems for color printings have proved to be effective in the utilization of computer enhanced LANDSAT products for land classification purposes. The initial investment for this type of system was very low, ranging from $100 to $200 beyond a black and white photo lab. The technical expertise can be acquired from reading a color printing and processing manual.

  4. Land-use Scene Classification in High-Resolution Remote Sensing Images by Multiscale Deeply Described Correlatons

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Qi, K.; Qingfeng, G.

    2017-12-01

    With the popular use of High-Resolution Satellite (HRS) images, more and more research efforts have been placed on land-use scene classification. However, it makes the task difficult with HRS images for the complex background and multiple land-cover classes or objects. This article presents a multiscale deeply described correlaton model for land-use scene classification. Specifically, the convolutional neural network is introduced to learn and characterize the local features at different scales. Then, learnt multiscale deep features are explored to generate visual words. The spatial arrangement of visual words is achieved through the introduction of adaptive vector quantized correlograms at different scales. Experiments on two publicly available land-use scene datasets demonstrate that the proposed model is compact and yet discriminative for efficient representation of land-use scene images, and achieves competitive classification results with the state-of-art methods.

  5. Twenty years of Landsat data accessible through the national satellite land remote sensing data archive

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Larsen, Dana M.

    1993-01-01

    The EROS Data Center has managed to National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive's (NSLRSDA) Landsat data since 1972. The NSLRSDA includes Landsat MSS data from 1972 through 1991 and T M data from 1982 through 1993. In response to many requests from multi-disciplined users for an enhanced insight into the availability and volume of Landsat data over specific worldwide land areas, numerous world plots and corresponding statical overviews have been prepared. These presentations include information related to image quality, cloud cover, various types of data overage (i.e. regions, countries, path, rows), acquisition station coverage areas, various archive media formats (i.e. wide band video tapes, computer compatible tapes, high density tapes, etc.) and acquisition time periods (i.e. years, seasons). Plans are to publish this information in a paper sample booklet at the Pecora 12 Symposium, in a USGS circular and on a Landsat CD-ROM; the data will be also be incorporated into GLIS.

  6. 3 CFR 8423 - Proclamation 8423 of September 25, 2009. National Public Lands Recognition Day, 2009

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... conserve water at home. Public lands help preserve our Nation's quality of life, offering fresh water... natural treasures, America's public lands are an indispensable component of American life. As we work to... our Nation's water bodies by monitoring water quality in rivers and lakes, restoring wetlands...

  7. A Multi-Index Integrated Change detection method for updating the National Land Cover Database

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Jin, Suming; Yang, Limin; Xian, George Z.; Danielson, Patrick; Homer, Collin G.

    2010-01-01

    Land cover change is typically captured by comparing two or more dates of imagery and associating spectral change with true thematic change. A new change detection method, Multi-Index Integrated Change (MIIC), has been developed to capture a full range of land cover disturbance patterns for updating the National Land Cover Database (NLCD). Specific indices typically specialize in identifying only certain types of disturbances; for example, the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) has been widely used for monitoring fire disturbance. Recognizing the potential complementary nature of multiple indices, we integrated four indices into one model to more accurately detect true change between two NLCD time periods. The four indices are NBR, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Change Vector (CV), and a newly developed index called the Relative Change Vector (RCV). The model is designed to provide both change location and change direction (e.g. biomass increase or biomass decrease). The integrated change model has been tested on five image pairs from different regions exhibiting a variety of disturbance types. Compared with a simple change vector method, MIIC can better capture the desired change without introducing additional commission errors. The model is particularly accurate at detecting forest disturbances, such as forest harvest, forest fire, and forest regeneration. Agreement between the initial change map areas derived from MIIC and the retained final land cover type change areas will be showcased from the pilot test sites.

  8. GEOBIA For Land Use Mapping Using Worldview2 Image In Bengkak Village Coastal, Banyuwangi Regency, East Java

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alrassi, Fitzastri; Salim, Emil; Nina, Anastasia; Alwi, Luthfi; Danoedoro, Projo; Kamal, Muhammad

    2016-11-01

    The east coast of Banyuwangi regency has a diverse variety of land use such as ponds, mangroves, agricultural fields and settlements. WorldView-2 is a multispectral image with high spatial resolution that can display detailed information of land use. Geographic Object Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) classification technique uses object segments as the smallest unit of analysis. The segmentation and classification process is not only based on spectral value of the image but also considering other elements of the image interpretation. This gives GEOBIA an opportunities and challenges in the mapping and monitoring of land use. This research aims to assess the GEOBIA classification method for generating the classification of land use in coastal areas of Banyuwangi. The result of this study is land use classification map produced by GEOBIA classification. We verified the accuracy of the resulted land use map by comparing the map with result from visual interpretation of the image that have been validated through field surveys. Variation of land use in most of the east coast of Banyuwangi regency is dominated by mangrove, agricultural fields, mixed farms, settlements and ponds.

  9. Determination of the Impact of Urbanization on Agricultural Lands using Multi-temporal Satellite Sensor Images

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kaya, S.; Alganci, U.; Sertel, E.; Ustundag, B.

    2015-12-01

    Throughout the history, agricultural activities have been performed close to urban areas. Main reason behind this phenomenon is the need of fast marketing of the agricultural production to urban residents and financial provision. Thus, using the areas nearby cities for agricultural activities brings out advantage of easy transportation of productions and fast marketing. For decades, heavy migration to cities has directly and negatively affected natural grasslands, forests and agricultural lands. This pressure has caused agricultural lands to be changed into urban areas. Dense urbanization causes increase in impervious surfaces, heat islands and many other problems in addition to destruction of agricultural lands. Considering the negative impacts of urbanization on agricultural lands and natural resources, a periodic monitoring of these changes becomes indisputably important. At this point, satellite images are known to be good data sources for land cover / use change monitoring with their fast data acquisition, large area coverages and temporal resolution properties. Classification of the satellite images provides thematic the land cover / use maps of the earth surface and changes can be determined with GIS based analysis multi-temporal maps. In this study, effects of heavy urbanization over agricultural lands in Istanbul, metropolitan city of Turkey, were investigated with use of multi-temporal Landsat TM satellite images acquired between 1984 and 2011. Images were geometrically registered to each other and classified using supervised maximum likelihood classification algorithm. Resulting thematic maps were exported to GIS environment and destructed agricultural lands by urbanization were determined using spatial analysis.

  10. Detection of land-use and land cover changes in Franklin, Gulf, and Liberty Counties, Florida, with multitemporal landsat thematic mapper images

    Treesearch

    Shufen Pan; Guiying Li

    2007-01-01

    Florida Panhandle region has been experiencing rapid land transformation in the recent decades. To quantify land use and land-cover (LULC) changes and other landscape changes in this area, three counties including Franklin, Liberty and Gulf were taken as a case study and an unsupervised classification approach implemented to Landsat TM images acquired from 1985 to 2005...

  11. The USGS role in mapping the nation's submerged lands

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Schwab, Bill; Haines, John

    2004-01-01

    The seabed provides habitat for a diverse marine life having commercial, recreational, and intrinsic value. The habitat value of the seabed is largely a function of the geological structure and related geological, biological, oceanologic, and geochemical processes. Of equal importance, the nation's submerged lands contain energy and mineral resources and are utilized for the siting of offshore infrastructure and waste disposal. Seabed character and processes influence the safety and viability of offshore operations. Seabed and subseabed characterization is a prerequisite for the assessment, protection, and utilization of both living and non-living marine resources. A comprehensive program to characterize and understand the nation's submerged lands requires scientific expertise in the fields of geology, biology, hydrography, and oceanography. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has long experience as the Federal agency charged with conducting geologic research and mapping in both coastal and offshore regions. The USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program (CMGP) leads the nation in expertise related to characterization of seabed and subseabed geology, geological processes, seabed dynamics, and (in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and international partners) habitat geoscience. Numerous USGS studies show that sea-floor geology and processes determine the character and distribution of biological habitats, control coastal evolution, influence the coastal response to storm events and human alterations, and determine the occurrence and concentration of natural resources.

  12. Precise Trajectory Reconstruction of CE-3 Hovering Stage By Landing Camera Images

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yan, W.; Liu, J.; Li, C.; Ren, X.; Mu, L.; Gao, X.; Zeng, X.

    2014-12-01

    Chang'E-3 (CE-3) is part of the second phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, incorporating a lander and China's first lunar rover. It was landed on 14 December, 2013 successfully. Hovering and obstacle avoidance stages are essential for CE-3 safety soft landing so that precise spacecraft trajectory in these stages are of great significance to verify orbital control strategy, to optimize orbital design, to accurately determine the landing site of CE-3, and to analyze the geological background of the landing site. Because the time consumption of these stages is just 25s, it is difficult to present spacecraft's subtle movement by Measurement and Control System or by radio observations. Under this background, the trajectory reconstruction based on landing camera images can be used to obtain the trajectory of CE-3 because of its technical advantages such as unaffecting by lunar gravity field spacecraft kinetic model, high resolution, high frame rate, and so on. In this paper, the trajectory of CE-3 before and after entering hovering stage was reconstructed by landing camera images from frame 3092 to frame 3180, which lasted about 9s, under Single Image Space Resection (SISR). The results show that CE-3's subtle changes during hovering stage can be emerged by the reconstructed trajectory. The horizontal accuracy of spacecraft position was up to 1.4m while vertical accuracy was up to 0.76m. The results can be used for orbital control strategy analysis and some other application fields.

  13. Acadia National Park

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2017-12-08

    Acadia National Park is one of the most visited parks in America, drawing more than 2.5 million visitors per year to the craggy, jagged coast of Maine. The park is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2016. On September 6, 2015, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite acquired these images of Acadia National Park and its surroundings. Mountains and hills roll right up to the Atlantic Ocean in this rocky landscape carved by glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age. Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the park has been pieced together by donations and acquisitions of once-private lands, and it is still growing. Of the park’s 47,000 acres, more than 12,000 are privately owned lands under conservation agreements, while the rest is held by the National Park Service. Mount Desert Island is the focal point of the park, which also includes lands around a former naval base (Schoodic Peninsula), Isle au Haut, and several smaller islands. Read more: go.nasa.gov/2adyd8J Credit: NASA/Landsat8 NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

  14. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge land cover mapping project users guide

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Markon, Carl J.

    1986-01-01

    Section 1002 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA, 1980) requires the Secretary of Interior to conduct a continuing study of fish, wildlife, and habitats on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Included in this study is a determination of the extent, location, and carrying capacity of fish and wildlife habitats.

  15. Lake Michigan Diversion Accounting land cover change estimation by use of the National Land Cover Dataset and raingage network partitioning analysis

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sharpe, Jennifer B.; Soong, David T.

    2015-01-01

    This study used the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) and developed an automated process for determining the area of the three land cover types, thereby allowing faster updating of future models, and for evaluating land cover changes by use of historical NLCD datasets. The study also carried out a raingage partitioning analysis so that the segmentation of land cover and rainfall in each modeled unit is directly applicable to the HSPF modeling. Historical and existing impervious, grass, and forest land acreages partitioned by percentages covered by two sets of raingages for the Lake Michigan diversion SCAs, gaged basins, and ungaged basins are presented.

  16. A Decade of Annual National Land Cover Products - the Cropland Data Layer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mueller, R.; Johnson, D. M.; Sandborn, A.; Willis, P.; Ebinger, L.; Yang, Z.; Seffrin, R.; Boryan, C. G.; Hardin, R.

    2017-12-01

    The Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a national land cover product produced by the US Department of Agriculture/National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to assess planted crop acreage on an annual basis. The 2017 CDL product serves as the decadal anniversary for the mapping of conterminous US agriculture. The CDL is a supervised land cover classification derived from medium resolution Earth observing satellites that capture crop phenology throughout the growing season, leveraging confidentially held ground reference information from the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) as training data. The CDL currently uses ancillary geospatial data from the US Geological Survey's National Land Cover Database (NLCD), and Imperviousness and Forest Canopy layers as well as the National Elevation Dataset as training for the non-agricultural domain. Accuracy assessments are documented and released annually with metadata publication. NASS is currently reprocessing the 2008 and 2009 CDL products to 30m resolution. They were originally processed and released at 56m based on the Resourcesat-1 AWiFS sensor. Additionally, best practices learned from processing the FSA ground reference data were applied to the historical training set, providing an enhanced classification at 30m. The release of these reprocessed products in the fall of 2017, along with the 2017 CDL annual product will be discussed and will complete a decade's worth of annual 30m products. Discussions of change and trend analytics as well as partnerships with key industry stakeholders will be displayed on the evolution and improvements made to this decadal geospatial crop specific land cover product.

  17. Thematic Accuracy Assessment of the 2011 National Land ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Accuracy assessment is a standard protocol of National Land Cover Database (NLCD) mapping. Here we report agreement statistics between map and reference labels for NLCD 2011, which includes land cover for ca. 2001, ca. 2006, and ca. 2011. The two main objectives were assessment of agreement between map and reference labels for the three, single-date NLCD land cover products at Level II and Level I of the classification hierarchy, and agreement for 17 land cover change reporting themes based on Level I classes (e.g., forest loss; forest gain; forest, no change) for three change periods (2001–2006, 2006–2011, and 2001–2011). The single-date overall accuracies were 82%, 83%, and 83% at Level II and 88%, 89%, and 89% at Level I for 2011, 2006, and 2001, respectively. Many class-specific user's accuracies met or exceeded a previously established nominal accuracy benchmark of 85%. Overall accuracies for 2006 and 2001 land cover components of NLCD 2011 were approximately 4% higher (at Level II and Level I) than the overall accuracies for the same components of NLCD 2006. The high Level I overall, user's, and producer's accuracies for the single-date eras in NLCD 2011 did not translate into high class-specific user's and producer's accuracies for many of the 17 change reporting themes. User's accuracies were high for the no change reporting themes, commonly exceeding 85%, but were typically much lower for the reporting themes that represented change. Only forest l

  18. Assessing multi-decadal land-cover – land-use change in two wildlife protected areas in Tanzania using Landsat imagery

    PubMed Central

    Mtui, Devolent T.; Lepczyk, Christopher A.; Chen, Qi; Miura, Tomoaki; Cox, Linda J.

    2017-01-01

    Landscape change in and around protected areas is of concern worldwide given the potential impacts of such change on biodiversity. Given such impacts, we sought to understand the extent of changes in different land-cover types at two protected areas, Tarangire and Katavi National Parks in Tanzania, over the past 27 years. Using Maximum Likelihood classification procedures we derived eight land-cover classes from Landsat TM and ETM+ images, including: woody savannah, savannah, grassland, open and closed shrubland, swamp and water, and bare land. We determined the extent and direction of changes for all land-cover classes using a post-classification comparison technique. The results show declines in woody savannah and increases in barren land and swamps inside and outside Tarangire National Park and increases in woody savannah and savannah, and declines of shrubland and grassland inside and outside Katavi National Park. The decrease of woody savannah was partially due to its conversion into grassland and barren land, possibly caused by human encroachment by cultivation and livestock. Based upon these changes, we recommend management actions to prevent detrimental effects on wildlife populations. PMID:28957397

  19. Directory of National Organizations Concerned With Land Pollution Control.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Freed Publishing Co., New York, NY.

    Included in this directory are 133 national organizations, agencies, institutes and/or private groups concerned with the reduction or prevention of land pollution. Arranged in alphabetical order, each annotation gives the complete name of the organization, its address, telephone number, person to contact, and a short description of the scope of…

  20. 43 CFR 44.41 - How does the Department calculate payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? 44.41 Section 44.41 Public Lands: Interior... Governments for Interest in Lands in the Redwood National Park Or Lake Tahoe Basin § 44.41 How does the Department calculate payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? (a) The Department...

  1. 43 CFR 44.41 - How does the Department calculate payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? 44.41 Section 44.41 Public Lands: Interior... Governments for Interest in Lands in the Redwood National Park Or Lake Tahoe Basin § 44.41 How does the Department calculate payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? (a) The Department...

  2. 43 CFR 44.41 - How does the Department calculate payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? 44.41 Section 44.41 Public Lands: Interior... Governments for Interest in Lands in the Redwood National Park Or Lake Tahoe Basin § 44.41 How does the Department calculate payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? (a) The Department...

  3. 43 CFR 44.41 - How does the Department calculate payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? 44.41 Section 44.41 Public Lands: Interior... Governments for Interest in Lands in the Redwood National Park Or Lake Tahoe Basin § 44.41 How does the Department calculate payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? (a) The Department...

  4. 43 CFR 44.41 - How does the Department calculate payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? 44.41 Section 44.41 Public Lands: Interior... Governments for Interest in Lands in the Redwood National Park Or Lake Tahoe Basin § 44.41 How does the Department calculate payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? (a) The Department...

  5. Landsat: A global land-observing program

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    ,

    2005-01-01

    Landsat represents the world’s longest continuously acquired collection of space-based land remote sensing data. The Landsat Project is a joint initiative of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) designed to gather Earth resource data from space. NASA developed and launched the spacecrafts, while the USGS handles the operations, maintenance, and management of all ground data reception, processing, archiving, product generation, and distribution.Landsat satellites have been collecting images of the Earth’s surface for more than thirty years. Landsat’s Global Survey Mission is to repeatedly capture images of the Earth’s land mass, coastal boundaries, and coral reefs, and to ensure that sufficient data are acquired to support the observation of changes on the Earth’s land surface and surrounding environment. NASA launched the first Landsat satellite in 1972, and the most recent one, Landsat 7, in 1999. Landsats 5 and 7 continue to capture hundreds of additional images of the Earth’s surface each day. These images provide a valuable resource for people who work

  6. LandEx - Fast, FOSS-Based Application for Query and Retrieval of Land Cover Patterns

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Netzel, P.; Stepinski, T.

    2012-12-01

    The amount of satellite-based spatial data is continuously increasing making a development of efficient data search tools a priority. The bulk of existing research on searching satellite-gathered data concentrates on images and is based on the concept of Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR); however, available solutions are not efficient and robust enough to be put to use as deployable web-based search tools. Here we report on development of a practical, deployable tool that searches classified, rather than raw image. LandEx (Landscape Explorer) is a GeoWeb-based tool for Content-Based Pattern Retrieval (CBPR) contained within the National Land Cover Dataset 2006 (NLCD2006). The USGS-developed NLCD2006 is derived from Landsat multispectral images; it covers the entire conterminous U.S. with the resolution of 30 meters/pixel and it depicts 16 land cover classes. The size of NLCD2006 is about 10 Gpixels (161,000 x 100,000 pixels). LandEx is a multi-tier GeoWeb application based on Open Source Software. Main components are: GeoExt/OpenLayers (user interface), GeoServer (OGC WMS, WCS and WPS server), and GRASS (calculation engine). LandEx performs search using query-by-example approach: user selects a reference scene (exhibiting a chosen pattern of land cover classes) and the tool produces, in real time, a map indicating a degree of similarity between the reference pattern and all local patterns across the U.S. Scene pattern is encapsulated by a 2D histogram of classes and sizes of single-class clumps. Pattern similarity is based on the notion of mutual information. The resultant similarity map can be viewed and navigated in a web browser, or it can download as a GeoTiff file for more in-depth analysis. The LandEx is available at http://sil.uc.edu

  7. An alternative incentive structure for wildfire management on national forest land.

    Treesearch

    Geoffrey H. Donovan; Thomas C. Brown

    2005-01-01

    Wildfire suppression expenditures on national forest land have increased over the last 35 years, exceeding US $l billion in 2000 and 2002. These increases in expenditure have been attributed, in part, to a century of aggressive wildfire suppression, resulting in a buildup of fuel on the nation's forests. The efficiency of the current incentive structure faced by...

  8. 3 CFR 8871 - Proclamation 8871 of September 28, 2012. National Public Lands Day, 2012

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... Americans will take up that task by volunteering to care for our public lands. Cities and communities across... the varied roles our public lands play in our national life. These areas boost tourism and contribute...

  9. 75 FR 18877 - Notice of Final Supplementary Rules for Public Lands in Colorado: Gunnison Gorge National...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-04-13

    ... DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Bureau of Land Management [LLCOS05400-L17110000 PA000 LXSIGGCA0000] Notice of Final Supplementary Rules for Public Lands in Colorado: Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area (GGNCA) and Adjacent Public Lands Administered by the Bureau of Land Management Uncompahgre Field...

  10. The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium - 20 Years of Development and Integration of U.S. National Land Cover Data

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium is a good example of the national benefits of federal collaboration. It started in the mid-1990s as a small group of federal agencies with the straightforward goal of compiling a comprehensive national Landsat dataset t...

  11. Passive imaging based multi-cue hazard detection spacecraft safe landing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Huertas, Andres; Cheng, Yang; Madison, Richard

    2006-01-01

    Accurate assessment of potentially damaging ground hazards during the spacecraft EDL (Entry, Descent and Landing) phase is crucial to insure a high probability of safe landing. A lander that encounters a large rock, falls off a cliff, or tips over on a steep slope can sustain mission ending damage. Guided entry is expected to shrink landing ellipses from 100-300 km to -10 km radius for the second generation landers as early as 2009. Regardless of size and location, however, landing ellipses will almost always contain hazards such as craters, discontinuities, steep slopes, and large rocks. It is estimated that an MSL (Mars Science Laboratory)-sized lander should detect and avoid 16- 150m diameter craters, vertical drops similar to the edges of 16m or 3.75m diameter crater, for high and low altitude HAD (Hazard Detection and Avoidance) respectively. It should also be able to detect slopes 20' or steeper, and rocks 0.75m or taller. In this paper we will present a passive imaging based, multi-cue hazard detection and avoidance (HDA) system suitable for Martian and other lander missions. This is the first passively imaged HDA system that seamlessly integrates multiple algorithm-crater detection, slope estimation, rock detection and texture analysis, and multicues- crater morphology, rock distribution, to detect these hazards in real time.

  12. 77 FR 44144 - National Forest System Land Management Planning; Correction

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-07-27

    ... Management Planning; Correction AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Correcting amendments. SUMMARY: The Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a National Forest System land management planning rule in the... document may be sent to the Director, Ecosystem Management Coordination Staff, USDA Forest Service, 1400...

  13. The Application of Chinese High-Spatial Remote Sensing Satellite Image in Land Law Enforcement Information Extraction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, N.; Yang, R.

    2018-04-01

    Chinese high -resolution (HR) remote sensing satellites have made huge leap in the past decade. Commercial satellite datasets, such as GF-1, GF-2 and ZY-3 images, the panchromatic images (PAN) resolution of them are 2 m, 1 m and 2.1 m and the multispectral images (MS) resolution are 8 m, 4 m, 5.8 m respectively have been emerged in recent years. Chinese HR satellite imagery has been free downloaded for public welfare purposes using. Local government began to employ more professional technician to improve traditional land management technology. This paper focused on analysing the actual requirements of the applications in government land law enforcement in Guangxi Autonomous Region. 66 counties in Guangxi Autonomous Region were selected for illegal land utilization spot extraction with fusion Chinese HR images. The procedure contains: A. Defines illegal land utilization spot type. B. Data collection, GF-1, GF-2, and ZY-3 datasets were acquired in the first half year of 2016 and other auxiliary data were collected in 2015. C. Batch process, HR images were collected for batch preprocessing through ENVI/IDL tool. D. Illegal land utilization spot extraction by visual interpretation. E. Obtaining attribute data with ArcGIS Geoprocessor (GP) model. F. Thematic mapping and surveying. Through analysing 42 counties results, law enforcement officials found 1092 illegal land using spots and 16 suspicious illegal mining spots. The results show that Chinese HR satellite images have great potential for feature information extraction and the processing procedure appears robust.

  14. Chapter 1. Valles Caldera National Preserve land use history

    Treesearch

    Kurt F. Anschuetz

    2007-01-01

    The land use history of the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) extends back over thousands of years. Few known archaeological properties in the Valles Caldera date to the Paleoindian period (10000/9500–5500 B.C.). These finds include the recent discovery, during ongoing archaeological studies (Dr. Bob Parmeter, personal communication, VCNP, Los Alamos, 2005), of...

  15. 43 CFR 44.40 - How does the Department process payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? 44.40 Section 44.40 Public Lands: Interior... Governments for Interest in Lands in the Redwood National Park Or Lake Tahoe Basin § 44.40 How does the Department process payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? This section...

  16. 43 CFR 44.40 - How does the Department process payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? 44.40 Section 44.40 Public Lands: Interior... Governments for Interest in Lands in the Redwood National Park Or Lake Tahoe Basin § 44.40 How does the Department process payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? This section...

  17. 43 CFR 44.40 - How does the Department process payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? 44.40 Section 44.40 Public Lands: Interior... Governments for Interest in Lands in the Redwood National Park Or Lake Tahoe Basin § 44.40 How does the Department process payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? This section...

  18. 43 CFR 44.40 - How does the Department process payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? 44.40 Section 44.40 Public Lands: Interior... Governments for Interest in Lands in the Redwood National Park Or Lake Tahoe Basin § 44.40 How does the Department process payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? This section...

  19. 43 CFR 44.40 - How does the Department process payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? 44.40 Section 44.40 Public Lands: Interior... Governments for Interest in Lands in the Redwood National Park Or Lake Tahoe Basin § 44.40 How does the Department process payments for lands in the Redwood National Park or Lake Tahoe Basin? This section...

  20. Candidate old-growth on national forest system administered lands in California since the initiation of national forest management

    Treesearch

    William F. Laudenslayer

    1985-01-01

    The following is a report on the status of Candidate Old-growth (hereafter identified as COG) on National Forest System administered lands in California in the past, a t present, and in the immediate fhture. These r e s u l t s are based on information that may be speculative and contain inconsistencies, and therefore must be treated with caution. COG on these lands...

  1. Enhanced Historical Land-Use and Land-Cover Data Sets of the U.S. Geological Survey

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Price, Curtis V.; Nakagaki, Naomi; Hitt, Kerie J.; Clawges, Rick M.

    2007-01-01

    Historical land-use and land-cover data, available from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the conterminous United States and Hawaii, have been enhanced for use in geographic information systems (GIS) applications. The original digital data sets were created by the USGS in the late 1970s and early 1980s and were later converted by USGS and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to a geographic information system (GIS) format in the early 1990s. These data were made available on USEPA's Web site since the early 1990s and have been used for many national applications, despite minor coding and topological errors. During the 1990s, a group of USGS researchers made modifications to the data set for use in the National Water-Quality Assessment Program. These edited files have been further modified to create a more accurate, topologically clean, and seamless national data set. Several different methods, including custom editing software and several batch processes, were applied to create this enhanced version of the national data set. The data sets are included in this report in the commonly used shapefile and Tagged Image Format File (TIFF) formats. In addition, this report includes two polygon data sets (in shapefile format) representing (1) land-use and land-cover source documentation extracted from the previously published USGS data files, and (2) the extent of each polygon data file.

  2. Identification of "ever-cropped" land (1984-2010) using Landsat annual maximum NDVI image composites: Southwestern Kansas case study.

    PubMed

    Maxwell, Susan K; Sylvester, Kenneth M

    2012-06-01

    A time series of 230 intra- and inter-annual Landsat Thematic Mapper images was used to identify land that was ever cropped during the years 1984 through 2010 for a five county region in southwestern Kansas. Annual maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) image composites (NDVI(ann-max)) were used to evaluate the inter-annual dynamics of cropped and non-cropped land. Three feature images were derived from the 27-year NDVI(ann-max) image time series and used in the classification: 1) maximum NDVI value that occurred over the entire 27 year time span (NDVI(max)), 2) standard deviation of the annual maximum NDVI values for all years (NDVI(sd)), and 3) standard deviation of the annual maximum NDVI values for years 1984-1986 (NDVI(sd84-86)) to improve Conservation Reserve Program land discrimination.Results of the classification were compared to three reference data sets: County-level USDA Census records (1982-2007) and two digital land cover maps (Kansas 2005 and USGS Trends Program maps (1986-2000)). Area of ever-cropped land for the five counties was on average 11.8 % higher than the area estimated from Census records. Overall agreement between the ever-cropped land map and the 2005 Kansas map was 91.9% and 97.2% for the Trends maps. Converting the intra-annual Landsat data set to a single annual maximum NDVI image composite considerably reduced the data set size, eliminated clouds and cloud-shadow affects, yet maintained information important for discriminating cropped land. Our results suggest that Landsat annual maximum NDVI image composites will be useful for characterizing land use and land cover change for many applications.

  3. Soft x-ray imaging using Polaroid Land films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wong, C. S.; Choi, P.; Deeney, C.

    1988-02-01

    It is demonstrated in this note that optical Polaroid Land films can be used as a convenient detector in the soft x-ray region. The performance of Polaroid 667 film has been found to be comparable to that of the Kodak direct exposure film (DEF) for soft x-ray pinhole imaging. By a suitable choice of multiple filters, qualitative information about a dense plasma has been obtained.

  4. 77 FR 75442 - Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-12-20

    ... Department expects to continually update its plans to reflect tribal feedback, lessons learned, and best... of 2011, the Department issued a draft plan dated January 2012. The Department has developed this Initial Implementation Plan for the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations incorporating input received...

  5. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Tile 2, Northeast United States: NLCD01_2

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    LaMotte, Andrew

    2008-01-01

    This 30-meter data set represents land use and land cover for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-partition.jpg). The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (http://www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004), (see: http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp). The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping zones. A total of 68 mapping zones (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg), were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  6. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Tile 3, Southwest United States: NLCD01_3

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    LaMotte, Andrew

    2008-01-01

    This 30-meter data set represents land use and land cover for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-partition.jpg).The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (http://www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004), (see: http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp). The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping zones. A total of 68 mapping zones (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg), were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  7. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Tile 1, Northwest United States: NLCD01_1

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    LaMotte, Andrew

    2008-01-01

    This 30-meter data set represents land use and land cover for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-partition.jpg). The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (http://www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004), (see: http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp). The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping zones. A total of 68 mapping zones (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg), were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  8. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Tile 4, Southeast United States: NLCD01_4

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    LaMotte, Andrew

    2008-01-01

    This 30-meter data set represents land use and land cover for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-partition.jpg). The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (http://www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004), (see: http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp). The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping zones. A total of 68 mapping zones (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg), were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  9. Development of a 2001 National Land Cover Database for the United States

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Homer, Collin G.; Huang, Chengquan; Yang, Limin; Wylie, Bruce K.; Coan, Michael

    2004-01-01

    Multi-Resolution Land Characterization 2001 (MRLC 2001) is a second-generation Federal consortium designed to create an updated pool of nation-wide Landsat 5 and 7 imagery and derive a second-generation National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2001). The objectives of this multi-layer, multi-source database are two fold: first, to provide consistent land cover for all 50 States, and second, to provide a data framework which allows flexibility in developing and applying each independent data component to a wide variety of other applications. Components in the database include the following: (1) normalized imagery for three time periods per path/row, (2) ancillary data, including a 30 m Digital Elevation Model (DEM) derived into slope, aspect and slope position, (3) perpixel estimates of percent imperviousness and percent tree canopy, (4) 29 classes of land cover data derived from the imagery, ancillary data, and derivatives, (5) classification rules, confidence estimates, and metadata from the land cover classification. This database is now being developed using a Mapping Zone approach, with 66 Zones in the continental United States and 23 Zones in Alaska. Results from three initial mapping Zones show single-pixel land cover accuracies ranging from 73 to 77 percent, imperviousness accuracies ranging from 83 to 91 percent, tree canopy accuracies ranging from 78 to 93 percent, and an estimated 50 percent increase in mapping efficiency over previous methods. The database has now entered the production phase and is being created using extensive partnering in the Federal government with planned completion by 2006.

  10. 78 FR 64973 - Call for Nominations for the Bureau of Land Management's Carrizo Plain National Monument Advisory...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-10-30

    ...The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is soliciting nominations from the public to fill positions on the Carrizo Plain National Monument Advisory Committee (MAC). MAC members provide advice and recommendations to the BLM on the management of public lands in the Carrizo Plain National Monument.

  11. The multi-resolution land characteristics (MRLC) consortium–20 years of development and integration of USA national land cover data

    Treesearch

    James Wickham; Collin Homer; James Vogelmann; Alexa McKerrow; Rick Mueler; Nate Herold; John Coulston

    2014-01-01

    The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium demonstrates the national benefits of USA Federal collaboration. Starting in the mid-1990s as a small group with the straightforward goal of compiling a comprehensive national Landsat dataset that could be used to meet agencies’ needs, MRLC has grown into a group of 10 USA Federal Agencies that coordinate the...

  12. Forward Looking Radar Imaging by Truncated Singular Value Decomposition and Its Application for Adverse Weather Aircraft Landing.

    PubMed

    Huang, Yulin; Zha, Yuebo; Wang, Yue; Yang, Jianyu

    2015-06-18

    The forward looking radar imaging task is a practical and challenging problem for adverse weather aircraft landing industry. Deconvolution method can realize the forward looking imaging but it often leads to the noise amplification in the radar image. In this paper, a forward looking radar imaging based on deconvolution method is presented for adverse weather aircraft landing. We first present the theoretical background of forward looking radar imaging task and its application for aircraft landing. Then, we convert the forward looking radar imaging task into a corresponding deconvolution problem, which is solved in the framework of algebraic theory using truncated singular decomposition method. The key issue regarding the selecting of the truncated parameter is addressed using generalized cross validation approach. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective in achieving angular resolution enhancement with suppressing the noise amplification in forward looking radar imaging.

  13. Monitoring wetland of Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve zone by remote sensing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Le, Xinghua; Fan, Zhewen; Fang, Yu; Yu, Yuping; Zhang, Yun

    2008-10-01

    In order to monitor the wetland of the Poyang Lake national nature reserve zone, we selected three different seasons TM image data which were achieved individually in April 23th in 1988, Nov 2nd in 1994, and Jan 1st in 2000. Based on the band 5, band 4 and band 3of TM image, we divided the land coverage of Poyang Lake national nature reserve zone into three classes--water field, meadow field and the other land use by rule of maximum likelihood. Using the outcome data to make the statistical analysis, combining with the GIS overlay function operation, the land coverage changes of the Poyang Lake national nature reserve zone can be achieved. Clipped by the Poyang Lake national nature reserve zone boundary, the land coverage changes of Poyang Lake national nature reserve zone in three different years can be attained. Compared with the different wetland coverage data in year of 1988, 1994, 2000, the Poyang Lake national nature reserve zone eco-environment can be inferred from it. After analyzing the land coverage changes data, we draw the conclusion that the effort of Poyang Lake national nature reserve administration bureaucracy has worked well in certain sense.

  14. Category identification of changed land-use polygons in an integrated image processing/geographic information system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Westmoreland, Sally; Stow, Douglas A.

    1992-01-01

    A framework is proposed for analyzing ancillary data and developing procedures for incorporating ancillary data to aid interactive identification of land-use categories in land-use updates. The procedures were developed for use within an integrated image processsing/geographic information systems (GIS) that permits simultaneous display of digital image data with the vector land-use data to be updated. With such systems and procedures, automated techniques are integrated with visual-based manual interpretation to exploit the capabilities of both. The procedural framework developed was applied as part of a case study to update a portion of the land-use layer in a regional scale GIS. About 75 percent of the area in the study site that experienced a change in land use was correctly labeled into 19 categories using the combination of automated and visual interpretation procedures developed in the study.

  15. Evaluation of the National Land Database for Hydrologic Applications in Urban And Suburban Baltimore, Maryland

    Treesearch

    Monica Lipscomb Smith; Weiqi Zhou; Mary Cadenasso; J. Morgan Grove; Lawrence Band

    2010-01-01

    We compared the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001 land cover, impervious, and canopy data products to land cover data derived from 0.6-m resolution three-band digital imagery and ancillary data. We conducted this comparison at the 1 km2, 9 km2, and gauged watershed scales within the Baltimore Ecosystem Study to...

  16. A method for mapping corn using the US Geological Survey 1992 National Land Cover Dataset

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Maxwell, S.K.; Nuckols, J.R.; Ward, M.H.

    2006-01-01

    Long-term exposure to elevated nitrate levels in community drinking water supplies has been associated with an elevated risk of several cancers including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, colon cancer, and bladder cancer. To estimate human exposure to nitrate, specific crop type information is needed as fertilizer application rates vary widely by crop type. Corn requires the highest application of nitrogen fertilizer of crops grown in the Midwest US. We developed a method to refine the US Geological Survey National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) (including map and original Landsat images) to distinguish corn from other crops. Overall average agreement between the resulting corn and other row crops class and ground reference data was 0.79 kappa coefficient with individual Landsat images ranging from 0.46 to 0.93 kappa. The highest accuracies occurred in Regions where corn was the single dominant crop (greater than 80.0%) and the crop vegetation conditions at the time of image acquisition were optimum for separation of corn from all other crops. Factors that resulted in lower accuracies included the accuracy of the NLCD map, accuracy of corn areal estimates, crop mixture, crop condition at the time of Landsat overpass, and Landsat scene anomalies.

  17. Integrative image segmentation optimization and machine learning approach for high quality land-use and land-cover mapping using multisource remote sensing data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gibril, Mohamed Barakat A.; Idrees, Mohammed Oludare; Yao, Kouame; Shafri, Helmi Zulhaidi Mohd

    2018-01-01

    The growing use of optimization for geographic object-based image analysis and the possibility to derive a wide range of information about the image in textual form makes machine learning (data mining) a versatile tool for information extraction from multiple data sources. This paper presents application of data mining for land-cover classification by fusing SPOT-6, RADARSAT-2, and derived dataset. First, the images and other derived indices (normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference water index, and soil adjusted vegetation index) were combined and subjected to segmentation process with optimal segmentation parameters obtained using combination of spatial and Taguchi statistical optimization. The image objects, which carry all the attributes of the input datasets, were extracted and related to the target land-cover classes through data mining algorithms (decision tree) for classification. To evaluate the performance, the result was compared with two nonparametric classifiers: support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF). Furthermore, the decision tree classification result was evaluated against six unoptimized trials segmented using arbitrary parameter combinations. The result shows that the optimized process produces better land-use land-cover classification with overall classification accuracy of 91.79%, 87.25%, and 88.69% for SVM and RF, respectively, while the results of the six unoptimized classifications yield overall accuracy between 84.44% and 88.08%. Higher accuracy of the optimized data mining classification approach compared to the unoptimized results indicates that the optimization process has significant impact on the classification quality.

  18. Photogrammetric analysis of horizon panoramas: The Pathfinder landing site in Viking orbiter images

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Oberst, J.; Jaumann, R.; Zeitler, W.; Hauber, E.; Kuschel, M.; Parker, T.; Golombek, M.; Malin, M.; Soderblom, L.

    1999-01-01

    Tiepoint measurements, block adjustment techniques, and sunrise/sunset pictures were used to obtain precise pointing data with respect to north for a set of 33 IMP horizon images. Azimuth angles for five prominent topographic features seen at the horizon were measured and correlated with locations of these features in Viking orbiter images. Based on this analysis, the Pathfinder line/sample coordinates in two raw Viking images were determined with approximate errors of 1 pixel, or 40 m. Identification of the Pathfinder location in orbit imagery yields geological context for surface studies of the landing site. Furthermore, the precise determination of coordinates in images together with the known planet-fixed coordinates of the lander make the Pathfinder landing site the most important anchor point in current control point networks of Mars. Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union.

  19. A review of supervised object-based land-cover image classification

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ma, Lei; Li, Manchun; Ma, Xiaoxue; Cheng, Liang; Du, Peijun; Liu, Yongxue

    2017-08-01

    Object-based image classification for land-cover mapping purposes using remote-sensing imagery has attracted significant attention in recent years. Numerous studies conducted over the past decade have investigated a broad array of sensors, feature selection, classifiers, and other factors of interest. However, these research results have not yet been synthesized to provide coherent guidance on the effect of different supervised object-based land-cover classification processes. In this study, we first construct a database with 28 fields using qualitative and quantitative information extracted from 254 experimental cases described in 173 scientific papers. Second, the results of the meta-analysis are reported, including general characteristics of the studies (e.g., the geographic range of relevant institutes, preferred journals) and the relationships between factors of interest (e.g., spatial resolution and study area or optimal segmentation scale, accuracy and number of targeted classes), especially with respect to the classification accuracy of different sensors, segmentation scale, training set size, supervised classifiers, and land-cover types. Third, useful data on supervised object-based image classification are determined from the meta-analysis. For example, we find that supervised object-based classification is currently experiencing rapid advances, while development of the fuzzy technique is limited in the object-based framework. Furthermore, spatial resolution correlates with the optimal segmentation scale and study area, and Random Forest (RF) shows the best performance in object-based classification. The area-based accuracy assessment method can obtain stable classification performance, and indicates a strong correlation between accuracy and training set size, while the accuracy of the point-based method is likely to be unstable due to mixed objects. In addition, the overall accuracy benefits from higher spatial resolution images (e.g., unmanned aerial

  20. Directory of National Organizations Concerned with Land Pollution Control, 1971.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Freed Publishing Co., New York, NY.

    Included in this directory are 204 national organizations, agencies, institutes, and/or private groups concerned with the reduction or prevention of land pollution. Arranged in alphabetical order, each annotation gives the complete name of the organization, its address, telephone number, person to contact, and a short description of the scope of…

  1. Earth Observing-1 Advanced Land Imager: Imaging Performance On-Orbit

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hearn, D. R.

    2002-01-01

    This report analyzes the on-orbit imaging performance of the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on the Earth Observing-1 satellite. The pre-flight calibrations are first summarized. The methods used to reconstruct and geometrically correct the image data from this push-broom sensor are described. The method used here does not refer to the position and attitude telemetry from the spacecraft. Rather, it is assumed that the image of the scene moves across the focal plane with a constant velocity, which can be ascertained from the image data itself. Next, an assortment of the images so reconstructed is presented. Color images sharpened with the 10-m panchromatic band data are shown, and the algorithm for producing them from the 30-m multispectral data is described. The approach taken for assessing spatial resolution is to compare the sharpness of features in the on-orbit image data with profiles predicted on the basis of the pre-flight calibrations. A large assortment of bridge profiles is analyzed, and very good fits to the predicted shapes are obtained. Lunar calibration scans are analyzed to examine the sharpness of the edge-spread function at the limb of the moon. The darkness of the space beyond the limb is better for this purpose than anything that could be simulated on the ground. From these scans, we find clear evidence of scattering in the optical system, as well as some weak ghost images. Scans of planets and stars are also analyzed. Stars are useful point sources of light at all wavelengths, and delineate the point-spread functions of the system. From a quarter-speed scan over the Pleiades, we find that the ALI can detect 6th magnitude stars. The quality of the reconstructed images verifies the capability of the ALI to produce Landsat-type multi spectral data. The signal-to-noise and panchromatic spatial resolution are considerably superior to those of the existing Landsat sensors. The spatial resolution is confirmed to be as good as it was designed to be.

  2. Determining land use changes by radar-optic fused images and monitoring its environmental impacts in Edremit region of western Turkey.

    PubMed

    Balik Sanli, Fusun; Kurucu, Yusuf; Esetlili, Mustafa Tolga

    2009-04-01

    Rapid and unplanned urbanization and industrialization are the main reasons of environmental problems. If urban growth is not based on resource sustainability criteria and urban plans are not applied, natural and human resources are damaged dramatically. In this study, land use change and urban expansion in Edremit region of Turkey is determined by means of remote sensing techniques between 1971 and 2002. To improve the accuracy of land use/cover maps, the contribution of SAR images to optic images in defining land cover types was investigated. To determine the situation of land use/cover types in 2002 accurately, Landsat-5 images and Radarsat-1 images were fused, and the land use/cover types were defined from the fused images. Comparisons with the ground truth reveal that land use maps generated using the fuse technique are improved about 6% with an accuracy of 81.20%. To define land use types and urban expansion, screen digitizing and classification methods were used. The results of the study indicate that the urban areas have been increased 1,826 ha across the agricultural fields which are in land use capability classes of I and II, and significant environmental changes such as land degradation and degeneration of ground water quality occurred.

  3. Land Cover/Land Use Classification and Change Detection Analysis with Astronaut Photography and Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hollier, Andi B.; Jagge, Amy M.; Stefanov, William L.; Vanderbloemen, Lisa A.

    2017-01-01

    For over fifty years, NASA astronauts have taken exceptional photographs of the Earth from the unique vantage point of low Earth orbit (as well as from lunar orbit and surface of the Moon). The Crew Earth Observations (CEO) Facility is the NASA ISS payload supporting astronaut photography of the Earth surface and atmosphere. From aurora to mountain ranges, deltas, and cities, there are over two million images of the Earth's surface dating back to the Mercury missions in the early 1960s. The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth website (eol.jsc.nasa.gov) provides a publically accessible platform to query and download these images at a variety of spatial resolutions and perform scientific research at no cost to the end user. As a demonstration to the science, application, and education user communities we examine astronaut photography of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area for three time steps between 1998 and 2016 using Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) to classify and quantify land cover/land use and provide a template for future change detection studies with astronaut photography.

  4. Urban Land Cover/use Change Detection Using High Resolution SPOT 5 and SPOT 6 Images and Urban Atlas Nomenclature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akay, S. S.; Sertel, E.

    2016-06-01

    Urban land cover/use changes like urbanization and urban sprawl have been impacting the urban ecosystems significantly therefore determination of urban land cover/use changes is an important task to understand trends and status of urban ecosystems, to support urban planning and to aid decision-making for urban-based projects. High resolution satellite images could be used to accurately, periodically and quickly map urban land cover/use and their changes by time. This paper aims to determine urban land cover/use changes in Gaziantep city centre between 2010 and 2105 using object based images analysis and high resolution SPOT 5 and SPOT 6 images. 2.5 m SPOT 5 image obtained in 5th of June 2010 and 1.5 m SPOT 6 image obtained in 7th of July 2015 were used in this research to precisely determine land changes in five-year period. In addition to satellite images, various ancillary data namely Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Difference Water Index (NDWI) maps, cadastral maps, OpenStreetMaps, road maps and Land Cover maps, were integrated into the classification process to produce high accuracy urban land cover/use maps for these two years. Both images were geometrically corrected to fulfil the 1/10,000 scale geometric accuracy. Decision tree based object oriented classification was applied to identify twenty different urban land cover/use classes defined in European Urban Atlas project. Not only satellite images and satellite image-derived indices but also different thematic maps were integrated into decision tree analysis to create rule sets for accurate mapping of each class. Rule sets of each satellite image for the object based classification involves spectral, spatial and geometric parameter to automatically produce urban map of the city centre region. Total area of each class per related year and their changes in five-year period were determined and change trend in terms of class transformation were presented. Classification accuracy assessment was

  5. Using Satellite Data to Evaluate Linkages Between Land Cover/Land Use and Hypertension in a National Cohort

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    McClure, Leslie; Crosson, Bill; Al-Hamdan, Mohammed; Estes, Maury; Estes, Sue; Quattrochi, Dale

    2009-01-01

    Coincident with global expansion of urban areas has been an increase in hypertension. It is unclear how much the urban environment contributes as a risk factor for blood pressure differences, and how much is due to a variety of environmental, lifestyle, and demographic correlates of urbanization. Objectives/Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between living environment (defined as urban, suburban, or rural) and hypertension in selected regions from the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) cohort. Methods: REGARDS is a national cohort of 30,228 participants from the 48 contiguous United States. We used data from 4 metropolitan regions (Philadelphia, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Chicago) for this study (n=3928). We used Land Cover/Land Use (LCLU) information from the 30-meter National Land Cover Data. Results: Overall, 1996 (61%) of the participants were hypertensive. We characterized participants into urban, suburban or rural living environments using the LCLU data. In univariate models, we found that living environment is associated with hypertension, but that after adjustment for known hypertension risk factors, the relationship was no longer present at the 95% confidence level. Conclusions: LCLU data can be utilized to characterize the living environment, which in turn can be applied to studies of public health outcomes. Further study regarding the relationship between hypertension and living environment should focus on additional characteristics of the associated environment.

  6. Studying the effects of land use on sediment loads, Little Missouri National Grasslands, North Dakota

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Macek-Rowland, Kathleen M.

    2002-01-01

    The Little Missouri National Grasslands in North Dakota were established in 1960 and are publicly owned lands administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service. The grasslands are not solid blocks of National Forest Systems lands but are lands intermingled with other Federal, State, and privately-owned lands. The mixed-ownership pattern creates a unique environmental management arrangement within each grasslands area.The USDA Forest Service needs to determine how changes in land use affect loss of sediment from the grasslands, especially during periods of high runoff or after a grassland fire. Excessive sediment loss has the potential to destabilize hillslopes and channels by increasing runoff potential, by prohibiting natural revegetation, by changing animal habitation patterns, and by impacting areas farther downslope and downstream of affected areas.On October 31, 1999, two major grass-land fires occurred in the Little Missouri National Grasslands area. The Squaw Gap Fire affected 51,627 acres and the Rough Creek Fire affected 7,979 acres. Runoff caused substantial erosion when many road ditches and culverts were filled with sediment and some roads were washed out. In order to implement the best management practices within the Little Missouri National Grasslands, the USDA Forest Service will need sediment information related to land-use changes such as burned and unburned areas and grazed and ungrazed areas.The Little Missouri National Grasslands are located along the Little Missouri River in western North Dakota. The Grasslands are comprised of 1,028,000 acres predominantly in an area of rolling hills, sparsely covered buttes, coulees, woody draws, and badlands. Most of the area is used as rangeland; but, some of the area is cultivated or used for oil and gas development. The Grasslands have semiarid climate with short, warm summers and long, cold winters. The Grasslands receive an average annual precipitation of about 13 to 15 inches

  7. Temporal optimisation of image acquisition for land cover classification with Random Forest and MODIS time-series

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nitze, Ingmar; Barrett, Brian; Cawkwell, Fiona

    2015-02-01

    The analysis and classification of land cover is one of the principal applications in terrestrial remote sensing. Due to the seasonal variability of different vegetation types and land surface characteristics, the ability to discriminate land cover types changes over time. Multi-temporal classification can help to improve the classification accuracies, but different constraints, such as financial restrictions or atmospheric conditions, may impede their application. The optimisation of image acquisition timing and frequencies can help to increase the effectiveness of the classification process. For this purpose, the Feature Importance (FI) measure of the state-of-the art machine learning method Random Forest was used to determine the optimal image acquisition periods for a general (Grassland, Forest, Water, Settlement, Peatland) and Grassland specific (Improved Grassland, Semi-Improved Grassland) land cover classification in central Ireland based on a 9-year time-series of MODIS Terra 16 day composite data (MOD13Q1). Feature Importances for each acquisition period of the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were calculated for both classification scenarios. In the general land cover classification, the months December and January showed the highest, and July and August the lowest separability for both VIs over the entire nine-year period. This temporal separability was reflected in the classification accuracies, where the optimal choice of image dates outperformed the worst image date by 13% using NDVI and 5% using EVI on a mono-temporal analysis. With the addition of the next best image periods to the data input the classification accuracies converged quickly to their limit at around 8-10 images. The binary classification schemes, using two classes only, showed a stronger seasonal dependency with a higher intra-annual, but lower inter-annual variation. Nonetheless anomalous weather conditions, such as the cold winter of

  8. GIS based mapping of land cover changes utilizing multi-temporal remotely sensed image data in Lake Hawassa Watershed, Ethiopia.

    PubMed

    Nigatu Wondrade; Dick, Øystein B; Tveite, Havard

    2014-03-01

    Classifying multi-temporal image data to produce thematic maps and quantify land cover changes is one of the most common applications of remote sensing. Mapping land cover changes at the regional level is essential for a wide range of applications including land use planning, decision making, land cover database generation, and as a source of information for sustainable management of natural resources. Land cover changes in Lake Hawassa Watershed, Southern Ethiopia, were investigated using Landsat MSS image data of 1973, and Landsat TM images of 1985, 1995, and 2011, covering a period of nearly four decades. Each image was partitioned in a GIS environment, and classified using an unsupervised algorithm followed by a supervised classification method. A hybrid approach was employed in order to reduce spectral confusion due to high variability of land cover. Classification of satellite image data was performed integrating field data, aerial photographs, topographical maps, medium resolution satellite image (SPOT 20 m), and visual image interpretation. The image data were classified into nine land cover types: water, built-up, cropland, woody vegetation, forest, grassland, swamp, bare land, and scrub. The overall accuracy of the LULC maps ranged from 82.5 to 85.0 %. The achieved accuracies were reasonable, and the observed classification errors were attributable to coarse spatial resolution and pixels containing a mixture of cover types. Land cover change statistics were extracted and tabulated using the ERDAS Imagine software. The results indicated an increase in built-up area, cropland, and bare land areas, and a reduction in the six other land cover classes. Predominant land cover is cropland changing from 43.6 % in 1973 to 56.4 % in 2011. A significant portion of land cover was converted into cropland. Woody vegetation and forest cover which occupied 21.0 and 10.3 % in 1973, respectively, diminished to 13.6 and 5.6 % in 2011. The change in water body was very

  9. Monitoring land at regional and national scales and the role of remote sensing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dymond, John R.; Bégue, Agnes; Loseen, Danny

    There is a need world wide for monitoring land and its ecosystems to ensure their sustainable use. Despite the laudable intentions of Agenda 21 at the Rio Earth Summit, 1992, in which many countries agreed to monitor and report on the status of their land, systematic monitoring of land has yet to begin. The problem is truly difficult, as the earth's surface is vast and the funds available for monitoring are relatively small. This paper describes several methods for cost-effective monitoring of large land areas, including: strategic monitoring; statistical sampling; risk-based approaches; integration of land and water monitoring; and remote sensing. The role of remote sensing is given special attention, as it is the only method that can monitor land exhaustively and directly, at regional and national scales. It is concluded that strategic monitoring, whereby progress towards environmental goals is assessed, is a vital element in land monitoring as it provides a means for evaluating the utility of monitoring designs.

  10. National land-cover pattern data

    Treesearch

    Kurt H. Riitters; James D. Wickham; James E. Vogelmann; K. Bruce Jones

    2000-01-01

    Land cover and its spatial patterns are key ingredients in ecological studies that consider large regions and the impacts of human activities. Because humanity is a principal driver of land-cover change over large regions (Turner et al. 1990), land-cover data provide direct measures of human activity, and both direct and indirect measures of ecological conditions...

  11. 77 FR 3257 - Transfer of Land Tracts Located at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-01-23

    ... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Transfer of Land Tracts Located at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico AGENCY: National Nuclear Security Administration, U.S. Department of Energy. ACTION: Amended Record of Decision. SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) is...

  12. 24 CFR 203.43i - Eligibility of mortgages on Hawaiian Home Lands insured pursuant to section 247 of the National...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... Hawaiian Home Lands insured pursuant to section 247 of the National Housing Act. 203.43i Section 203.43i... Eligibility of mortgages on Hawaiian Home Lands insured pursuant to section 247 of the National Housing Act. (a) Eligibility. A mortgage on a homestead lease granted by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands...

  13. A sea-land segmentation algorithm based on multi-feature fusion for a large-field remote sensing image

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Jing; Xie, Weixin; Pei, Jihong

    2018-03-01

    Sea-land segmentation is one of the key technologies of sea target detection in remote sensing images. At present, the existing algorithms have the problems of low accuracy, low universality and poor automatic performance. This paper puts forward a sea-land segmentation algorithm based on multi-feature fusion for a large-field remote sensing image removing island. Firstly, the coastline data is extracted and all of land area is labeled by using the geographic information in large-field remote sensing image. Secondly, three features (local entropy, local texture and local gradient mean) is extracted in the sea-land border area, and the three features combine a 3D feature vector. And then the MultiGaussian model is adopted to describe 3D feature vectors of sea background in the edge of the coastline. Based on this multi-gaussian sea background model, the sea pixels and land pixels near coastline are classified more precise. Finally, the coarse segmentation result and the fine segmentation result are fused to obtain the accurate sea-land segmentation. Comparing and analyzing the experimental results by subjective vision, it shows that the proposed method has high segmentation accuracy, wide applicability and strong anti-disturbance ability.

  14. Quantification of land cover and land use within the rural complex of the Democratic Republic of Congo

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Molinario, G.; Hansen, M. C.; Potapov, P. V.; Tyukavina, A.; Stehman, S.; Barker, B.; Humber, M.

    2017-10-01

    The rural complex is the inhabited agricultural land cover mosaic found along the network of rivers and roads in the forest of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a product of traditional small-holder shifting cultivation. To date, thanks to its distinction from primary forest, this area has been mapped as relatively homogenous, leaving the proportions of land cover heterogeneity within it unknown. However, the success of strategies for sustainable development, including land use planning and payment for ecosystem services, such as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, depends on the accurate characterization of the impacts of land use on natural resources, including within the rural complex. We photo-interpreted a simple random sample of 1000 points in the established rural complex, using 3106 high resolution satellite images obtained from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, together with 406 images from Google Earth, spanning the period 2008-2016. Results indicate that nationally the established rural complex includes 5% clearings, 10% active fields, 26% fallows, 34% secondary forest, 2% wetland forest, 11% primary forest, 6% grasslands, 3% roads and settlements and 2% commercial plantations. Only a small proportion of sample points were plantations, while other commercial dynamics, such as logging and mining, were not detected in the sample. The area of current shifting cultivation accounts for 76% of the established rural complex. Added to primary forest (11%), this means that 87% of the rural complex is available for shifting cultivation. At the current clearing rate, it would take ~18 years for a complete rotation of the rural complex to occur. Additional pressure on land results in either the cultivation of non-preferred land types within the rural complex (such as wetland forest), or expansion of agriculture into nearby primary forests, with attendant impacts on emissions, habitat loss and other ecosystems services.

  15. 7. THIS PHOTO IMAGE LOOKING SOUTHWEST FROM THE LAND BETWEEN ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    7. THIS PHOTO IMAGE LOOKING SOUTHWEST FROM THE LAND BETWEEN THE TWO CREEKS, SHOWS NORTH SIDE OF THE WEST SPAN OF THE BRIDGE, WITH THE TRUNCATED BALUSTRADE AND STEEL I-SECTIONS HOLDING THE SPANDREL WALLS TOGETHER. - Putnam County Bridge No. 111, Spanning Little Walnut Creek on County Road 50, Greencastle, Putnam County, IN

  16. Multiscale mapping of species diversity under changed land use using imaging spectroscopy.

    PubMed

    Paz-Kagan, Tarin; Caras, Tamir; Herrmann, Ittai; Shachak, Moshe; Karnieli, Arnon

    2017-07-01

    Land use changes are one of the most important factors causing environmental transformations and species diversity alterations. The aim of the current study was to develop a geoinformatics-based framework to quantify alpha and beta diversity indices in two sites in Israel with different land uses, i.e., an agricultural system of fruit orchards, an afforestation system of planted groves, and an unmanaged system of groves. The framework comprises four scaling steps: (1) classification of a tree species distribution (SD) map using imaging spectroscopy (IS) at a pixel size of 1 m; (2) estimation of local species richness by calculating the alpha diversity index for 30-m grid cells; (3) calculation of beta diversity for different land use categories and sub-categories at different sizes; and (4) calculation of the beta diversity difference between the two sites. The SD was classified based on a hyperspectral image with 448 bands within the 380-2500 nm spectral range and a spatial resolution of 1 m. Twenty-three tree species were classified with high overall accuracy values of 82.57% and 86.93% for the two sites. Significantly high values of the alpha index characterize the unmanaged land use, and the lowest values were calculated for the agricultural land use. In addition, high values of alpha indices were found at the borders between the polygons related to the "edge-effect" phenomenon, whereas low alpha indices were found in areas with high invasion species rates. The beta index value, calculated for 58 polygons, was significantly lower in the agricultural land use. The suggested framework of this study succeeded in quantifying land use effects on tree species distribution, evenness, and richness. IS and spatial statistics techniques offer an opportunity to study woody plant species variation with a multiscale approach that is useful for managing land use, especially under increasing environmental changes. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

  17. Land cover in the Guayas Basin using SAR images from low resolution ASAR Global mode to high resolution Sentinel-1 images

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bourrel, Luc; Brodu, Nicolas; Frappart, Frédéric

    2016-04-01

    Remotely sensed images allow a frequent monitoring of land cover variations at regional and global scale. Recently launched Sentinel-1 satellite offers a global cover of land areas at an unprecedented spatial (20 m) and temporal (6 days at the Equator). We propose here to compare the performances of commonly used supervised classification techniques (i.e., k-nearest neighbors, linear and Gaussian support vector machines, naive Bayes, linear and quadratic discriminant analyzes, adaptative boosting, loggit regression, ridge regression with one-vs-one voting, random forest, extremely randomized trees) for land cover applications in the Guayas Basin, the largest river basin of the Pacific coast of Ecuator (area ~32,000 km²). The reason of this choice is the importance of this region in Ecuatorian economy as its watershed represents 13% of the total area of Ecuador where 40% of the Ecuadorian population lives. It also corresponds to the most productive region of Ecuador for agriculture and aquaculture. Fifty percents of the country shrimp farming production comes from this watershed, and represents with agriculture the largest source of revenue of the country. Similar comparisons are also performed using ENVISAT ASAR images acquired in global mode (1 km of spatial resolution). Accuracy of the results will be achieved using land cover map derived from multi-spectral images.

  18. Imaging Flash Lidar for Autonomous Safe Landing and Spacecraft Proximity Operation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Amzajerdian, Farzin; Roback, Vincent E.; Brewster, Paul F.; Hines, Glenn D.; Bulyshev, Alexander E.

    2016-01-01

    3-D Imaging flash lidar is recognized as a primary candidate sensor for safe precision landing on solar system bodies (Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn moons, etc.), and autonomous rendezvous proximity operations and docking/capture necessary for asteroid sample return and redirect missions, spacecraft docking, satellite servicing, and space debris removal. During the final stages of landing, from about 1 km to 500 m above the ground, the flash lidar can generate 3-Dimensional images of the terrain to identify hazardous features such as craters, rocks, and steep slopes. The onboard fli1ght computer can then use the 3-D map of terrain to guide the vehicle to a safe location. As an automated rendezvous and docking sensor, the flash lidar can provide relative range, velocity, and bearing from an approaching spacecraft to another spacecraft or a space station from several kilometers distance. NASA Langley Research Center has developed and demonstrated a flash lidar sensor system capable of generating 16k pixels range images with 7 cm precision, at a 20 Hz frame rate, from a maximum slant range of 1800 m from the target area. This paper describes the lidar instrument design and capabilities as demonstrated by the closed-loop flight tests onboard a rocket-propelled free-flyer vehicle (Morpheus). Then a plan for continued advancement of the flash lidar technology will be explained. This proposed plan is aimed at the development of a common sensor that with a modest design adjustment can meet the needs of both landing and proximity operation and docking applications.

  19. Land Application of Wastewater Sludges: A National Science Foundation Student-Originated Studies Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bender, Timothy J.; Barnard, Walther M.

    1981-01-01

    Summarizes a student-originated studies project, funded by the National Science Foundation, on land application of wastewater sludges. Describes the students' proposal, research methods, and evaluation of the project. (DS)

  20. Forest service contributions to the national land cover database (NLCD): Tree Canopy Cover Production

    Treesearch

    Bonnie Ruefenacht; Robert Benton; Vicky Johnson; Tanushree Biswas; Craig Baker; Mark Finco; Kevin Megown; John Coulston; Ken Winterberger; Mark Riley

    2015-01-01

    A tree canopy cover (TCC) layer is one of three elements in the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2011 suite of nationwide geospatial data layers. In 2010, the USDA Forest Service (USFS) committed to creating the TCC layer as a member of the Multi-Resolution Land Cover (MRLC) consortium. A general methodology for creating the TCC layer was reported at the 2012 FIA...

  1. Investigation of land use of northern megalopolis using ERTS-1 imagery

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Simpson, R. B.; Lindgren, D. T.; Ruml, D. J.; Goldstein, W.

    1974-01-01

    Primary objective was to produce a color-coded land use map and digital data base for the northern third of Megalopolis. Secondary objective was to investigate possible applications of ERTS products to land use planning. Many of the materials in this report already have received national, dissemination as a result of unexpected interest in land use surveys from ERTS. Of special historical interest is the first comprehensive urban-type land use map from space imagery, which covered the entire state of Rhode Island and was made from a single image taken on 28 July 1972.

  2. Land-based air in a national maritime strategy: the need for a joint strategic doctrine. Final report

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Staley, R.S.

    This paper examines the role of land-based air power within a national maritime strategy. Corbett taught that naval strategy is a subsidiary aspect of a national maritime strategy; and the increasing speed, range, and accuracy of aircraft, weapons, detection, and communications ensure that an important part of maritime air control will be land-based. To evaluate that claim, this paper examines the unity of sea control and air control; examines the Air Force missions that affect sea control; discusses the strategic concerns directing land-based air in maritime strategy; and explains why joint strategic doctrine will better integrate our military forces.

  3. Land application driven performance requirements for airborne imaging spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schaepman, M. E.; Schläpfer, D.; Kaiser, J. W.; Brazile, J.; Itten, K. I.

    2003-04-01

    Over the past few years, a joint Swiss/Belgium ESA initiative resulted in a project to build a precursor mission of future spaceborne imaging spectrometers, namely APEX (Airborne Prism Experiment). APEX is designed to be an airborne dispersive pushbroom imaging spectrometer operating in the solar reflected wavelength range between 400 and 2500 nm. The system is optimized for land applications including limnology, snow, soil, amongst others. The baseline for the requirements of APEX are built on various land requirements and subsequently modelled to at-sensor specific radiances. The model is based on existing biophysical and -chemical retrieval algorithms and assumes no physical limitation of the sensor system. Final technology limitations are discussed using system tradeoffs. The absolute radiance calibration of APEX includes the use of pre- and post-data acquisition internal calibration facility as well as a laboratory calibration and a performance model serving as a stable reference. We will discuss the instrument's present status in its breadboarding phase, including some new results with respect to the detector development and design optimization for imaging spectrometers. In the same framework of APEX, a complete processing and archiving facility (PAF) is developed. The PAF not only includes imaging spectrometer data processing up to physical units, but also geometric and atmospheric correction for each scene, as well as calibration data input. The PAF software includes an Internet based web-server and provides interfaces to data users as well as instrument operators and programmers. The software design, the tools and its life cycle is discussed as well. Further we will discuss particular instrument requirements (resampling, bad pixel treatment, etc.) in view of the operation of the PAF as well as their consequences on the product quality. Finally we will discuss a combined approach for geometric and atmospheric correction including BRDF (or view angle

  4. Steepness of Slopes at the Luna-Glob Landing Sites: Estimating by the Shaded Area Percentage in the LROC NAC Images

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Krasilnikov, S. S.; Basilevsky, A. T.; Ivanov, M. A.; Abdrakhimov, A. M.; Kokhanov, A. A.

    2018-03-01

    The paper presents estimates of the occurrence probability of slopes, whose steep surfaces could be dangerous for the landing of the Luna-Glob descent probe ( Luna-25) given the baseline of the span between the landing pads ( 3.5 m), for five potential landing ellipses. As a rule, digital terrain models built from stereo pairs of high-resolution images (here, the images taken by the Narrow Angle Camera onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LROC NAC)) are used in such cases. However, the planned landing sites are at high latitudes (67°-74° S), which makes it impossible to build digital terrain models, since the difference in the observation angle of the overlapping images is insufficient at these latitudes. Because of this, to estimate the steepness of slopes, we considered the interrelation between the shaded area percentage in the image and the Sun angle over horizon at the moment of imaging. For five proposed landing ellipses, the LROC NAC images (175 images in total) with a resolution from 0.4 to 1.2 m/pixel were analyzed. From the results of the measurements in each of the ellipses, the dependence of the shaded area percentage on the solar angle were built, which was converted to the occurrence probability of slopes. For this, the data on the Apollo 16 landing region ware used, which is covered by both the LROC NAC images and the digital terrain model with high resolution. As a result, the occurrence probability of slopes with different steepness has been estimated on the baseline of 3.5 m for five landing ellipses according to the steepness categories of <7°, 7°-10°, 10°-15°, 15°-20°, and >20°.

  5. User fees for recreation services on public lands: a national assessment

    Treesearch

    J. Michael Bowker; H. Ken Cordell; Cassandra Y. Johnson

    1999-01-01

    A portion of the 1995 National Survey on Recreation and the Environment examined public opinion toward user fees as a means of funding recreation services on public lands, including campgrounds, boat ramps, trails, picnic areas, historic sites, restrooms, parking areas, special exhibits and presentations, visitor centers, and other facilities. Respondents were offered...

  6. 78 FR 64004 - Notice of Intent To Collect Fees on Public Lands in the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-10-25

    ... To Collect Fees on Public Lands in the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, Washington County, UT... Intent to Collect Fees on Public Lands in the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, Washington County, UT, which contained erroneous information regarding the use of the America the Beautiful passes at...

  7. Implications of changing national policies on land use in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.

    PubMed

    Thapa, Gopal B; Rasul, Golam

    2006-12-01

    Land use in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh had undergone changes over the past several centuries. The landscape, which was mostly covered with forest with interspersed shifting cultivation plots until the beginning of the colonial period, has gradually changed into a landscape with a blend of land uses. Overall, the forest area has gradually declined, while the area under shifting cultivation and sedentary agriculture has expanded. The process of the change was multi-directional. National forestry, land use, land taxation, population migration policies, and development activities, such as construction of a hydroelectric dam and roads, played an important role in this process. Shifting cultivation had inflicted little damage on the forest until the beginning of the colonial period. The pace of deforestation accelerated with the nationalization of forests which abolished tribal people's customary use and management rights to the forest, and allowed large-scale commercial logging both legally and illegally. The pace was further intensified by the policy encouraging population migration to CHT and construction of a reservoir on the Karnafuli River. Efforts were made to replace shifting cultivation with more productive types of sedentary agriculture. However, much change could not take place in the absence of secure land rights, supportive trade policies, and the required support services and facilities, including infrastructure. Locationally suitable land use evolved in areas where transportation facilities were available and farmers were granted land title with the necessary extension services and credit facilities. These findings have important policy implications for the promotion of environmentally and economically sound land use in CHT.

  8. Land-Use Scenarios: National-Scale Housing-Density Scenarios Consistent with Climate Change Storylines (Final Report)

    EPA Science Inventory

    EPA announced the availability of the final report, Land-Use Scenarios: National-Scale Housing-Density Scenarios Consistent with Climate Change Storylines. This report describes the scenarios and models used to generate national-scale housing density scenarios for the con...

  9. Fusion of Modis and Palsar Principal Component Images Through Curvelet Transform for Land Cover Classification

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Singh, Dharmendra; Kumar, Harish

    Earth observation satellites provide data that covers different portions of the electromagnetic spectrum at different spatial and spectral resolutions. The increasing availability of information products generated from satellite images are extending the ability to understand the patterns and dynamics of the earth resource systems at all scales of inquiry. In which one of the most important application is the generation of land cover classification from satellite images for understanding the actual status of various land cover classes. The prospect for the use of satel-lite images in land cover classification is an extremely promising one. The quality of satellite images available for land-use mapping is improving rapidly by development of advanced sensor technology. Particularly noteworthy in this regard is the improved spatial and spectral reso-lution of the images captured by new satellite sensors like MODIS, ASTER, Landsat 7, and SPOT 5. For the full exploitation of increasingly sophisticated multisource data, fusion tech-niques are being developed. Fused images may enhance the interpretation capabilities. The images used for fusion have different temporal, and spatial resolution. Therefore, the fused image provides a more complete view of the observed objects. It is one of the main aim of image fusion to integrate different data in order to obtain more information that can be de-rived from each of the single sensor data alone. A good example of this is the fusion of images acquired by different sensors having a different spatial resolution and of different spectral res-olution. Researchers are applying the fusion technique since from three decades and propose various useful methods and techniques. The importance of high-quality synthesis of spectral information is well suited and implemented for land cover classification. More recently, an underlying multiresolution analysis employing the discrete wavelet transform has been used in image fusion. It was found

  10. Image: Reflecting the National Face of Community Colleges.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kent, Norma

    1996-01-01

    Suggests that there is a "low-to-no-profile syndrome" afflicting community colleges at the national level that must be rectified, highlighting the importance of a national image campaign. Describes results from focus groups indicating doubt over the colleges' quality. Reviews strategies for financing an image campaign and presents potential…

  11. Spatially Explicit Landscape-Level Ecological Risks Induced by Land Use and Land Cover Change in a National Ecologically Representative Region in China.

    PubMed

    Gong, Jian; Yang, Jianxin; Tang, Wenwu

    2015-11-09

    Land use and land cover change is driven by multiple influential factors from environmental and social dimensions in a land system. Land use practices of human decision-makers modify the landscape of the land system, possibly leading to landscape fragmentation, biodiversity loss, or environmental pollution-severe environmental or ecological impacts. While landscape-level ecological risk assessment supports the evaluation of these impacts, investigations on how these ecological risks induced by land use practices change over space and time in response to alternative policy intervention remain inadequate. In this article, we conducted spatially explicit landscape ecological risk analysis in Ezhou City, China. Our study area is a national ecologically representative region experiencing drastic land use and land cover change, and is regulated by multiple policies represented by farmland protection, ecological conservation, and urban development. We employed landscape metrics to consider the influence of potential landscape-level disturbance for the evaluation of landscape ecological risks. Using spatiotemporal simulation, we designed scenarios to examine spatiotemporal patterns in landscape ecological risks in response to policy intervention. Our study demonstrated that spatially explicit landscape ecological risk analysis combined with simulation-driven scenario analysis is of particular importance for guiding the sustainable development of ecologically vulnerable land systems.

  12. Spatially Explicit Landscape-Level Ecological Risks Induced by Land Use and Land Cover Change in a National Ecologically Representative Region in China

    PubMed Central

    Gong, Jian; Yang, Jianxin; Tang, Wenwu

    2015-01-01

    Land use and land cover change is driven by multiple influential factors from environmental and social dimensions in a land system. Land use practices of human decision-makers modify the landscape of the land system, possibly leading to landscape fragmentation, biodiversity loss, or environmental pollution—severe environmental or ecological impacts. While landscape-level ecological risk assessment supports the evaluation of these impacts, investigations on how these ecological risks induced by land use practices change over space and time in response to alternative policy intervention remain inadequate. In this article, we conducted spatially explicit landscape ecological risk analysis in Ezhou City, China. Our study area is a national ecologically representative region experiencing drastic land use and land cover change, and is regulated by multiple policies represented by farmland protection, ecological conservation, and urban development. We employed landscape metrics to consider the influence of potential landscape-level disturbance for the evaluation of landscape ecological risks. Using spatiotemporal simulation, we designed scenarios to examine spatiotemporal patterns in landscape ecological risks in response to policy intervention. Our study demonstrated that spatially explicit landscape ecological risk analysis combined with simulation-driven scenario analysis is of particular importance for guiding the sustainable development of ecologically vulnerable land systems. PMID:26569270

  13. Integration of strategic inventory and monitoring programs for the forest lands, wood lands, range lands and agricultural lands of the United States

    Treesearch

    Raymond L. Czaplewski

    1999-01-01

    The United States Department of Agriculture uses the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program to monitor the nation's forests and wood lands, and the National Resources Inventory (NRI) program to monitor the nation's agricultural and range lands. Although their measurement methods and sampling frames are very different, both programs are developing annual...

  14. Building a Continental Scale Land Cover Monitoring Framework for Australia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thankappan, Medhavy; Lymburner, Leo; Tan, Peter; McIntyre, Alexis; Curnow, Steven; Lewis, Adam

    2012-04-01

    Land cover information is critical for national reporting and decision making in Australia. A review of information requirements for reporting on national environmental indicators identified the need for consistent land cover information to be compared against a baseline. A Dynamic Land Cover Dataset (DLCD) for Australia has been developed by Geoscience Australia and the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) recently, to provide a comprehensive and consistent land cover information baseline to enable monitoring and reporting for sustainable farming practices, water resource management, soil erosion, and forests at national and regional scales. The DLCD was produced from the analysis of Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) data at 250-metre resolution derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for the period from 2000 to 2008. The EVI time series data for each pixel was modelled as 12 coefficients based on the statistical, phenological and seasonal characteristics. The time series were then clustered in coefficients spaces and labelled using ancillary information on vegetation and land use at the catchment scale. The accuracy of the DLCD was assessed using field survey data over 25,000 locations provided by vegetation and land management agencies in State and Territory jurisdictions, and by ABARES. The DLCD is seen as the first in a series of steps to build a framework for national land cover monitoring in Australia. A robust methodology to provide annual updates to the DLCD is currently being developed at Geoscience Australia. There is also a growing demand from the user community for land cover information at better spatial resolution than currently available through the DLCD. Global land cover mapping initiatives that rely on Earth observation data offer many opportunities for national and international programs to work in concert and deliver better outcomes by streamlining efforts on development and

  15. Forest invasive adaptive management on national wildlife refuge lands in the central hardwood region

    Treesearch

    Damon B. Lesmeister; Sean M. Blomquist; Eric V. Lonsdorf; Daniel Wood; Perry J. Williams; Brad Pendley; Karen E. Mangan; Benjamin A. Walker

    2014-01-01

    Approximately 2.4 million acres of National Wildlife Refuge System lands are impacted by invasive plants and are the primary challenge for habitat management in the Central Hardwood region. In 2011, biologists, managers, and contracted support staff from six national wildlife refuges in southern Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri developed an adaptive management project...

  16. Viirs Land Science Investigator-Led Processing System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Devadiga, S.; Mauoka, E.; Roman, M. O.; Wolfe, R. E.; Kalb, V.; Davidson, C. C.; Ye, G.

    2015-12-01

    The objective of the NASA's Suomi National Polar Orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) Land Science Investigator-led Processing System (Land SIPS), housed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), is to produce high quality land products from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) to extend the Earth System Data Records (ESDRs) developed from NASA's heritage Earth Observing System (EOS) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the EOS Terra and Aqua satellites. In this paper we will present the functional description and capabilities of the S-NPP Land SIPS, including system development phases and production schedules, timeline for processing, and delivery of land science products based on coordination with the S-NPP Land science team members. The Land SIPS processing stream is expected to be operational by December 2016, generating land products either using the NASA science team delivered algorithms, or the "best-of" science algorithms currently in operation at NASA's Land Product Evaluation and Algorithm Testing Element (PEATE). In addition to generating the standard land science products through processing of the NASA's VIIRS Level 0 data record, the Land SIPS processing system is also used to produce a suite of near-real time products for NASA's application community. Land SIPS will also deliver the standard products, ancillary data sets, software and supporting documentation (ATBDs) to the assigned Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) for archival and distribution. Quality assessment and validation will be an integral part of the Land SIPS processing system; the former being performed at Land Data Operational Product Evaluation (LDOPE) facility, while the latter under the auspices of the CEOS Working Group on Calibration & Validation (WGCV) Land Product Validation (LPV) Subgroup; adopting the best-practices and tools used to assess the quality of heritage EOS-MODIS products generated at the MODIS Adaptive Processing

  17. The U.S. Geological Survey Land Remote Sensing Program

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    ,

    2007-01-01

    The fundamental goals of the U.S. Geological Survey's Land Remote Sens-ing (LRS) Program are to provide the Federal Government and the public with a primary source of remotely sensed data and applications and to be a leader in defining the future of land remote sensing, nationally and internationally. Remotely sensed data provide information that enhance the understand-ing of ecosystems and the capabilities for predicting ecosystem change. The data promote an understanding of the role of the environment and wildlife in human health issues, the requirements for disaster response, the effects of climate variability, and the availability of energy and mineral resources. Also, as land satellite systems acquire global coverage, the program coordinates a network of international receiving stations and users of the data. It is the responsibility of the program to assure that data from land imaging satellites, airborne photography, radar, and other technologies are available to the national and global science communities.

  18. Delineating managed land for reporting national greenhouse gas emissions and removals to the United Nations framework convention on climate change.

    PubMed

    Ogle, Stephen M; Domke, Grant; Kurz, Werner A; Rocha, Marcelo T; Huffman, Ted; Swan, Amy; Smith, James E; Woodall, Christopher; Krug, Thelma

    2018-05-29

    Land use and management activities have a substantial impact on carbon stocks and associated greenhouse gas emissions and removals. However, it is challenging to discriminate between anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic sources and sinks from land. To address this problem, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change developed a managed land proxy to determine which lands are contributing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and removals. Governments report all emissions and removals from managed land to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change based on this proxy, and policy interventions to reduce emissions from land use are expected to focus on managed lands. Our objective was to review the use of the managed land proxy, and summarize the criteria that governments have applied to classify land as managed and unmanaged. We found that the large majority of governments are not reporting on their application of the managed land proxy. Among the governments that do provide information, most have assigned all area in specific land uses as managed, while designating all remaining lands as unmanaged. This designation as managed land is intuitive for croplands and settlements, which would not exist without management interventions, but a portion of forest land, grassland, and wetlands may not be managed in a country. Consequently, Brazil, Canada and the United States have taken the concept further and delineated managed and unmanaged forest land, grassland and wetlands, using additional criteria such as functional use of the land and accessibility of the land to anthropogenic activity. The managed land proxy is imperfect because reported emissions from any area can include non-anthropogenic sources, such as natural disturbances. However, the managed land proxy does make reporting of GHG emissions and removals from land use more tractable and comparable by excluding fluxes from areas that are not directly influenced by anthropogenic activity. Moreover

  19. An Overview of Future NASA Missions, Concepts, and Technologies Related to Imaging of the World's Land Areas

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Salomonson, Vincent V.

    1999-01-01

    In the near term NASA is entering into the peak activity period of the Earth Observing System (EOS). The EOS AM-1 /"Terra" spacecraft is nearing launch and operation to be followed soon by the New Millennium Program (NMP) Earth Observing (EO-1) mission. Other missions related to land imaging and studies include EOS PM-1 mission, the Earth System Sciences Program (ESSP) Vegetation Canopy Lidar (VCL) mission, the EOS/IceSat mission. These missions involve clear advances in technologies and observational capability including improvements in multispectral imaging and other observing strategies, for example, "formation flying". Plans are underway to define the next era of EOS missions, commonly called "EOS Follow-on" or EOS II. The programmatic planning includes concepts that represent advances over the present Landsat-7 mission that concomitantly recognize the advances being made in land imaging within the private sector. The National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite Series (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) is an effort that will help to transition EOS medium resolution (herein meaning spatial resolutions near 500 meters), multispectral measurement capabilities such as represented by the EOS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) into the NPOESS operational series of satellites. Developments in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and passive microwave land observing capabilities are also proceeding. Beyond these efforts the Earth Science Enterprise Technology Strategy is embarking efforts to advance technologies in several basic areas: instruments, flight systems and operational capability, and information systems. In the case of instruments architectures will be examined that offer significant reductions in mass, volume, power and observational flexibility. For flight systems and operational capability, formation flying including calibration and data fusion, systems operation autonomy, and mechanical and electronic innovations that can reduce

  20. Summary estimates of forest resources on unreserved lands of the Ketchikan inventory unit, Tongass National Forest, southeast Alaska, 1998.

    Treesearch

    Willem W.S. van Hees

    2001-01-01

    Summary estimates are presented of forest resource area, timber volume, and growth and mortality of timber on unreserved national forest land in the Ketchikan inventory unit of the Tongass National Forest. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forest Inventory and Analysis crews collected inventory data from 1995 to 1998. Productive forest land area (timberland) was...

  1. Summary estimates of forest resources on unreserved lands of the Chatham inventory unit, Tongass National Forest, southeast Alaska, 1998.

    Treesearch

    Willem W.S. van Hees

    2001-01-01

    Summary estimates are presented of forest resource area, timber volume, and growth and mortality of timber on unreserved national forest land in the Chatham inventory unit of the Tongass National Forest. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forest Inventory and Analysis crews collected inventory data from 1995 to 2000. Productive forest land area (timberland) was...

  2. Summary estimates of forest resources on unreserved lands of the Stikine inventory unit, Tongass National Forest, southeast Alaska, 1998.

    Treesearch

    Willem W.S. van Hees

    2001-01-01

    Summary estimates are presented of forest resource area, timber volume, and growth and mortality of timber on unreserved national forest land in the Stikine inventory unit of the Tongass National Forest. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forest Inventory and Analysis, crews collected inventory data from 1995 to 1998. Productive forest land area (timberland) was...

  3. Quantifying landscape pattern and assessing the land cover changes in Piatra Craiului National Park and Bucegi Natural Park, Romania, using satellite imagery and landscape metrics.

    PubMed

    Vorovencii, Iosif

    2015-11-01

    Protected areas of Romania have enjoyed particular importance after 1989, but, at the same time, they were subject to different anthropogenic and natural pressures which resulted in the occurrence of land cover changes. These changes have generally led to landscape degradation inside and at the borders of the protected areas. In this article, 12 landscape metrics were used in order to quantify landscape pattern and assess land cover changes in two protected areas, Piatra Craiului National Park (PCNP) and Bucegi Natural Park (BNP). The landscape metrics were obtained from land cover maps derived from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images from 1987, 1993, 2000, 2009 and 2010. Three land cover classes were analysed in PCNP and five land cover map classes in BNP. The results show a landscape fragmentation trend for both parks, affecting different types of land covers. Between 1987 and 2010, in PCNP fragmentation was, in principle, the result not only of anthropogenic activities such as forest cuttings and illegal logging but also of natural causes. In BNP, between 1987 and 2009, the fragmentation affected the pasture which resulted in the occurrence of bare land and rocky areas because of the erosion on the Bucegi Plateau.

  4. Land cover mapping of the National Park Service northwest Alaska management area using Landsat multispectral and thematic mapper satellite data

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Markon, C.J.; Wesser, Sara

    1998-01-01

    A land cover map of the National Park Service northwest Alaska management area was produced using digitally processed Landsat data. These and other environmental data were incorporated into a geographic information system to provide baseline information about the nature and extent of resources present in this northwest Alaskan environment.This report details the methodology, depicts vegetation profiles of the surrounding landscape, and describes the different vegetation types mapped. Portions of nine Landsat satellite (multispectral scanner and thematic mapper) scenes were used to produce a land cover map of the Cape Krusenstern National Monument and Noatak National Preserve and to update an existing land cover map of Kobuk Valley National Park Valley National Park. A Bayesian multivariate classifier was applied to the multispectral data sets, followed by the application of ancillary data (elevation, slope, aspect, soils, watersheds, and geology) to enhance the spectral separation of classes into more meaningful vegetation types. The resulting land cover map contains six major land cover categories (forest, shrub, herbaceous, sparse/barren, water, other) and 19 subclasses encompassing 7 million hectares. General narratives of the distribution of the subclasses throughout the project area are given along with vegetation profiles showing common relationships between topographic gradients and vegetation communities.

  5. Population Density Modeling for Diverse Land Use Classes: Creating a National Dasymetric Worker Population Model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Trombley, N.; Weber, E.; Moehl, J.

    2017-12-01

    Many studies invoke dasymetric mapping to make more accurate depictions of population distribution by spatially restricting populations to inhabited/inhabitable portions of observational units (e.g., census blocks) and/or by varying population density among different land classes. LandScan USA uses this approach by restricting particular population components (such as residents or workers) to building area detected from remotely sensed imagery, but also goes a step further by classifying each cell of building area in accordance with ancillary land use information from national parcel data (CoreLogic, Inc.'s ParcelPoint database). Modeling population density according to land use is critical. For instance, office buildings would have a higher density of workers than warehouses even though the latter would likely have more cells of detection. This paper presents a modeling approach by which different land uses are assigned different densities to more accurately distribute populations within them. For parts of the country where the parcel data is insufficient, an alternate methodology is developed that uses National Land Cover Database (NLCD) data to define the land use type of building detection. Furthermore, LiDAR data is incorporated for many of the largest cities across the US, allowing the independent variables to be updated from two-dimensional building detection area to total building floor space. In the end, four different regression models are created to explain the effect of different land uses on worker distribution: A two-dimensional model using land use types from the parcel data A three-dimensional model using land use types from the parcel data A two-dimensional model using land use types from the NLCD data, and A three-dimensional model using land use types from the NLCD data. By and large, the resultant coefficients followed intuition, but importantly allow the relationships between different land uses to be quantified. For instance, in the model

  6. High-Resolution Land Use and Land Cover Mapping

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    ,

    1999-01-01

    As the Nation?s population grows, quantifying, monitoring, and managing land use becomes increasingly important. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a long heritage of leadership and innovation in land use and land cover (LULC) mapping that has been the model both nationally and internationally for over 20 years. At present, the USGS is producing high-resolution LULC data for several watershed and urban areas within the United States. This high-resolution LULC mapping is part of an ongoing USGS Land Cover Characterization Program (LCCP). The four components of the LCCP are global (1:2,000,000-scale), national (1:100,000-scale), urban (1:24,000-scale), and special projects (various scales and time periods). Within the urban and special project components, the USGS Rocky Mountain Mapping Center (RMMC) is collecting historical as well as contemporary high-resolution LULC data. RMMC?s high-resolution LULC mapping builds on the heritage and success of previous USGS LULC programs and provides LULC information to meet user requirements.

  7. Land classification of south-central Iowa from computer enhanced images

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lucas, J. R. (Principal Investigator); Taranik, J. V.; Billingsley, F. C.

    1976-01-01

    The author has identified the following significant results. The Iowa Geological Survey developed its own capability for producing color products from digitally enhanced LANDSAT data. Research showed that efficient production of enhanced images required full utilization of both computer and photographic enhancement procedures. The 29 August 1972 photo-optically enhanced color composite was more easily interpreted for land classification purposes than standard color composites.

  8. Change in agricultural land use constrains adaptation of national wildlife refuges to climate change

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Hamilton, Christopher M.; Thogmartin, Wayne E.; Radeloff, Volker C.; Plantinga, Andrew J.; Heglund, Patricia J.; Martinuzzi, Sebastian; Pidgeon, Anna M.

    2015-01-01

    Land-use change around protected areas limits their ability to conserve biodiversity by altering ecological processes such as natural hydrologic and disturbance regimes, facilitating species invasions, and interfering with dispersal of organisms. This paper informs USA National Wildlife Refuge System conservation planning by predicting future land-use change on lands within 25 km distance of 461 refuges in the USA using an econometric model. The model contained two differing policy scenarios, namely a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario and a ‘pro-agriculture’ scenario. Regardless of scenario, by 2051, forest cover and urban land use were predicted to increase around refuges, while the extent of range and pasture was predicted to decrease; cropland use decreased under the business-as-usual scenario, but increased under the pro-agriculture scenario. Increasing agricultural land value under the pro-agriculture scenario slowed an expected increase in forest around refuges, and doubled the rate of range and pasture loss. Intensity of land-use change on lands surrounding refuges differed by regions. Regional differences among scenarios revealed that an understanding of regional and local land-use dynamics and management options was an essential requirement to effectively manage these conserved lands. Such knowledge is particularly important given the predicted need to adapt to a changing global climate.

  9. The Multiple Species Inventory and Monitoring Protocol: A Population, Community, and Biodiversity Monitoring Solution for National Forest System Lands

    Treesearch

    P. N. Manley; B. Van Horne

    2006-01-01

    The U.S. Forest Service manages approximately 76 million ha (191 million acres) of National Forest System (NFS) lands. The National Forest Management Act (1976) recognizes the importance of maintaining species and ecosystem diversity on NFS lands as a critical component of our ecological and cultural heritage. Information on the condition of populations and habitats of...

  10. Land use and land cover mapping: City of Palm Bay, Florida

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Barile, D. D.; Pierce, R.

    1977-01-01

    Two different computer systems were compared for use in making land use and land cover maps. The Honeywell 635 with the LANDSAT signature development program (LSDP) produced a map depicting general patterns, but themes were difficult to classify as specific land use. Urban areas were unclassified. The General Electric Image 100 produced a map depicting eight land cover categories classifying 68 percent of the total area. Ground truth, LSDP, and Image 100 maps were all made to the same scale for comparison. LSDP agreed with the ground truth 60 percent and 64 percent within the two test areas compared and Image 100 was in agreement 70 percent and 80 percent.

  11. Land Use and Land Cover Change

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Brown, Daniel; Polsky, Colin; Bolstad, Paul V.

    2014-05-01

    A contribution to the 3rd National Climate Assessment report, discussing the following key messages: 1. Choices about land-use and land-cover patterns have affected and will continue to affect how vulnerable or resilient human communities and ecosystems are to the effects of climate change. 2. Land-use and land-cover changes affect local, regional, and global climate processes. 3. Individuals, organizations, and governments have the capacity to make land-use decisions to adapt to the effects of climate change. 4. Choices about land use and land management provide a means of reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas levels.

  12. Measuring land-use and land-cover change using the U.S. department of agriculture's cropland data layer: Cautions and recommendations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lark, Tyler J.; Mueller, Richard M.; Johnson, David M.; Gibbs, Holly K.

    2017-10-01

    Monitoring agricultural land is important for understanding and managing food production, environmental conservation efforts, and climate change. The United States Department of Agriculture's Cropland Data Layer (CDL), an annual satellite imagery-derived land cover map, has been increasingly used for this application since complete coverage of the conterminous United States became available in 2008. However, the CDL is designed and produced with the intent of mapping annual land cover rather than tracking changes over time, and as a result certain precautions are needed in multi-year change analyses to minimize error and misapplication. We highlight scenarios that require special considerations, suggest solutions to key challenges, and propose a set of recommended good practices and general guidelines for CDL-based land change estimation. We also characterize a problematic issue of crop area underestimation bias within the CDL that needs to be accounted for and corrected when calculating changes to crop and cropland areas. When used appropriately and in conjunction with related information, the CDL is a valuable and effective tool for detecting diverse trends in agriculture. By explicitly discussing the methods and techniques for post-classification measurement of land-cover and land-use change using the CDL, we aim to further stimulate the discourse and continued development of suitable methodologies. Recommendations generated here are intended specifically for the CDL but may be broadly applicable to additional remotely-sensed land cover datasets including the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-based land cover products, and other regional, national, and global land cover classification maps.

  13. IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY FOR PRODUCTION OF NATIONAL LAND-COVER DATA (NLCD) FROM THE LANDSAT 7 THEMATIC MAPPER SATELLITE

    EPA Science Inventory

    As environmental programs within and outside the federal government continue to move away from point-based studies to larger and larger spatial (not cartographic) scale, the need for land-cover and other geographic data have become ineluctable. The national land-cover mapping pr...

  14. Land and cryosphere products from Suomi NPP VIIRS: Overview and status.

    PubMed

    Justice, Christopher O; Román, Miguel O; Csiszar, Ivan; Vermote, Eric F; Wolfe, Robert E; Hook, Simon J; Friedl, Mark; Wang, Zhuosen; Schaaf, Crystal B; Miura, Tomoaki; Tschudi, Mark; Riggs, George; Hall, Dorothy K; Lyapustin, Alexei I; Devadiga, Sadashiva; Davidson, Carol; Masuoka, Edward J

    2013-09-16

    [1] The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument was launched in October 2011 as part of the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (S-NPP). The VIIRS instrument was designed to improve upon the capabilities of the operational Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and provide observation continuity with NASA's Earth Observing System's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Since the VIIRS first-light images were received in November 2011, NASA- and NOAA-funded scientists have been working to evaluate the instrument performance and generate land and cryosphere products to meet the needs of the NOAA operational users and the NASA science community. NOAA's focus has been on refining a suite of operational products known as Environmental Data Records (EDRs), which were developed according to project specifications under the National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System. The NASA S-NPP Science Team has focused on evaluating the EDRs for science use, developing and testing additional products to meet science data needs, and providing MODIS data product continuity. This paper presents to-date findings of the NASA Science Team's evaluation of the VIIRS land and cryosphere EDRs, specifically Surface Reflectance, Land Surface Temperature, Surface Albedo, Vegetation Indices, Surface Type, Active Fires, Snow Cover, Ice Surface Temperature, and Sea Ice Characterization. The study concludes that, for MODIS data product continuity and earth system science, an enhanced suite of land and cryosphere products and associated data system capabilities are needed beyond the EDRs currently available from the VIIRS.

  15. AgRISTARS: Renewable resources inventory. Land information support system implementation plan and schedule. [San Juan National Forest pilot test

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Yao, S. S. (Principal Investigator)

    1981-01-01

    The planning and scheduling of the use of remote sensing and computer technology to support the land management planning effort at the national forests level are outlined. The task planning and system capability development were reviewed. A user evaluation is presented along with technological transfer methodology. A land management planning pilot test of the San Juan National Forest is discussed.

  16. Video Guidance, Landing, and Imaging system (VGLIS) for space missions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schappell, R. T.; Knickerbocker, R. L.; Tietz, J. C.; Grant, C.; Flemming, J. C.

    1975-01-01

    The feasibility of an autonomous video guidance system that is capable of observing a planetary surface during terminal descent and selecting the most acceptable landing site was demonstrated. The system was breadboarded and "flown" on a physical simulator consisting of a control panel and monitor, a dynamic simulator, and a PDP-9 computer. The breadboard VGLIS consisted of an image dissector camera and the appropriate processing logic. Results are reported.

  17. Development of a national geodatabase (Greece) for soil surveys and land evaluation using space technology and GIS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bilas, George; Dionysiou, Nina; Karapetsas, Nikolaos; Silleos, Nikolaos; Kosmas, Konstantinos; Misopollinos, Nikolaos

    2016-04-01

    This project was funded by OPEKEPE, Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food, Greece and involves development of a national geodatabase and a WebGIS that encompass soil data of all the agricultural areas of Greece in order to supply the country with a multi-purpose master plan for agricultural land management. The area mapped covered more than 385,000 ha divided in more than 9.000 Soil Mapping Units (SMUs) based on physiographic analysis, field work and photo interpretation of satellite images. The field work included description and sampling in three depths (0-30, 30-60 and >60 cm) of 2,000 soil profiles and 8,000 augers (sampling 0-30 and >30 cm). In total more than 22,000 soil samples were collected and analyzed for determining main soil properties associated with soil classification and soil evaluation. Additionally the project included (1) integration of all data in the Soil Geodatabase, (2) finalization of SMUs, (3) development of a Master Plan for Agricultural Land Management and (4) development and operational testing of the Web Portal for e-information and e-services. The integrated system is expected, after being fully operational, to provide important electronic services and benefits to farmers, private sector and governmental organizations. An e-book with the soil maps of Greece was also provided including 570 sheets with data description and legends. The Master Plan for Agricultural Land Management includes soil quality maps for 30 agricultural crops, together with maps showing soil degradation risks, such as erosion, desertification, salinity and nitrates, thus providing the tools for soil conservation and sustainable land management.

  18. A SUB-PIXEL COEFFICIENT MODEL TO FORM AGGREGATE IMPERVIOUUS SURFACE ESTIMATES FROM NATIONAL LAND COVER DATA

    EPA Science Inventory

    Using GIS to produce impervious surface coefficients from National Land Cover Data

    National Laud Cover Data (NLCD) and county level planimetric impervious surface data were utilized to derive an impervious coefficient per NLCD class. Results show that coefficients fall in...

  19. Classification of Land Cover and Land Use Based on Convolutional Neural Networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Chun; Rottensteiner, Franz; Heipke, Christian

    2018-04-01

    Land cover describes the physical material of the earth's surface, whereas land use describes the socio-economic function of a piece of land. Land use information is typically collected in geospatial databases. As such databases become outdated quickly, an automatic update process is required. This paper presents a new approach to determine land cover and to classify land use objects based on convolutional neural networks (CNN). The input data are aerial images and derived data such as digital surface models. Firstly, we apply a CNN to determine the land cover for each pixel of the input image. We compare different CNN structures, all of them based on an encoder-decoder structure for obtaining dense class predictions. Secondly, we propose a new CNN-based methodology for the prediction of the land use label of objects from a geospatial database. In this context, we present a strategy for generating image patches of identical size from the input data, which are classified by a CNN. Again, we compare different CNN architectures. Our experiments show that an overall accuracy of up to 85.7 % and 77.4 % can be achieved for land cover and land use, respectively. The classification of land cover has a positive contribution to the classification of the land use classification.

  20. Classification of forest land attributes using multi-source remotely sensed data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pippuri, Inka; Suvanto, Aki; Maltamo, Matti; Korhonen, Kari T.; Pitkänen, Juho; Packalen, Petteri

    2016-02-01

    The aim of the study was to (1) examine the classification of forest land using airborne laser scanning (ALS) data, satellite images and sample plots of the Finnish National Forest Inventory (NFI) as training data and to (2) identify best performing metrics for classifying forest land attributes. Six different schemes of forest land classification were studied: land use/land cover (LU/LC) classification using both national classes and FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) classes, main type, site type, peat land type and drainage status. Special interest was to test different ALS-based surface metrics in classification of forest land attributes. Field data consisted of 828 NFI plots collected in 2008-2012 in southern Finland and remotely sensed data was from summer 2010. Multinomial logistic regression was used as the classification method. Classification of LU/LC classes were highly accurate (kappa-values 0.90 and 0.91) but also the classification of site type, peat land type and drainage status succeeded moderately well (kappa-values 0.51, 0.69 and 0.52). ALS-based surface metrics were found to be the most important predictor variables in classification of LU/LC class, main type and drainage status. In best classification models of forest site types both spectral metrics from satellite data and point cloud metrics from ALS were used. In turn, in the classification of peat land types ALS point cloud metrics played the most important role. Results indicated that the prediction of site type and forest land category could be incorporated into stand level forest management inventory system in Finland.

  1. Object-based land-cover classification for metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, using aerial photography

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Xiaoxiao; Myint, Soe W.; Zhang, Yujia; Galletti, Chritopher; Zhang, Xiaoxiang; Turner, Billie L.

    2014-12-01

    Detailed land-cover mapping is essential for a range of research issues addressed by the sustainability and land system sciences and planning. This study uses an object-based approach to create a 1 m land-cover classification map of the expansive Phoenix metropolitan area through the use of high spatial resolution aerial photography from National Agricultural Imagery Program. It employs an expert knowledge decision rule set and incorporates the cadastral GIS vector layer as auxiliary data. The classification rule was established on a hierarchical image object network, and the properties of parcels in the vector layer were used to establish land cover types. Image segmentations were initially utilized to separate the aerial photos into parcel sized objects, and were further used for detailed land type identification within the parcels. Characteristics of image objects from contextual and geometrical aspects were used in the decision rule set to reduce the spectral limitation of the four-band aerial photography. Classification results include 12 land-cover classes and subclasses that may be assessed from the sub-parcel to the landscape scales, facilitating examination of scale dynamics. The proposed object-based classification method provides robust results, uses minimal and readily available ancillary data, and reduces computational time.

  2. Mekong Land Cover Dasboard: Regional Land Cover Mointoring Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saah, D. S.; Towashiraporn, P.; Aekakkararungroj, A.; Phongsapan, K.; Triepke, J.; Maus, P.; Tenneson, K.; Cutter, P. G.; Ganz, D.; Anderson, E.

    2016-12-01

    SERVIR-Mekong, a USAID-NASA partnership, helps decision makers in the Lower Mekong Region utilize GIS and Remote Sensing information to inform climate related activities. In 2015, SERVIR-Mekong conducted a geospatial needs assessment for the Lower Mekong countries which included individual country consultations. The team found that many countries were dependent on land cover and land use maps for land resource planning, quantifying ecosystem services, including resilience to climate change, biodiversity conservation, and other critical social issues. Many of the Lower Mekong countries have developed national scale land cover maps derived in part from remote sensing products and geospatial technologies. However, updates are infrequent and classification systems do not always meet the needs of key user groups. In addition, data products stop at political boundaries and are often not accessible making the data unusable across country boundaries and with resource management partners. Many of these countries rely on global land cover products to fill the gaps of their national efforts, compromising consistency between data and policies. These gaps in national efforts can be filled by a flexible regional land cover monitoring system that is co-developed by regional partners with the specific intention of meeting national transboundary needs, for example including consistent forest definitions in transboundary watersheds. Based on these facts, key regional stakeholders identified a need for a land cover monitoring system that will produce frequent, high quality land cover maps using a consistent regional classification scheme that is compatible with national country needs. SERVIR-Mekong is currently developing a solution that leverages recent developments in remote sensing science and technology, such as Google Earth Engine (GEE), and working together with production partners to develop a system that will use a common set of input data sources to generate high

  3. IMPACTS OF PATCH SIZE AND LAND COVER HETEROGENEITY ON THEMATIC IMAGE CLASSIFICATION ACCURACY

    EPA Science Inventory


    Landscape characteristics such as small patch size and land cover heterogeneity have been hypothesized to increase the likelihood of miss-classifying pixels during thematic image classification. However, there has been a lack of empirical evidence to support these hypotheses,...

  4. Looking back to move forward: collaborative planning to revise the Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests land and resource management plans

    Treesearch

    Michael J. Dockry

    2015-01-01

    The United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service (Forest Service) manages 154 national forests and 20 grasslands in 44 states and Puerto Rico. National Forest Land and Resource Management Plans (forest plans) form the basis for land and resource management of national forests in the United States. For more than a decade the Forest Service has been attempting...

  5. Urban land-use study plan for the National Water-Quality Assessment Program

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Squillace, P.J.; Price, C.V.

    1996-01-01

    This study plan is for Urban Land-Use Studies initiated as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. There are two Urban Land-Use Study objectives: (1) Define the water quality in recharge areas of shallow aquifers underlying areas of new residential and commercial land use in large metropolitan areas, and (2) determine which natural and human factors most strongly affect the occurrence of contaminants in these shallow aquifers. To meet objective 1, each NAWQA Study Unit will install and collect water samples from at least 30 randomly located monitoring wells in a metropolitan area. To meet objective 2, aquifer characteristics and land-use information will be documented. This includes particle-size analysis of each major lithologic unit both in the unsaturated zone and in the aquifer near the water table. The percentage of organic carbon also will be determined for each lithologic unit. Geographic information system coverages will be created that document existing land use around the wells. These data will aid NAWQA personnel in relating natural and human factors to the occurrence of contaminants. Water samples for age dating also will be collected from all monitoring wells, but the samples will be stored until the occurrence of contaminants has been determined. Age-date analysis will be done only on those samples that have no detectable concentrations of anthropogenic contaminants.

  6. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Imperviousness Layer Tile 1, Northwest United States: IMPV01_1

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the imperviousness layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition. The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp.. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  7. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Imperviousness Layer Tile 4, Southeast United States: IMPV01_4

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wieczorek, Michael; LaMotte, Andrew E.

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the imperviousness layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition. The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp.. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  8. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Imperviousness Layer Tile 2, Northeast United States: IMPV01_2

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the imperviousness layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition. The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp.. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  9. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Imperviousness Layer Tile 3, Southwest United States: IMPV01_3

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the imperviousness layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition. The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp.. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  10. Location of irrigated land classified from satellite imagery - High Plains Area, nominal date 1992

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Qi, Sharon L.; Konduris, Alexandria; Litke, David W.; Dupree, Jean

    2002-01-01

    Satellite imagery from the Landsat Thematic Mapper (nominal date 1992) was used to classify and map the location of irrigated land overlying the High Plains aquifer. The High Plains aquifer underlies 174,000 square miles in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting a water-quality study of the High Plains aquifer as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program. To help interpret data and select sites for the study, it is helpful to know the location of irrigated land within the study area. To date, the only information available for the entire area is 20 years old. To update the data on irrigated land, 40 summer and 40 spring images (nominal date 1992) were acquired from the National Land Cover Data set and processed using a band-ratio method (Landsat Thematic Mapper band 4 divided by band 3) to enhance the vegetation signatures. The study area was divided into nine subregions with similar environmental characteristics, and a band-ratio threshold was selected from imagery in each subregion that differentiated the cutoff between irrigated and nonirrigated land. The classified images for each subregion were mosaicked to produce an irrigated-land map for the study area. The total amount of irrigated land classified from the 1992 imagery was 13.1 million acres, or about 12 percent of the total land in the High Plains. This estimate is approximately 1.5 percent greater than the amount of irrigated land reported in the 1992 Census of Agriculture (12.8 millions acres).

  11. Land and cryosphere products from Suomi NPP VIIRS: Overview and status

    PubMed Central

    Justice, Christopher O; Román, Miguel O; Csiszar, Ivan; Vermote, Eric F; Wolfe, Robert E; Hook, Simon J; Friedl, Mark; Wang, Zhuosen; Schaaf, Crystal B; Miura, Tomoaki; Tschudi, Mark; Riggs, George; Hall, Dorothy K; Lyapustin, Alexei I; Devadiga, Sadashiva; Davidson, Carol; Masuoka, Edward J

    2013-01-01

    [1] The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument was launched in October 2011 as part of the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (S-NPP). The VIIRS instrument was designed to improve upon the capabilities of the operational Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and provide observation continuity with NASA’s Earth Observing System’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Since the VIIRS first-light images were received in November 2011, NASA- and NOAA-funded scientists have been working to evaluate the instrument performance and generate land and cryosphere products to meet the needs of the NOAA operational users and the NASA science community. NOAA’s focus has been on refining a suite of operational products known as Environmental Data Records (EDRs), which were developed according to project specifications under the National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System. The NASA S-NPP Science Team has focused on evaluating the EDRs for science use, developing and testing additional products to meet science data needs, and providing MODIS data product continuity. This paper presents to-date findings of the NASA Science Team’s evaluation of the VIIRS land and cryosphere EDRs, specifically Surface Reflectance, Land Surface Temperature, Surface Albedo, Vegetation Indices, Surface Type, Active Fires, Snow Cover, Ice Surface Temperature, and Sea Ice Characterization. The study concludes that, for MODIS data product continuity and earth system science, an enhanced suite of land and cryosphere products and associated data system capabilities are needed beyond the EDRs currently available from the VIIRS. PMID:25821661

  12. Abstracting of suspected illegal land use in urban areas using case-based classification of remote sensing images

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Fulong; Wang, Chao; Yang, Chengyun; Zhang, Hong; Wu, Fan; Lin, Wenjuan; Zhang, Bo

    2008-11-01

    This paper proposed a method that uses a case-based classification of remote sensing images and applied this method to abstract the information of suspected illegal land use in urban areas. Because of the discrete cases for imagery classification, the proposed method dealt with the oscillation of spectrum or backscatter within the same land use category, and it not only overcame the deficiency of maximum likelihood classification (the prior probability of land use could not be obtained) but also inherited the advantages of the knowledge-based classification system, such as artificial intelligence and automatic characteristics. Consequently, the proposed method could do the classifying better. Then the researchers used the object-oriented technique for shadow removal in highly dense city zones. With multi-temporal SPOT 5 images whose resolution was 2.5×2.5 meters, the researchers found that the method can abstract suspected illegal land use information in urban areas using post-classification comparison technique.

  13. Dry season distribution of land crabs, Gecarcinus quadratus (Crustacea: Gecarcinidae), in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica.

    PubMed

    Griffiths, Megan E; Mohammad, Basma A; Vega, Andres

    2007-03-01

    The land crab Gecarcinus quadratus is an engineering species that controls nutrient cycling in tropical forests. Factors regulating their coastal distribution are not fully understood. We quantified land crab distribution during the dry season at Sirena Field Station in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica, and found that land crab burrow density decreases with increasing distance from the ocean. Leaf litter depth and tree seedling density are negatively correlated with land crab burrow density. Burrows are strongly associated with sand substrate and burrow density is comparatively low in clay substrate. Results suggest that G. quadratus is limited to a narrow coastal zone with sand substrate, and this distribution could have profound effects on plant community structure.

  14. A new lunar absolute control point: established by images from the landing camera on Chang'e-3

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Fen-Fei; Liu, Jian-Jun; Li, Chun-Lai; Ren, Xin; Mu, Ling-Li; Yan, Wei; Wang, Wen-Rui; Xiao, Jing-Tao; Tan, Xu; Zhang, Xiao-Xia; Zou, Xiao-Duan; Gao, Xing-Ye

    2014-12-01

    The establishment of a lunar control network is one of the core tasks in selenodesy, in which defining an absolute control point on the Moon is the most important step. However, up to now, the number of absolute control points has been very sparse. These absolute control points have mainly been lunar laser ranging retroreflectors, whose geographical location can be observed by observations on Earth and also identified in high resolution lunar satellite images. The Chang'e-3 (CE-3) probe successfully landed on the Moon, and its geographical location has been monitored by an observing station on Earth. Since its positional accuracy is expected to reach the meter level, the CE-3 landing site can become a new high precision absolute control point. We use a sequence of images taken from the landing camera, as well as satellite images taken by CE-1 and CE-2, to identify the location of the CE-3 lander. With its geographical location known, the CE-3 landing site can be established as a new absolute control point, which will effectively expand the current area of the lunar absolute control network by 22%, and can greatly facilitate future research in the field of lunar surveying and mapping, as well as selenodesy.

  15. Updated outdoor recreation use values on national forests and other public lands.

    Treesearch

    John Loomis

    2005-01-01

    This report summarizes more than 30 years of the literature on net economic value of outdoor recreation on public lands. The report provides average net willingness to pay or consumer surplus per day for 30 recreation activities at the national level. Values per day by recreation activity are also presented by census region of the United States. Detailed tables provide...

  16. Spectrometer Images of Candidate Landing Sites for Next Mars Rover

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2007-01-01

    This composite shows four examples of 'browse' products the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument obtained of areas on Mars near proposed landing sites for NASA's 2009 Mars Science Laboratory. These examples are from two of more than 30 candidate sites. They are enhanced color images of West Candor chasm (A) and Nili Fossae trough (B); and false color images indicating the presence of hydrated (water-containing) minerals in West Candor (C); and clay-like (phyllosilicate) minerals in Nili Fossae (D).

    CRISM is one of six science instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Led by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., the CRISM team includes expertise from universities, government agencies and small businesses in the United States and abroad. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Science Laboratory for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter.

  17. Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) radiometric performance on-orbit

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Morfitt, Ron; Barsi, Julia A.; Levy, Raviv; Markham, Brian L.; Micijevic, Esad; Ong, Lawrence; Scaramuzza, Pat; Vanderwerff, Kelly

    2015-01-01

    Expectations of the Operational Land Imager (OLI) radiometric performance onboard Landsat-8 have been met or exceeded. The calibration activities that occurred prior to launch provided calibration parameters that enabled ground processing to produce imagery that met most requirements when data were transmitted to the ground. Since launch, calibration updates have improved the image quality even more, so that all requirements are met. These updates range from detector gain coefficients to reduce striping and banding to alignment parameters to improve the geometric accuracy. This paper concentrates on the on-orbit radiometric performance of the OLI, excepting the radiometric calibration performance. Topics discussed in this paper include: signal-to-noise ratios that are an order of magnitude higher than previous Landsat missions; radiometric uniformity that shows little residual banding and striping, and continues to improve; a dynamic range that limits saturation to extremely high radiance levels; extremely stable detectors; slight nonlinearity that is corrected in ground processing; detectors that are stable and 100% operable; and few image artifacts.

  18. Timber resource statistics for all forest land, except national forests, in eastern Oregon.

    Treesearch

    Donald R. Gedney; Patricia M. Bassett; Mary A. Mei

    1989-01-01

    This report summarizes a 1987 timber resource inventory of all forest land, except National Forests, in the 17 counties (Baker, Crook, Deschutes, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Wasco, and Wheeler Counties) in eastern Oregon. Detailed tables of forest area, timber volume, growth, mortality, and...

  19. Mosquito Larval Habitats, Land Use, and Potential Malaria Risk in Northern Belize from Satellite Image Analyses

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pope, Kevin; Masuoka, Penny; Rejmankova, Eliska; Grieco, John; Johnson, Sarah; Roberts, Donald

    2004-01-01

    The distribution of Anopheles mosquito habitats and land use in northern Belize is examined with satellite data. -A land cover classification based on multispectral SPOT and multitemporal Radarsat images identified eleven land cover classes, including agricultural, forest, and marsh types. Two of the land cover types, Typha domingensis marsh and flooded forest, are Anopheles vestitipennis larval habitats. Eleocharis spp. marsh is the larval habitat for Anopheles albimanus. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyses of land cover demonstrate that the amount of T-ha domingensis in a marsh is positively correlated with the amount of agricultural land in the adjacent upland, and negatively correlated with the amount of adjacent forest. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that nutrient (phosphorus) runoff from agricultural lands is causing an expansion of Typha domingensis in northern Belize. This expansion of Anopheles vestitipennis larval habitat may in turn cause an increase in malaria risk in the region.

  20. Continental land cover classification using meteorological satellite data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tucker, C. J.; Townshend, J. R. G.; Goff, T. E.

    1983-01-01

    The use of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's advanced very high resolution radiometer satellite data for classifying land cover and monitoring of vegetation dynamics over an extremely large area is demonstrated for the continent of Africa. Data from 17 imaging periods of 21 consecutive days each were composited by a technique sensitive to the in situ green-leaf biomass to provide cloud-free imagery for the whole continent. Virtually cloud-free images were obtainable even for equatorial areas. Seasonal variation in the density and extent of green leaf vegetation corresponded to the patterns of rainfall associated with the inter-tropical convergence zone. Regional variations, such as the 1982 drought in east Africa, were also observed. Integration of the weekly satellite data with respect to time produced a remotely sensed assessment of biological activity based upon density and duration of green-leaf biomass. Two of the 21-day composited data sets were used to produce a general land cover classification. The resultant land cover distributions correspond well to those of existing maps.

  1. Shadow detection and removal in RGB VHR images for land use unsupervised classification

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Movia, A.; Beinat, A.; Crosilla, F.

    2016-09-01

    Nowadays, high resolution aerial images are widely available thanks to the diffusion of advanced technologies such as UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and new satellite missions. Although these developments offer new opportunities for accurate land use analysis and change detection, cloud and terrain shadows actually limit benefits and possibilities of modern sensors. Focusing on the problem of shadow detection and removal in VHR color images, the paper proposes new solutions and analyses how they can enhance common unsupervised classification procedures for identifying land use classes related to the CO2 absorption. To this aim, an improved fully automatic procedure has been developed for detecting image shadows using exclusively RGB color information, and avoiding user interaction. Results show a significant accuracy enhancement with respect to similar methods using RGB based indexes. Furthermore, novel solutions derived from Procrustes analysis have been applied to remove shadows and restore brightness in the images. In particular, two methods implementing the so called "anisotropic Procrustes" and the "not-centered oblique Procrustes" algorithms have been developed and compared with the linear correlation correction method based on the Cholesky decomposition. To assess how shadow removal can enhance unsupervised classifications, results obtained with classical methods such as k-means, maximum likelihood, and self-organizing maps, have been compared to each other and with a supervised clustering procedure.

  2. Decadal land cover change dynamics in Bhutan.

    PubMed

    Gilani, Hammad; Shrestha, Him Lal; Murthy, M S R; Phuntso, Phuntso; Pradhan, Sudip; Bajracharya, Birendra; Shrestha, Basanta

    2015-01-15

    Land cover (LC) is one of the most important and easily detectable indicators of change in ecosystem services and livelihood support systems. This paper describes the decadal dynamics in LC changes at national and sub-national level in Bhutan derived by applying object-based image analysis (OBIA) techniques to 1990, 2000, and 2010 Landsat (30 m spatial resolution) data. Ten LC classes were defined in order to give a harmonized legend land cover classification system (LCCS). An accuracy of 83% was achieved for LC-2010 as determined from spot analysis using very high resolution satellite data from Google Earth Pro and limited field verification. At the national level, overall forest increased from 25,558 to 26,732 km(2) between 1990 and 2010, equivalent to an average annual growth rate of 59 km(2)/year (0.22%). There was an overall reduction in grassland, shrubland, and barren area, but the observations were highly dependent on time of acquisition of the satellite data and climatic conditions. The greatest change from non-forest to forest (277 km(2)) was in Bumthang district, followed by Wangdue Phodrang and Trashigang, with the least (1 km(2)) in Tsirang. Forest and scrub forest covers close to 75% of the land area of Bhutan, and just over half of the total area (51%) has some form of conservation status. This study indicates that numerous applications and analyses can be carried out to support improved land cover and land use (LCLU) management. It will be possible to replicate this study in the future as comparable new satellite data is scheduled to become available. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Flight Test Results of the Earth Observing-1 Advanced Land Imager Advanced Land Imager

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mendenhall, Jeffrey A.; Lencioni, Donald E.; Hearn, David R.; Digenis, Constantine J.

    2002-09-01

    The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) is the primary instrument on the Earth Observing-1 spacecraft (EO-1) and was developed under NASA's New Millennium Program (NMP). The NMP mission objective is to flight-validate advanced technologies that will enable dramatic improvements in performance, cost, mass, and schedule for future, Landsat-like, Earth Science Enterprise instruments. ALI contains a number of innovative features designed to achieve this objective. These include the basic instrument architecture, which employs a push-broom data collection mode, a wide field-of-view optical design, compact multi-spectral detector arrays, non-cryogenic HgCdTe for the short wave infrared bands, silicon carbide optics, and a multi-level solar calibration technique. The sensor includes detector arrays that operate in ten bands, one panchromatic, six VNIR and three SWIR, spanning the range from 0.433 to 2.35 μm. Launched on November 21, 2000, ALI instrument performance was monitored during its first year on orbit using data collected during solar, lunar, stellar, and earth observations. This paper will provide an overview of EO-1 mission activities during this period. Additionally, the on-orbit spatial and radiometric performance of the instrument will be compared to pre-flight measurements and the temporal stability of ALI will be presented.

  4. Translating National Level Forest Service Goals to Local Level Land Management: Carbon Sequestration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McNulty, S.; Treasure, E.

    2017-12-01

    The USDA Forest Service has many national level policies related to multiple use management. However, translating national policy to stand level forest management can be difficult. As an example of how a national policy can be put into action, we examined three case studies in which a desired future condition is evaluated at the national, region and local scale. We chose to use carbon sequestration as the desired future condition because climate change has become a major area of concern during the last decade. Several studies have determined that the 193 million acres of US national forest land currently sequester 11% to 15% of the total carbon emitted as a nation. This paper provides a framework by which national scale strategies for maintaining or enhancing forest carbon sequestration is translated through regional considerations and local constraints in adaptive management practices. Although this framework used the carbon sequestration as a case study, this framework could be used with other national level priorities such as the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) or the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

  5. High Resolution Seamless Dom Generation Over CHANG'E-5 Landing Area Using Lroc Nac Images

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Di, K.; Jia, M.; Xin, X.; Liu, B.; Liu, Z.; Peng, M.; Yue, Z.

    2018-04-01

    Chang'e-5, China's first sample return lunar mission, will be launched in 2019, and the planned landing area is near Mons Rümker in Oceanus Procellarum. High-resolution and high-precision mapping of the landing area is of great importance for supporting scientific analysis and safe landing. This paper proposes a systematic method for large area seamless digital orthophoto map (DOM) generation, and presents the mapping result of Chang'e-5 landing area using over 700 LROC NAC images. The developed method mainly consists of two stages of data processing: stage 1 includes subarea block adjustment with rational function model (RFM) and seamless subarea DOM generation; stage 2 includes whole area adjustment through registration of the subarea DOMs with thin plate spline model and seamless DOM mosaicking. The resultant seamless DOM coves a large area (20° longitude × 4° latitude) and is tied to the widely used reference DEM - SLDEM2015. As a result, the RMS errors of the tie points are all around half pixel in image space, indicating a high internal precision; the RMS errors of the control points are about one grid cell size of SLDEM2015, indicating that the resultant DOM is tied to SLDEM2015 well.

  6. Updating the 2001 National Land Cover Database Impervious Surface Products to 2006 using Landsat imagery change detection methods

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Xian, George; Homer, Collin G.

    2010-01-01

    A prototype method was developed to update the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001 to a nominal date of 2006. NLCD 2001 is widely used as a baseline for national land cover and impervious cover conditions. To enable the updating of this database in an optimal manner, methods are designed to be accomplished by individual Landsat scene. Using conservative change thresholds based on land cover classes, areas of change and no-change were segregated from change vectors calculated from normalized Landsat scenes from 2001 and 2006. By sampling from NLCD 2001 impervious surface in unchanged areas, impervious surface predictions were estimated for changed areas within an urban extent defined by a companion land cover classification. Methods were developed and tested for national application across six study sites containing a variety of urban impervious surface. Results show the vast majority of impervious surface change associated with urban development was captured, with overall RMSE from 6.86 to 13.12% for these areas. Changes of urban development density were also evaluated by characterizing the categories of change by percentile for impervious surface. This prototype method provides a relatively low cost, flexible approach to generate updated impervious surface using NLCD 2001 as the baseline.

  7. Water Quality Conditions Associated with Cattle Grazing and Recreation on National Forest Lands

    PubMed Central

    Roche, Leslie M.; Kromschroeder, Lea; Atwill, Edward R.; Dahlgren, Randy A.; Tate, Kenneth W.

    2013-01-01

    There is substantial concern that microbial and nutrient pollution by cattle on public lands degrades water quality, threatening human and ecological health. Given the importance of clean water on multiple-use landscapes, additional research is required to document and examine potential water quality issues across common resource use activities. During the 2011 grazing-recreation season, we conducted a cross sectional survey of water quality conditions associated with cattle grazing and/or recreation on 12 public lands grazing allotments in California. Our specific study objectives were to 1) quantify fecal indicator bacteria (FIB; fecal coliform and E. coli), total nitrogen, nitrate, ammonium, total phosphorus, and soluble-reactive phosphorus concentrations in surface waters; 2) compare results to a) water quality regulatory benchmarks, b) recommended maximum nutrient concentrations, and c) estimates of nutrient background concentrations; and 3) examine relationships between water quality, environmental conditions, cattle grazing, and recreation. Nutrient concentrations observed throughout the grazing-recreation season were at least one order of magnitude below levels of ecological concern, and were similar to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) estimates for background water quality conditions in the region. The relative percentage of FIB regulatory benchmark exceedances widely varied under individual regional and national water quality standards. Relative to USEPA’s national E. coli FIB benchmarks–the most contemporary and relevant standards for this study–over 90% of the 743 samples collected were below recommended criteria values. FIB concentrations were significantly greater when stream flow was low or stagnant, water was turbid, and when cattle were actively observed at sampling. Recreation sites had the lowest mean FIB, total nitrogen, and soluble-reactive phosphorus concentrations, and there were no significant differences in FIB and

  8. On-orbit performance of the Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Micijevic, Esad; Vanderwerff, Kelly; Scaramuzza, Pat; Morfitt, Ron; Barsi, Julia A.; Levy, Raviv

    2014-01-01

    The Landsat 8 satellite was launched on February 11, 2013, to systematically collect multispectral images for detection and quantitative analysis of changes on the Earth’s surface. The collected data are stored at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center and continue the longest archive of medium resolution Earth images. There are two imaging instruments onboard the satellite: the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal InfraRed Sensor (TIRS). This paper summarizes radiometric performance of the OLI including the bias stability, the system noise, saturation and other artifacts observed in its data during the first 1.5 years on orbit. Detector noise levels remain low and Signal-To-Noise Ratio high, largely exceeding the requirements. Impulse noise and saturation are present in imagery, but have negligible effect on Landsat 8 products. Oversaturation happens occasionally, but the affected detectors quickly restore their nominal responsivity. Overall, the OLI performs very well on orbit and provides high quality products to the user community. © (2014) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

  9. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Tree Canopy Layer Tile 2, Northeast United States: CNPY01_2

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the tree canopy layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition.jpg The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  10. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Tree Canopy Layer Tile 1, Northwest United States: CNPY01_1

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the tree canopy layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition.jpg. The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov

  11. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Tree Canopy Layer Tile 4, Southeast United States: CNPY01_4

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the tree canopy layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition.jpg The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  12. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Tree Canopy Layer Tile 3, Southwest United States: CNPY01_3

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the tree canopy layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition.jpg The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  13. CEOS Land Surface Imaging Constellation Mid-Resolution Optical Guidelines

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Keyes, Jennifer P.; Killough, B.

    2011-01-01

    The LSI community of users is large and varied. To reach all these users as well as potential instrument contributors this document has been organized by measurement parameters of interest such as Leaf Area Index and Land Surface Temperature. These measurement parameters and the data presented in this document are drawn from multiple sources, listed at the end of the document, although the two primary ones are "The Space-Based Global Observing System in 2010 (GOS-2010)" that was compiled for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) by Bizzarro Bizzarri, and the CEOS Missions, Instruments, and Measurements online database (CEOS MIM). For each measurement parameter the following topics will be discussed: (1) measurement description, (2) applications, (3) measurement spectral bands, and (4) example instruments and mission information. The description of each measurement parameter starts with a definition and includes a graphic displaying the relationships to four general land surface imaging user communities: vegetation, water, earth, and geo-hazards, since the LSI community of users is large and varied. The vegetation community uses LSI data to assess factors related to topics such as agriculture, forest management, crop type, chlorophyll, vegetation land cover, and leaf or canopy differences. The water community analyzes snow and lake cover, water properties such as clarity, and body of water delineation. The earth community focuses on minerals, soils, and sediments. The geo-hazards community is designed to address and aid in emergencies such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires, and large-scale damaging weather-related events.

  14. A geometric performance assessment of the EO-1 advanced land imager

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Storey, James C.; Choate, M.J.; Meyer, D.J.

    2004-01-01

    The Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) Advanced Land Imager (ALI) demonstrates technology applicable to a successor system to the Landsat Thematic Mapper series. A study of the geometric performance characteristics of the ALI was conducted under the auspices of the EO-1 Science Validation Team. This study evaluated ALI performance with respect to absolute pointing knowledge, focal plane sensor chip assembly alignment, and band-to-band registration for purposes of comparing this new technology to the heritage Landsat systems. On-orbit geometric calibration procedures were developed that allowed the generation of ALI geometrically corrected products that compare favorably with their Landsat 7 counterparts with respect to absolute geodetic accuracy, internal image geometry, and band registration.

  15. Specifications for updating USGS land use and land cover maps

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Milazzo, Valerie A.

    1983-01-01

    To meet the increasing demands for up-to-date land use and land cover information, a primary goal of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) national land use and land cover mapping program is to provide for periodic updating of maps and data in a timely and uniform manner. The technical specifications for updating existing USGS land use and land cover maps that are presented here cover both the interpretive aspects of detecting and identifying land use and land cover changes and the cartographic aspects of mapping and presenting the change data in conventional map format. They provide the map compiler with the procedures and techniques necessary to then use these change data to update existing land use and land cover maps in a manner that is both standardized and repeatable. Included are specifications for the acquisition of remotely sensed source materials, selection of compilation map bases, handling of data base corrections, editing and quality control operations, generation of map update products for USGS open file, and the reproduction and distribution of open file materials. These specifications are planned to become part of the National Mapping Division's Technical Instructions.

  16. Land-cover change in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1973-2000

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Karstensen, Krista A.; Sayler, Kristi L.

    2009-01-01

    The Land Cover Trends is a research project focused on understanding the rates, trends, causes, and consequences of contemporary United States land-use and land-cover change. The project is coordinated by the Geographic Analysis and Monitoring Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in conjunction with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Using the EPA Level III ecoregions as the geographic framework, scientists process geospatial data collected between 1973 and 2000 were processed to characterize ecosystem responses to land-use changes. The 27-year study period was divided into four temporal periods: 1973 to1980, 1980 to 1986, 1986 to 1992, 1992 to 2000 and overall from 1973 to 2000. General land-cover classes for these periods were interpreted from Landsat Multispectral Scanner, Thematic Mapper, and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus imagery to categorize and evaluate land-cover change using a modified Anderson Land Use Land Cover Classification System (Anderson and others, 1976) for image interpretation.The rates of land-cover change were estimated using a stratified, random sampling of 10-kilometer (km) by 10-km blocks allocated within each ecoregion. For each sample block, satellite images were used to interpret land-cover change. The sample block data then were incorporated into statistical analyses to generate an overall change matrix for the ecoregion. These change statistics are applicable for different levels of scale, including total change for the individual sample blocks and change estimates for the entire ecoregion.

  17. Expansion of the Real-Time SPoRT-Land Information System for NOAA/National Weather Service Situational Awareness and Local Modeling Applications

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Case, Jonathan L; White, Kristopher D.

    2014-01-01

    The NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center in Huntsville, AL is running a real-time configuration of the Noah land surface model (LSM) within the NASA Land Information System (LIS) framework (hereafter referred to as the "SPoRT-LIS"). Output from the real-time SPoRT-LIS is used for (1) initializing land surface variables for local modeling applications, and (2) displaying in decision support systems for situational awareness and drought monitoring at select NOAA/National Weather Service (NWS) partner offices. The experimental CONUS run incorporates hourly quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) from the National Severe Storms Laboratory Multi- Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) which will be transitioned into operations at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) in Fall 2014.This paper describes the current and experimental SPoRT-LIS configurations, and documents some of the limitations still remaining through the advent of MRMS precipitation analyses in the SPoRT-LIS land surface model (LSM) simulations.

  18. Thematic accuracy assessment of the 2011 National Land Cover Database (NLCD)

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wickham, James; Stehman, Stephen V.; Gass, Leila; Dewitz, Jon; Sorenson, Daniel G.; Granneman, Brian J.; Poss, Richard V.; Baer, Lori Anne

    2017-01-01

    Accuracy assessment is a standard protocol of National Land Cover Database (NLCD) mapping. Here we report agreement statistics between map and reference labels for NLCD 2011, which includes land cover for ca. 2001, ca. 2006, and ca. 2011. The two main objectives were assessment of agreement between map and reference labels for the three, single-date NLCD land cover products at Level II and Level I of the classification hierarchy, and agreement for 17 land cover change reporting themes based on Level I classes (e.g., forest loss; forest gain; forest, no change) for three change periods (2001–2006, 2006–2011, and 2001–2011). The single-date overall accuracies were 82%, 83%, and 83% at Level II and 88%, 89%, and 89% at Level I for 2011, 2006, and 2001, respectively. Many class-specific user's accuracies met or exceeded a previously established nominal accuracy benchmark of 85%. Overall accuracies for 2006 and 2001 land cover components of NLCD 2011 were approximately 4% higher (at Level II and Level I) than the overall accuracies for the same components of NLCD 2006. The high Level I overall, user's, and producer's accuracies for the single-date eras in NLCD 2011 did not translate into high class-specific user's and producer's accuracies for many of the 17 change reporting themes. User's accuracies were high for the no change reporting themes, commonly exceeding 85%, but were typically much lower for the reporting themes that represented change. Only forest loss, forest gain, and urban gain had user's accuracies that exceeded 70%. Lower user's accuracies for the other change reporting themes may be attributable to the difficulty in determining the context of grass (e.g., open urban, grassland, agriculture) and between the components of the forest-shrubland-grassland gradient at either the mapping phase, reference label assignment phase, or both. NLCD 2011 user's accuracies for forest loss, forest gain, and urban gain compare favorably with results from other

  19. A Thermal Imaging Instrument with Uncooled Detectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Joseph, A. T.; Barrentine, E. M.; Brown, A. D.

    2017-12-01

    In this work, we perform an instrument concept study for sustainable thermal imaging over land with uncooled detectors. The National Research Council's Committee on Implementation of a Sustained Land Imaging Program has identified the inclusion of a thermal imager as critical for both current and future land imaging missions. Such an imaging instrument operating in two bands located at approximately 11 and 12 microns (for example, in Landsat 8, and also Landsat 9 when launched) will provide essential information for furthering our hydrologic understanding at scales of human influence, and produce field-scale moisture information through accurate retrievals of evapotranspiration (ET). Landsat 9 is slated to recycle the TIRS-2 instrument launched with Landsat 8 that uses cooled quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs), hence requiring expensive and massive cryocooler technology to achieve its required spectral and spatial accuracies. Our goal is to conceptualize and develop a thermal imaging instrument which leverages recent and imminent technology advances in uncooled detectors. Such detector technology will offer the benefit of greatly reduced instrument cost, mass, and power at the expense of some acceptable loss in detector sensitivity. It would also allow a thermal imaging instrument to be fielded on board a low-cost platform, e.g., a CubeSat. Sustained and enhanced land imaging is crucial for providing high-quality science data on change in land use, forest health, crop status, environment, and climate. Accurate satellite mapping of ET at the agricultural field scale (the finest spatial scale of the environmental processes of interest) requires high-quality thermal data to produce the corresponding accurate land surface temperature (LST) retrievals used to drive an ET model. Such an imaging instrument would provide important information on the following: 1) the relationship between land-use and land/water management practices and water use dynamics; 2) the

  20. 75 FR 52713 - Nationwide Aerial Application of Fire Retardant on National Forest System Lands

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-08-27

    ... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service Nationwide Aerial Application of Fire Retardant on... statement for the continued nationwide aerial application of fire retardant on National Forest System lands... 26667, Salt Lake City, UT 84126-0667. Comments may also be sent via e- mail to Fire[email protected

  1. Advanced Land Use Classification for Nigeriasat-1 Image of Lake Chad Basin

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Babamaaji, R.; Park, C.; Lee, J.

    2009-12-01

    Lake Chad is a shrinking freshwater lake that has been significantly reduced to about 1/20 of its original size in the 1960’s. The severe draughts in 1970’s and 1980’s and following overexploitations of water resulted in the shortage of surface water in the lake and the surrounding rivers. Ground water resources are in scarcity too as ground water recharge is mostly made by soil infiltration through soil and land cover, but this surface cover is now experiencing siltation and expansion of wetland with invasive species. Large changes in land use and water management practices have taken place in the last 50 years including: removal of water from river systems for irrigation and consumption, degradation of forage land by overgrazing, deforestation, replacing natural ecosystems with mono-cultures, and construction of dams. Therefore, understanding the change of land use and its characteristics must be a first step to find how such changes disturb the water cycle around the lake and affect the shrinkage of the lake. Before any useful thematic information can be extracted from remote sensing data, a land cover classification system has to be developed to obtain the classes of interest. A combination of classification systems used by Global land cover, Water Resources eAtlass and Lake Chad Basin Commission gave rise to 7 land cover classes comprising of - Cropland, vegetation, grassland, water body, shrub-land, farmland ( mostly irrigated) and bareland (i.e. clear land). Supervised Maximum likelihood classification method was used with 15 reference points per class chosen. At the end of the classification, the overall accuracy is 93.33%. Producer’s accuracy for vegetation is 40% compare to the user’s accuracy that is 66.67 %. The reason is that the vegetation is similar to shrub land, it is very hard to differentiate between the vegetation and other plants, and therefore, most of the vegetation is classified as shrub land. Most of the waterbodies are occupied

  2. 75 FR 30052 - Nomans Land Island National Wildlife Refuge, Town of Chilmark, MA

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-05-28

    ... DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Fish and Wildlife Service [FWS-R5-R-2009-N185; BAC-4311-K9-S3] Nomans Land Island National Wildlife Refuge, Town of Chilmark, MA AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior... Weir Hill Road, Sudbury, MA 01776. In-Person Drop-off, Viewing, or Pickup: Call 978-443-4661 to make an...

  3. Space Radar Image of Lisbon, Portugal

    NASA Image and Video Library

    1999-04-15

    This radar image of Lisbon, Portugal illustrates the different land use patterns that are present in coastal Portugal. Lisbon, the national capital, lies on the north bank of the Rio Tejo where the river enters the Atlantic Ocean.

  4. Impact of riparian land use on stream insects of Kudremukh National Park, Karnataka state, India.

    PubMed

    Subramanian, K A; Sivaramakrishnan, K G; Gadgil, Madhav

    2005-12-31

    The impact of riparian land use on the stream insect communities was studied at Kudremukh National Park located within Western Ghats, a tropical biodiversity hotspot in India. The diversity and community composition of stream insects varied across streams with different riparian land use types. The rarefied family and generic richness was highest in streams with natural semi evergreen forests as riparian vegetation. However, when the streams had human habitations and areca nut plantations as riparian land use type, the rarefied richness was higher than that of streams with natural evergreen forests and grasslands. The streams with scrub lands and iron ore mining as the riparian land use had the lowest rarefied richness. Within a landscape, the streams with the natural riparian vegetation had similar community composition. However, streams with natural grasslands as the riparian vegetation, had low diversity and the community composition was similar to those of paddy fields. We discuss how stream insect assemblages differ due to varied riparian land use patterns, reflecting fundamental alterations in the functioning of stream ecosystems. This understanding is vital to conserve, manage and restore tropical riverine ecosystems.

  5. Impact of riparian land use on stream insects of Kudremukh National Park, Karnataka state, India

    PubMed Central

    Subramanian, K.A.; Sivaramakrishnan, K.G.; Gadgil, Madhav

    2005-01-01

    The impact of riparian land use on the stream insect communities was studied at Kudremukh National Park located within Western Ghats, a tropical biodiversity hotspot in India. The diversity and community composition of stream insects varied across streams with different riparian land use types. The rarefied family and generic richness was highest in streams with natural semi evergreen forests as riparian vegetation. However, when the streams had human habitations and areca nut plantations as riparian land use type, the rarefied richness was higher than that of streams with natural evergreen forests and grasslands. The streams with scrub lands and iron ore mining as the riparian land use had the lowest rarefied richness. Within a landscape, the streams with the natural riparian vegetation had similar community composition. However, streams with natural grasslands as the riparian vegetation, had low diversity and the community composition was similar to those of paddy fields. We discuss how stream insect assemblages differ due to varied riparian land use patterns, reflecting fundamental alterations in the functioning of stream ecosystems. This understanding is vital to conserve, manage and restore tropical riverine ecosystems. PMID:17119631

  6. Northern Everglades, Florida, satellite image map

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Thomas, Jean-Claude; Jones, John W.

    2002-01-01

    These satellite image maps are one product of the USGS Land Characteristics from Remote Sensing project, funded through the USGS Place-Based Studies Program with support from the Everglades National Park. The objective of this project is to develop and apply innovative remote sensing and geographic information system techniques to map the distribution of vegetation, vegetation characteristics, and related hydrologic variables through space and over time. The mapping and description of vegetation characteristics and their variations are necessary to accurately simulate surface hydrology and other surface processes in South Florida and to monitor land surface changes. As part of this research, data from many airborne and satellite imaging systems have been georeferenced and processed to facilitate data fusion and analysis. These image maps were created using image fusion techniques developed as part of this project.

  7. Land Cover Change in the Boston Mountains, 1973-2000

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Karstensen, Krista A.

    2009-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Land Cover Trends project is focused on understanding the rates, trends, causes, and consequences of contemporary U.S. land-cover change. The objectives of the study are to: (1) to develop a comprehensive methodology for using sampling and change analysis techniques and Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS), Thematic Mapper (TM), and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data to measure regional land-cover change across the United States; (2) to characterize the types, rates, and temporal variability of change for a 30-year period; (3) to document regional driving forces and consequences of change; and (4) to prepare a national synthesis of land-cover change (Loveland and others, 1999). The 1999 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Level III ecoregions derived from Omernik (1987) provide the geographic framework for the geospatial data collected between 1973 and 2000. The 27-year study period was divided into five temporal periods: 1973-1980, 1980-1986, 1986-1992, 1992-2000, and 1973-2000, and the data are evaluated using a modified Anderson Land Use Land Cover Classification System (Anderson and others, 1976) for image interpretation. The rates of land-cover change are estimated using a stratified, random sampling of 10-kilometer (km) by 10-km blocks allocated within each ecoregion. For each sample block, satellite images are used to interpret land-cover change for the five time periods previously mentioned. Additionally, historic aerial photographs from similar time frames and other ancillary data, such as census statistics and published literature, are used. The sample block data are then incorporated into statistical analyses to generate an overall change matrix for the ecoregion. Field data of the sample blocks include direct measurements of land cover, particularly ground-survey data collected for training and validation of image classifications (Loveland and others, 2002). The field experience allows for additional

  8. Generating land cover boundaries from remotely sensed data using object-based image analysis: overview and epidemiological application.

    PubMed

    Maxwell, Susan K

    2010-12-01

    Satellite imagery and aerial photography represent a vast resource to significantly enhance environmental mapping and modeling applications for use in understanding spatio-temporal relationships between environment and health. Deriving boundaries of land cover objects, such as trees, buildings, and crop fields, from image data has traditionally been performed manually using a very time consuming process of hand digitizing. Boundary detection algorithms are increasingly being applied using object-based image analysis (OBIA) technology to automate the process. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview and demonstrate the application of OBIA for delineating land cover features at multiple scales using a high resolution aerial photograph (1 m) and a medium resolution Landsat image (30 m) time series in the context of a pesticide spray drift exposure application. Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  9. Generating land cover boundaries from remotely sensed data using object-based image analysis: overview and epidemiological application

    PubMed Central

    Maxwell, Susan K.

    2010-01-01

    Satellite imagery and aerial photography represent a vast resource to significantly enhance environmental mapping and modeling applications for use in understanding spatio-temporal relationships between environment and health. Deriving boundaries of land cover objects, such as trees, buildings, and crop fields, from image data has traditionally been performed manually using a very time consuming process of hand digitizing. Boundary detection algorithms are increasingly being applied using object-based image analysis (OBIA) technology to automate the process. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview and demonstrate the application of OBIA for delineating land cover features at multiple scales using a high resolution aerial photograph (1 m) and a medium resolution Landsat image (30 m) time series in the context of a pesticide spray drift exposure application. PMID:21135917

  10. Redwood National Park

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2017-12-08

    In 1968, after state parks had already been established in northern California, the U.S. Congress established Redwood National Park. This new park supplemented protected lands in the region, and in 1994, state and federal authorities agreed to jointly manage the area’s public lands. On February 6, 2003, the Enhanced Thamatic Mapper Plus on NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite captured this true-color image of the southern end of Redwood National Park - a thin coastal corridor connects the northern and southern ends of the park system. Along the coast, sandy beaches appear off-white, and sediments form swirls of pale blue in the darker blue sea. Inland, the park is dominated by green vegetation, with isolated patches of gray-beige rock. This image of the Redwood National Park includes two stands of trees: Lady Bird Johnson Grove and Tall Trees Grove. The first grove was dedicated to the former first lady by President Richard Nixon in August 1969. The second grove became the focus of efforts to protect the surrounding area from logging. Two waterways appear in this image: Redwood Creek and Klamath River. The more conspicuous Klamath River flows through the park system’s midsection (north of the area pictured here). Redwood Creek flows through the southern portion of the park system. Both waterways have carved gorges through the mountainous landscape. Redwood National and State Parks occupy an area considered to be the most seismically active in the United States. The frequent seismic activity has led to shifting waterways, landslides, and rapid erosion along the coastline. Read more: go.nasa.gov/2bRlryv Credit: NASA/Landsat7 NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter

  11. 76 FR 24514 - Public Land Order No. 7764; Partial Revocation of Public Land Order No. 1479; Idaho

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-05-02

    ... acres of National Forest System land withdrawn on behalf of the United States Forest Service for Priest Lake Recreation Areas within the Kaniksu National Forest. The order also opens the land to disposition.... 1714, it is ordered as follows: 1. Public Land Order No. 1479, which withdrew National Forest System...

  12. Landsat 8 operational land imager on-orbit geometric calibration and performance

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Storey, James C.; Choate, Michael J.; Lee, Kenton

    2014-01-01

    The Landsat 8 spacecraft was launched on 11 February 2013 carrying the Operational Land Imager (OLI) payload for moderate resolution imaging in the visible, near infrared (NIR), and short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectral bands. During the 90-day commissioning period following launch, several on-orbit geometric calibration activities were performed to refine the prelaunch calibration parameters. The results of these calibration activities were subsequently used to measure geometric performance characteristics in order to verify the OLI geometric requirements. Three types of geometric calibrations were performed including: (1) updating the OLI-to-spacecraft alignment knowledge; (2) refining the alignment of the sub-images from the multiple OLI sensor chips; and (3) refining the alignment of the OLI spectral bands. The aspects of geometric performance that were measured and verified included: (1) geolocation accuracy with terrain correction, but without ground control (L1Gt); (2) Level 1 product accuracy with terrain correction and ground control (L1T); (3) band-to-band registration accuracy; and (4) multi-temporal image-to-image registration accuracy. Using the results of the on-orbit calibration update, all aspects of geometric performance were shown to meet or exceed system requirements.

  13. Mapping irrigated lands at 250-m scale by merging MODIS data and National Agricultural Statistics

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Pervez, Md Shahriar; Brown, Jesslyn F.

    2010-01-01

    Accurate geospatial information on the extent of irrigated land improves our understanding of agricultural water use, local land surface processes, conservation or depletion of water resources, and components of the hydrologic budget. We have developed a method in a geospatial modeling framework that assimilates irrigation statistics with remotely sensed parameters describing vegetation growth conditions in areas with agricultural land cover to spatially identify irrigated lands at 250-m cell size across the conterminous United States for 2002. The geospatial model result, known as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Irrigated Agriculture Dataset (MIrAD-US), identified irrigated lands with reasonable accuracy in California and semiarid Great Plains states with overall accuracies of 92% and 75% and kappa statistics of 0.75 and 0.51, respectively. A quantitative accuracy assessment of MIrAD-US for the eastern region has not yet been conducted, and qualitative assessment shows that model improvements are needed for the humid eastern regions where the distinction in annual peak NDVI between irrigated and non-irrigated crops is minimal and county sizes are relatively small. This modeling approach enables consistent mapping of irrigated lands based upon USDA irrigation statistics and should lead to better understanding of spatial trends in irrigated lands across the conterminous United States. An improved version of the model with revised datasets is planned and will employ 2007 USDA irrigation statistics.

  14. Monitoring land use on military installations

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Karstensen, K.A.; Loveland, Thomas R.

    2009-01-01

    The US Geological Survey's Land Cover Trends is a research projects aimed to understand the rates, trends, causes, and consequences of contemporary US land use and land-cover change. The project is using the EPA Level III eco-regions as a geographic framework to process geospatial data collected between 1973 and 2000 to characterize ecosystem responses to land-use changes. The results are expected to be used for collaborative environmental change consequences research with various partners including the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The Land Cover project can provide geographic understanding of the state of the nation's ecosystems. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2010 and expected to provide an unbiased, national synthesis of land-cover changes.

  15. Bias estimation for the Landsat 8 operational land imager

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Morfitt, Ron; Vanderwerff, Kelly

    2011-01-01

    The Operational Land Imager (OLI) is a pushbroom sensor that will be a part of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). This instrument is the latest in the line of Landsat imagers, and will continue to expand the archive of calibrated earth imagery. An important step in producing a calibrated image from instrument data is accurately accounting for the bias of the imaging detectors. Bias variability is one factor that contributes to error in bias estimation for OLI. Typically, the bias is simply estimated by averaging dark data on a per-detector basis. However, data acquired during OLI pre-launch testing exhibited bias variation that correlated well with the variation in concurrently collected data from a special set of detectors on the focal plane. These detectors are sensitive to certain electronic effects but not directly to incoming electromagnetic radiation. A method of using data from these special detectors to estimate the bias of the imaging detectors was developed, but found not to be beneficial at typical radiance levels as the detectors respond slightly when the focal plane is illuminated. In addition to bias variability, a systematic bias error is introduced by the truncation performed by the spacecraft of the 14-bit instrument data to 12-bit integers. This systematic error can be estimated and removed on average, but the per pixel quantization error remains. This paper describes the variability of the bias, the effectiveness of a new approach to estimate and compensate for it, as well as the errors due to truncation and how they are reduced.

  16. Thematic accuracy of the 1992 National Land-Cover Data for the western United States

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wickham, J.D.; Stehman, S.V.; Smith, J.H.; Yang, L.

    2004-01-01

    The MultiResolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) consortium sponsored production of the National Land Cover Data (NLCD) for the conterminous United States, using Landsat imagery collected on a target year of 1992 (1992 NLCD). Here we report the thematic accuracy of the 1992 NLCD for the six western mapping regions. Reference data were collected in each region for a probability sample of pixels stratified by map land-cover class. Results are reported for each of the six mapping regions with agreement defined as a match between the primary or alternate reference land-cover label and a mode class of the mapped 3×3 block of pixels centered on the sample pixel. Overall accuracy at Anderson Level II was low and variable across the regions, ranging from 38% for the Midwest to 70% for the Southwest. Overall accuracy at Anderson Level I was higher and more consistent across the regions, ranging from 82% to 85% for five of the six regions, but only 74% for the South-central region.

  17. Implications of land use change on the national terrestrial carbon budget of Georgia

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Background Globally, the loss of forests now contributes almost 20% of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. There is an immediate need to reduce the current rates of forest loss, and the associated release of carbon dioxide, but for many areas of the world these rates are largely unknown. The Soviet Union contained a substantial part of the world's forests and the fate of those forests and their effect on carbon dynamics remain unknown for many areas of the former Eastern Bloc. For Georgia, the political and economic transitions following independence in 1991 have been dramatic. In this paper we quantify rates of land use changes and their effect on the terrestrial carbon budget for Georgia. A carbon book-keeping model traces changes in carbon stocks using historical and current rates of land use change. Landsat satellite images acquired circa 1990 and 2000 were analyzed to detect changes in forest cover since 1990. Results The remote sensing analysis showed that a modest forest loss occurred, with approximately 0.8% of the forest cover having disappeared after 1990. Nevertheless, growth of Georgian forests still contribute a current national sink of about 0.3 Tg of carbon per year, which corresponds to 31% of the country anthropogenic carbon emissions. Conclusions We assume that the observed forest loss is mainly a result of illegal logging, but we have not found any evidence of large-scale clear-cutting. Instead local harvesting of timber for household use is likely to be the underlying driver of the observed logging. The Georgian forests are a currently a carbon sink and will remain as such until about 2040 if the current rate of deforestation persists. Forest protection efforts, combined with economic growth, are essential for reducing the rate of deforestation and protecting the carbon sink provided by Georgian forests. PMID:20836865

  18. Implications of land use change on the national terrestrial carbon budget of Georgia.

    PubMed

    Olofsson, Pontus; Torchinava, Paata; Woodcock, Curtis E; Baccini, Alessandro; Houghton, Richard A; Ozdogan, Mutlu; Zhao, Feng; Yang, Xiaoyuan

    2010-09-13

    Globally, the loss of forests now contributes almost 20% of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. There is an immediate need to reduce the current rates of forest loss, and the associated release of carbon dioxide, but for many areas of the world these rates are largely unknown. The Soviet Union contained a substantial part of the world's forests and the fate of those forests and their effect on carbon dynamics remain unknown for many areas of the former Eastern Bloc. For Georgia, the political and economic transitions following independence in 1991 have been dramatic. In this paper we quantify rates of land use changes and their effect on the terrestrial carbon budget for Georgia. A carbon book-keeping model traces changes in carbon stocks using historical and current rates of land use change. Landsat satellite images acquired circa 1990 and 2000 were analyzed to detect changes in forest cover since 1990. The remote sensing analysis showed that a modest forest loss occurred, with approximately 0.8% of the forest cover having disappeared after 1990. Nevertheless, growth of Georgian forests still contribute a current national sink of about 0.3 Tg of carbon per year, which corresponds to 31% of the country anthropogenic carbon emissions. We assume that the observed forest loss is mainly a result of illegal logging, but we have not found any evidence of large-scale clear-cutting. Instead local harvesting of timber for household use is likely to be the underlying driver of the observed logging. The Georgian forests are a currently a carbon sink and will remain as such until about 2040 if the current rate of deforestation persists. Forest protection efforts, combined with economic growth, are essential for reducing the rate of deforestation and protecting the carbon sink provided by Georgian forests.

  19. NASA Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX 2002/03): Airborne remote sensing

    Treesearch

    Don Cline; Simon Yueh; Bruce Chapman; Boba Stankov; Al Gasiewski; Dallas Masters; Kelly Elder; Richard Kelly; Thomas H. Painter; Steve Miller; Steve Katzberg; Larry Mahrt

    2009-01-01

    This paper describes the airborne data collected during the 2002 and 2003 Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX). These data include gamma radiation observations, multi- and hyperspectral optical imaging, optical altimetry, and passive and active microwave observations of the test areas. The gamma observations were collected with the NOAA/National Weather Service Gamma...

  20. Monitoring algal blooms in drinking water reservoirs using the Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager

    EPA Science Inventory

    In this study, we demonstrated that the Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor is a powerful tool that can provide periodic and system-wide information on the condition of drinking water reservoirs. The OLI is a multispectral radiometer (30 m spatial resolution) that allo...

  1. Mapping soil total nitrogen of cultivated land at county scale by using hyperspectral image

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gu, Xiaohe; Zhang, Li Yan; Shu, Meiyan; Yang, Guijun

    2018-02-01

    Monitoring total nitrogen content (TNC) in the soil of cultivated land quantitively and mastering its spatial distribution are helpful for crop growing, soil fertility adjustment and sustainable development of agriculture. The study aimed to develop a universal method to map total nitrogen content in soil of cultivated land by HSI image at county scale. Several mathematical transformations were used to improve the expression ability of HSI image. The correlations between soil TNC and the reflectivity and its mathematical transformations were analyzed. Then the susceptible bands and its transformations were screened to develop the optimizing model of map soil TNC in the Anping County based on the method of multiple linear regression. Results showed that the bands of 14th, 16th, 19th, 37th and 60th with different mathematical transformations were screened as susceptible bands. Differential transformation was helpful for reducing the noise interference to the diagnosis ability of the target spectrum. The determination coefficient of the first order differential of logarithmic transformation was biggest (0.505), while the RMSE was lowest. The study confirmed the first order differential of logarithm transformation as the optimal inversion model for soil TNC, which was used to map soil TNC of cultivated land in the study area.

  2. 3 CFR 8719 - Proclamation 8719 of September 22, 2011. National Public Lands Day, 2011

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ...—vital economic engines in both rural and urban communities. On National Public Lands Day, we take time... lakes, and pick up litter in city parks. Through their service, families and children will find..., America’s Great Outdoors: A Promise to Future Generations. To act on these findings, we are undertaking...

  3. National-scale cropland mapping based on spectral-temporal features and outdated land cover information.

    PubMed

    Waldner, François; Hansen, Matthew C; Potapov, Peter V; Löw, Fabian; Newby, Terence; Ferreira, Stefanus; Defourny, Pierre

    2017-01-01

    The lack of sufficient ground truth data has always constrained supervised learning, thereby hindering the generation of up-to-date satellite-derived thematic maps. This is all the more true for those applications requiring frequent updates over large areas such as cropland mapping. Therefore, we present a method enabling the automated production of spatially consistent cropland maps at the national scale, based on spectral-temporal features and outdated land cover information. Following an unsupervised approach, this method extracts reliable calibration pixels based on their labels in the outdated map and their spectral signatures. To ensure spatial consistency and coherence in the map, we first propose to generate seamless input images by normalizing the time series and deriving spectral-temporal features that target salient cropland characteristics. Second, we reduce the spatial variability of the class signatures by stratifying the country and by classifying each stratum independently. Finally, we remove speckle with a weighted majority filter accounting for per-pixel classification confidence. Capitalizing on a wall-to-wall validation data set, the method was tested in South Africa using a 16-year old land cover map and multi-sensor Landsat time series. The overall accuracy of the resulting cropland map reached 92%. A spatially explicit validation revealed large variations across the country and suggests that intensive grain-growing areas were better characterized than smallholder farming systems. Informative features in the classification process vary from one stratum to another but features targeting the minimum of vegetation as well as short-wave infrared features were consistently important throughout the country. Overall, the approach showed potential for routinely delivering consistent cropland maps over large areas as required for operational crop monitoring.

  4. National-scale cropland mapping based on spectral-temporal features and outdated land cover information

    PubMed Central

    Hansen, Matthew C.; Potapov, Peter V.; Löw, Fabian; Newby, Terence; Ferreira, Stefanus; Defourny, Pierre

    2017-01-01

    The lack of sufficient ground truth data has always constrained supervised learning, thereby hindering the generation of up-to-date satellite-derived thematic maps. This is all the more true for those applications requiring frequent updates over large areas such as cropland mapping. Therefore, we present a method enabling the automated production of spatially consistent cropland maps at the national scale, based on spectral-temporal features and outdated land cover information. Following an unsupervised approach, this method extracts reliable calibration pixels based on their labels in the outdated map and their spectral signatures. To ensure spatial consistency and coherence in the map, we first propose to generate seamless input images by normalizing the time series and deriving spectral-temporal features that target salient cropland characteristics. Second, we reduce the spatial variability of the class signatures by stratifying the country and by classifying each stratum independently. Finally, we remove speckle with a weighted majority filter accounting for per-pixel classification confidence. Capitalizing on a wall-to-wall validation data set, the method was tested in South Africa using a 16-year old land cover map and multi-sensor Landsat time series. The overall accuracy of the resulting cropland map reached 92%. A spatially explicit validation revealed large variations across the country and suggests that intensive grain-growing areas were better characterized than smallholder farming systems. Informative features in the classification process vary from one stratum to another but features targeting the minimum of vegetation as well as short-wave infrared features were consistently important throughout the country. Overall, the approach showed potential for routinely delivering consistent cropland maps over large areas as required for operational crop monitoring. PMID:28817618

  5. San Juan National Forest Land Management Planning Support System (LMPSS) requirements definition

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Werth, L. F. (Principal Investigator)

    1981-01-01

    The role of remote sensing data as it relates to a three-component land management planning system (geographic information, data base management, and planning model) can be understood only when user requirements are known. Personnel at the San Juan National Forest in southwestern Colorado were interviewed to determine data needs for managing and monitoring timber, rangelands, wildlife, fisheries, soils, water, geology and recreation facilities. While all the information required for land management planning cannot be obtained using remote sensing techniques, valuable information can be provided for the geographic information system. A wide range of sensors such as small and large format cameras, synthetic aperture radar, and LANDSAT data should be utilized. Because of the detail and accuracy required, high altitude color infrared photography should serve as the baseline data base and be supplemented and updated with data from the other sensors.

  6. Exposure of U.S. National Parks to land use and climate change 1900-2100.

    PubMed

    Hansen, Andrew J; Piekielek, Nathan; Davis, Cory; Haas, Jessica; Theobald, David M; Gross, John E; Monahan, William B; Olliff, Tom; Running, Steven W

    2014-04-01

    Many protected areas may not be adequately safeguarding biodiversity from human activities on surrounding lands and global change. The magnitude of such change agents and the sensitivity of ecosystems to these agents vary among protected areas. Thus, there is a need to assess vulnerability across networks of protected areas to determine those most at risk and to lay the basis for developing effective adaptation strategies. We conducted an assessment of exposure of U.S. National Parks to climate and land use change and consequences for vegetation communities. We first defined park protected-area centered ecosystems (PACEs) based on ecological principles. We then drew on existing land use, invasive species, climate, and biome data sets and models to quantify exposure of PACEs from 1900 through 2100. Most PACEs experienced substantial change over the 20th century (> 740% average increase in housing density since 1940, 13% of vascular plants are presently nonnative, temperature increase of 1 degree C/100 yr since 1895 in 80% of PACEs), and projections suggest that many of these trends will continue at similar or increasingly greater rates (255% increase in housing density by 2100, temperature increase of 2.5 degrees-4.5 degrees C/100 yr, 30% of PACE areas may lose their current biomes by 2030). In the coming century, housing densities are projected to increase in PACEs at about 82% of the rate of since 1940. The rate of climate warming in the coming century is projected to be 2.5-5.8 times higher than that measured in the past century. Underlying these averages, exposure of individual park PACEs to change agents differ in important ways. For example, parks such as Great Smoky Mountains exhibit high land use and low climate exposure, others such as Great Sand Dunes exhibit low land use and high climate exposure, and a few such as Point Reyes exhibit high exposure on both axes. The cumulative and synergistic effects of such changes in land use, invasives, and climate are

  7. Recent wetland land loss due to hurricanes: improved estimates based upon multiple source images

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Kranenburg, Christine J.; Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Monica; Barras, John A.; Brock, John C.; Wang, Ping; Rosati, Julie D.; Roberts, Tiffany M.

    2011-01-01

    The objective of this study was to provide a moderate resolution 30-m fractional water map of the Chenier Plain for 2003, 2006 and 2009 by using information contained in high-resolution satellite imagery of a subset of the study area. Indices and transforms pertaining to vegetation and water were created using the high-resolution imagery, and a threshold was applied to obtain a categorical land/water map. The high-resolution data was used to train a decision-tree classifier to estimate percent water in a lower resolution (Landsat) image. Two new water indices based on the tasseled cap transformation were proposed for IKONOS imagery in wetland environments and more than 700 input parameter combinations were considered for each Landsat image classified. Final selection and thresholding of the resulting percent water maps involved over 5,000 unambiguous classified random points using corresponding 1-m resolution aerial photographs, and a statistical optimization procedure to determine the threshold at which the maximum Kappa coefficient occurs. Each selected dataset has a Kappa coefficient, percent correctly classified (PCC) water, land and total greater than 90%. An accuracy assessment using 1,000 independent random points was performed. Using the validation points, the PCC values decreased to around 90%. The time series change analysis indicated that due to Hurricane Rita, the study area lost 6.5% of marsh area, and transient changes were less than 3% for either land or water. Hurricane Ike resulted in an additional 8% land loss, although not enough time has passed to discriminate between persistent and transient changes.

  8. Olympic National Park

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2017-12-08

    It has to be one of America’s most diverse national park landscapes. If you walked from west to east across Olympic National Park, you would start at the rocky Pacific shoreline, move into rare temperate rainforests and lush river valleys, ascend glaciers and rugged mountain peaks, and then descend into a comparatively dry rain shadow and alpine forest. From the beach to the top of Mount Olympus, you would rise 7,980 feet (2430 meters) above sea level. Situated on the Olympic Peninsula in northwestern Washington, these lands were first set aside as a national monument in 1909 by Theodore Roosevelt. Twenty-nine years later, his cousin Franklin officially established Olympic National Park. International institutions have also made a case for treasuring this land, as the area was declared an International Biosphere Reserve in 1976 and a World Heritage Site in 1981. The park encompasses nearly 923,000 acres of wild lands, including 60 named glaciers, 73 miles of coast, and 3,000 miles of rivers and streams. Read more: go.nasa.gov/2bRmzSJ Credit: NASA/Landsat8 NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

  9. The Landsat Data Continuity Mission Operational Land Imager (OLI) Radiometric Calibration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Markham, Brian L.; Dabney, Philip W.; Murphy-Morris, Jeanine E.; Knight, Edward J.; Kvaran, Geir; Barsi, Julia A.

    2010-01-01

    The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) has a comprehensive radiometric characterization and calibration program beginning with the instrument design, and extending through integration and test, on-orbit operations and science data processing. Key instrument design features for radiometric calibration include dual solar diffusers and multi-lamped on-board calibrators. The radiometric calibration transfer procedure from NIST standards has multiple checks on the radiometric scale throughout the process and uses a heliostat as part of the transfer to orbit of the radiometric calibration. On-orbit lunar imaging will be used to track the instruments stability and side slither maneuvers will be used in addition to the solar diffuser to flat field across the thousands of detectors per band. A Calibration Validation Team is continuously involved in the process from design to operations. This team uses an Image Assessment System (IAS), part of the ground system to characterize and calibrate the on-orbit data.

  10. The managed clearing: An overlooked land-cover type in urbanizing regions?

    PubMed Central

    Madden, Marguerite; Gray, Josh; Meentemeyer, Ross K.

    2018-01-01

    Urban ecosystem assessments increasingly rely on widely available map products, such as the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD), and datasets that use generic classification schemes to detect and model large-scale impacts of land-cover change. However, utilizing existing map products or schemes without identifying relevant urban class types such as semi-natural, yet managed land areas that account for differences in ecological functions due to their pervious surfaces may severely constrain assessments. To address this gap, we introduce the managed clearings land-cover type–semi-natural, vegetated land surfaces with varying degrees of management practices–for urbanizing landscapes. We explore the extent to which managed clearings are common and spatially distributed in three rapidly urbanizing areas of the Charlanta megaregion, USA. We visually interpreted and mapped fine-scale land cover with special attention to managed clearings using 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) images within 150 randomly selected 1-km2 blocks in the cities of Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh, and compared our maps with National Land Cover Database (NLCD) data. We estimated the abundance of managed clearings relative to other land use and land cover types, and the proportion of land-cover types in the NLCD that are similar to managed clearings. Our study reveals that managed clearings are the most common land cover type in these cities, covering 28% of the total sampled land area– 6.2% higher than the total area of impervious surfaces. Managed clearings, when combined with forest cover, constitutes 69% of pervious surfaces in the sampled region. We observed variability in area estimates of managed clearings between the NAIP-derived and NLCD data. This suggests using high-resolution remote sensing imagery (e.g., NAIP) instead of modifying NLCD data for improved representation of spatial heterogeneity and

  11. The managed clearing: An overlooked land-cover type in urbanizing regions?

    PubMed

    Singh, Kunwar K; Madden, Marguerite; Gray, Josh; Meentemeyer, Ross K

    2018-01-01

    Urban ecosystem assessments increasingly rely on widely available map products, such as the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD), and datasets that use generic classification schemes to detect and model large-scale impacts of land-cover change. However, utilizing existing map products or schemes without identifying relevant urban class types such as semi-natural, yet managed land areas that account for differences in ecological functions due to their pervious surfaces may severely constrain assessments. To address this gap, we introduce the managed clearings land-cover type-semi-natural, vegetated land surfaces with varying degrees of management practices-for urbanizing landscapes. We explore the extent to which managed clearings are common and spatially distributed in three rapidly urbanizing areas of the Charlanta megaregion, USA. We visually interpreted and mapped fine-scale land cover with special attention to managed clearings using 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) images within 150 randomly selected 1-km2 blocks in the cities of Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh, and compared our maps with National Land Cover Database (NLCD) data. We estimated the abundance of managed clearings relative to other land use and land cover types, and the proportion of land-cover types in the NLCD that are similar to managed clearings. Our study reveals that managed clearings are the most common land cover type in these cities, covering 28% of the total sampled land area- 6.2% higher than the total area of impervious surfaces. Managed clearings, when combined with forest cover, constitutes 69% of pervious surfaces in the sampled region. We observed variability in area estimates of managed clearings between the NAIP-derived and NLCD data. This suggests using high-resolution remote sensing imagery (e.g., NAIP) instead of modifying NLCD data for improved representation of spatial heterogeneity and

  12. Recreational use in dispersed public lands measured using social media data and on-site counts.

    PubMed

    Fisher, David M; Wood, Spencer A; White, Eric M; Blahna, Dale J; Lange, Sarah; Weinberg, Alex; Tomco, Michael; Lia, Emilia

    2018-09-15

    Outdoor recreation is one of many important benefits provided by public lands. Data on recreational use are critical for informing management of recreation resources, however, managers often lack actionable information on visitor use for large protected areas that lack controlled access points. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential for social media data (e.g., geotagged images shared on Flickr and trip reports shared on a hiking forum) to provide land managers with useful measures of recreational use to dispersed areas, and to provide lessons learned from comparing several more traditional counting methods. First, we measure daily and monthly visitation rates to individual trails within the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (MBSNF) in western Washington. At 15 trailheads, we compare counts of hikers from infrared sensors, timelapse cameras, and manual on-site counts, to counts based on the number of shared geotagged images and trip reports from those locations. Second, we measure visitation rates to each National Forest System (NFS) unit across the US and compare annual measurements derived from the number of geotagged images to estimates from the US Forest Service National Visitor Use Monitoring Program. At both the NFS unit and the individual-trail scales, we found strong correlations between traditional measures of recreational use and measures based on user-generated content shared on the internet. For national forests in every region of the country, correlations between official Forest Service statistics and geotagged images ranged between 55% and 95%. For individual trails within the MBSNF, monthly visitor counts from on-site measurements were strongly correlated with counts from geotagged images (79%) and trip reports (91%). The convenient, cost-efficient and timely nature of collecting and analyzing user-generated data could allow land managers to monitor use over different seasons of the year and at sites and scales never previously

  13. Pancam Imaging of the Mars Exploration Rover Landing Sites in Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bell, J. F., III; Squyres, S. W.; Arvidson, R. E.; Arneson, H. M.; Bass, D.; Cabrol, N.; Calvin, W.; Farmer, J.; Farrand, W. H.

    2004-01-01

    The Mars Exploration Rovers carry four Panoramic Camera (Pancam) instruments (two per rover) that have obtained high resolution multispectral and stereoscopic images for studies of the geology, mineralogy, and surface and atmospheric physical properties at both rover landing sites. The Pancams are also providing significant mission support measurements for the rovers, including Sun-finding for rover navigation, hazard identification and digital terrain modeling to help guide long-term rover traverse decisions, high resolution imaging to help guide the selection of in situ sampling targets, and acquisition of education and public outreach imaging products.

  14. Land-Cover Change in the Central Irregular Plains, 1973-2000

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Karstensen, Krista A.

    2009-01-01

    Spearheaded by the Geographic Analysis and Monitoring Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Land Cover Trends is a research project focused on understanding the rates, trends, causes, and consequences of contemporary United States land-use and land-cover change. Using the EPA Level III ecoregions as the geographic framework, scientists process geospatial data collected between 1973 and 2000 to characterize ecosystem responses to land-use changes. The 27-year study period was divided into five temporal periods: 1973-1980, 1980-1986, 1986-1992, 1992-2000 and 1973-2000. General land-cover classes for these periods were interpreted from Landsat Multispectral Scanner, Thematic Mapper, and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus imagery to categorize land-cover change and evaluate using a modified Anderson Land Use Land Cover Classification System for image interpretation. The rates of land-cover change are estimated using a stratified, random sampling of 10-kilometer (km) by 10-km blocks allocated within each ecoregion. For each sample block, satellite images are used to interpret land-cover change. Additionally, historical aerial photographs from similar timeframes and other ancillary data such as census statistics and published literature are used. The sample block data are then incorporated into statistical analyses to generate an overall change matrix for the ecoregion. These change statistics are applicable for different levels of scale, including total change for the individual sample blocks and change estimates for the entire ecoregion. The results illustrate that there is no single profile of land-cover change but instead point to geographic variability that results from land uses within ecoregions continuously adapting to various factors including environmental, technological, and socioeconomic.

  15. The Monitoring and Spatial-Temporal Evolution Characteristic Analysis for Land Subsidence in Beijing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Q.; Zhao, W.; Yu, J.

    2018-05-01

    At present the land subsidence has been the main geological disaster in the plain area of China, and became one of the most serious disaster that restrict the social and economic sustainable development, it also is an important content in the project of national geographic conditions monitoring. With the development of economy and society, Beijing as the capital of China has experienced significant population growth in the last few decades which led to over-exploitation of the ground water to meet the water demand of more than 20 million inhabitants, especially in the urban region with high population density. However, the rainfall and surface runoff can't satisfy the need of aquifer recharge that product the land subsidence. As China's political center and a metropolis, there are a lot of large constructions, underground traffic projects and complicated municipal pipeline network, and Beijing is also an important traffic hub for national railway and highway network, all of them would be threatened by the land subsidence disaster. In this article the author used twenty ENVISAT Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images acquired in 2008 June-2010 August and ten TerraSAR images acquired in 2011 June-2012 September were processed with Small Baseline Subset SAR Interferometry (SBAS-InSAR) techniques, to investigate spatial and temporal patterns of land subsidence in the urban area of Beijing.

  16. Improving land surface emissivty parameter for land surface models using portable FTIR and remote sensing observation in Taklimakan Desert

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Yongqiang; Mamtimin, Ali; He, Qing

    2014-05-01

    Because land surface emissivity (ɛ) has not been reliably measured, global climate model (GCM) land surface schemes conventionally set this parameter as simply assumption, for example, 1 as in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) model, 0.96 for soil and wetland in the Global and Regional Assimilation and Prediction System (GRAPES) Common Land Model (CoLM). This is the so-called emissivity assumption. Accurate broadband emissivity data are needed as model inputs to better simulate the land surface climate. It is demonstrated in this paper that the assumption of the emissivity induces errors in modeling the surface energy budget over Taklimakan Desert where ɛ is far smaller than original value. One feasible solution to this problem is to apply the accurate broadband emissivity into land surface models. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument has routinely measured spectral emissivities in six thermal infrared bands. The empirical regression equations have been developed in this study to convert these spectral emissivities to broadband emissivity required by land surface models. In order to calibrate the regression equations, using a portable Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer instrument, crossing Taklimakan Desert along with highway from north to south, to measure the accurate broadband emissivity. The observed emissivity data show broadband ɛ around 0.89-0.92. To examine the impact of improved ɛ to radiative energy redistribution, simulation studies were conducted using offline CoLM. The results illustrate that large impacts of surface ɛ occur over desert, with changes up in surface skin temperature, as well as evident changes in sensible heat fluxes. Keywords: Taklimakan Desert, surface broadband emissivity, Fourier Transform infrared spectrometer, MODIS, CoLM

  17. A MODELING APPROACH FOR ESTIMATING WATERSHED IMPERVIOUS SURFACE AREA FROM NATIONAL LAND COVER DATA 92

    EPA Science Inventory

    We used National Land Cover Data 92 (NLCD92), vector impervious surface data, and raster GIS overlay methods to derive impervious surface coefficients per NLCD92 class in portions of the Nfid-Atlantic physiographic region. The methods involve a vector to raster conversion of the ...

  18. USGS Mineral Resources Program; national maps and datasets for research and land planning

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Nicholson, S.W.; Stoeser, D.B.; Ludington, S.D.; Wilson, Frederic H.

    2001-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey, the Nation’s leader in producing and maintaining earth science data, serves as an advisor to Congress, the Department of the Interior, and many other Federal and State agencies. Nationwide datasets that are easily available and of high quality are critical for addressing a wide range of land-planning, resource, and environmental issues. Four types of digital databases (geological, geophysical, geochemical, and mineral occurrence) are being compiled and upgraded by the Mineral Resources Program on regional and national scales to meet these needs. Where existing data are incomplete, new data are being collected to ensure national coverage. Maps and analyses produced from these databases provide basic information essential for mineral resource assessments and environmental studies, as well as fundamental information for regional and national land-use studies. Maps and analyses produced from the databases are instrumental to ongoing basic research, such as the identification of mineral deposit origins, determination of regional background values of chemical elements with known environmental impact, and study of the relationships between toxic elements or mining practices to human health. As datasets are completed or revised, the information is made available through a variety of media, including the Internet. Much of the available information is the result of cooperative activities with State and other Federal agencies. The upgraded Mineral Resources Program datasets make geologic, geophysical, geochemical, and mineral occurrence information at the state, regional, and national scales available to members of Congress, State and Federal government agencies, researchers in academia, and the general public. The status of the Mineral Resources Program datasets is outlined below.

  19. Object Based Image Analysis Combining High Spatial Resolution Imagery and Laser Point Clouds for Urban Land Cover

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zou, Xiaoliang; Zhao, Guihua; Li, Jonathan; Yang, Yuanxi; Fang, Yong

    2016-06-01

    With the rapid developments of the sensor technology, high spatial resolution imagery and airborne Lidar point clouds can be captured nowadays, which make classification, extraction, evaluation and analysis of a broad range of object features available. High resolution imagery, Lidar dataset and parcel map can be widely used for classification as information carriers. Therefore, refinement of objects classification is made possible for the urban land cover. The paper presents an approach to object based image analysis (OBIA) combing high spatial resolution imagery and airborne Lidar point clouds. The advanced workflow for urban land cover is designed with four components. Firstly, colour-infrared TrueOrtho photo and laser point clouds were pre-processed to derive the parcel map of water bodies and nDSM respectively. Secondly, image objects are created via multi-resolution image segmentation integrating scale parameter, the colour and shape properties with compactness criterion. Image can be subdivided into separate object regions. Thirdly, image objects classification is performed on the basis of segmentation and a rule set of knowledge decision tree. These objects imagery are classified into six classes such as water bodies, low vegetation/grass, tree, low building, high building and road. Finally, in order to assess the validity of the classification results for six classes, accuracy assessment is performed through comparing randomly distributed reference points of TrueOrtho imagery with the classification results, forming the confusion matrix and calculating overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient. The study area focuses on test site Vaihingen/Enz and a patch of test datasets comes from the benchmark of ISPRS WG III/4 test project. The classification results show higher overall accuracy for most types of urban land cover. Overall accuracy is 89.5% and Kappa coefficient equals to 0.865. The OBIA approach provides an effective and convenient way to combine high

  20. Using Land Surface Phenology to Detect Land Use Change in the Northern Great Plains

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nguyen, L. H.; Henebry, G. M.

    2017-12-01

    The Northern Great Plains of the US have been undergoing many types of land cover / land use change over the past two decades, including expansion of irrigation, conversion of grassland to cropland, biofuels production, urbanization, and fossil fuel mining. Much of the literature on these changes has relied on post-classification change detection based on a limited number of observations per year. Here we demonstrate an approach to characterize land dynamics through land surface phenology (LSP) by synergistic use of image time series at two scales. Our study areas include regions of interest (ROIs) across the Northern Great Plains located within Landsat path overlap zones to boost the number of valid observations (free of clouds or snow) each year. We first compute accumulated growing degree-days (AGDD) from MODIS 8-day composites of land surface temperature (MOD11A2 and MYD11A2). Using Landsat Collection 1 surface reflectance-derived vegetation indices (NDVI, EVI), we then fit at each pixel a downward convex quadratic model linking the vegetation index to each year's progression of AGDD. This quadratic equation exhibits linearity in a mathematical sense; thus, the fitted models can be linearly mixed and unmixed using a set of LSP endmembers (defined by the fitted parameter coefficients of the quadratic model) that represent "pure" land cover types with distinct seasonal patterns found within the region, such as winter wheat, spring wheat, maize, soybean, sunflower, hay/pasture/grassland, developed/built-up, among others. Information about land cover corresponding to each endmember are provided by the NLCD (National Land Cover Dataset) and CDL (Cropland Data Layer). We use linear unmixing to estimate the likely proportion of each LSP endmember within particular areas stratified by latitude. By tracking the proportions over the 2001-2011 period, we can quantify various types of land transitions in the Northern Great Plains.

  1. Mapping national scale land cover disturbance for the continental United States, 2006 to 2010

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hansen, M. C.; Potapov, P. V.; Egorov, A.; Roy, D. P.; Loveland, T. R.

    2011-12-01

    Data from the Web-Enabled Landsat Data (WELD) project were used to quantify forest cover loss and bare ground gain dynamics for the continental United States at a 30 meter spatial resolution from 2006 to 2010. Results illustrate the land cover dynamics associated with forestry, urbanization and other medium to long-term cover conversion processes. Ephemeral changes, such as crop rotations and fallows or inundation, were not quantified. Forest disturbance is pervasive at the national-scale, while increasing bare ground is found in growing urban areas as well as in mining regions. The methods applied are an outgrowth of the Vegetation Continuous Field (VCF) method, initially employed with MODIS data and then WELD data to map percent cover variables. As in our previous work with MODIS in mapping forest change, we applied the VCF method to characterize forest cover loss and bare ground gain probability per pixel. Additional themes will be added to provide a more comprehensive picture of national-scale land dynamics based on these initial results using WELD.

  2. Imaging Flash Lidar for Safe Landing on Solar System Bodies and Spacecraft Rendezvous and Docking

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Amzajerdian, Farzin; Roback, Vincent E.; Bulyshev, Alexander E.; Brewster, Paul F.; Carrion, William A; Pierrottet, Diego F.; Hines, Glenn D.; Petway, Larry B.; Barnes, Bruce W.; Noe, Anna M.

    2015-01-01

    NASA has been pursuing flash lidar technology for autonomous, safe landing on solar system bodies and for automated rendezvous and docking. During the final stages of the landing from about 1 kilometer to 500 meters above the ground, the flash lidar can generate 3-Dimensional images of the terrain to identify hazardous features such as craters, rocks, and steep slopes. The onboard flight computer can then use the 3-D map of terrain to guide the vehicle to a safe location. As an automated rendezvous and docking sensor, the flash lidar can provide relative range, velocity, and bearing from an approaching spacecraft to another spacecraft or a space station. NASA Langley Research Center has developed and demonstrated a flash lidar sensor system capable of generating 16,000 pixels range images with 7 centimeters precision, at 20 Hertz frame rate, from a maximum slant range of 1800 m from the target area. This paper describes the lidar instrument and presents the results of recent flight tests onboard a rocket-propelled free-flyer vehicle (Morpheus) built by NASA Johnson Space Center. The flights were conducted at a simulated lunar terrain site, consisting of realistic hazard features and designated landing areas, built at NASA Kennedy Space Center specifically for this demonstration test. This paper also provides an overview of the plan for continued advancement of the flash lidar technology aimed at enhancing its performance to meet both landing and automated rendezvous and docking applications.

  3. Research and Application of Remote Sensing Monitoring Method for Desertification Land Under Time and Space Constraints

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Nannnan; Wang, Rongbao; Zhang, Feng

    2018-04-01

    Serious land desertification and sandified threaten the urban ecological security and the sustainable economic and social development. In recent years, a large number of mobile sand dunes in Horqin sandy land flow into the northwest of Liaoning Province under the monsoon, make local agriculture suffer serious harm. According to the characteristics of desertification land in northwestern Liaoning, based on the First National Geographical Survey data, the Second National Land Survey data and the 1984-2014 Landsat satellite long time sequence data and other multi-source data, we constructed a remote sensing monitoring index system of desertification land in Northwest Liaoning. Through the analysis of space-time-spectral characteristics of desertification land, a method for multi-spectral remote sensing image recognition of desertification land under time-space constraints is proposed. This method was used to identify and extract the distribution and classification of desertification land of Chaoyang City (a typical citie of desertification in northwestern Liaoning) in 2008 and 2014, and monitored the changes and transfers of desertification land from 2008 to 2014. Sandification information was added to the analysis of traditional landscape changes, improved the analysis model of desertification land landscape index, and the characteristics and laws of landscape dynamics and landscape pattern change of desertification land from 2008 to 2014 were analyzed and revealed.

  4. Impact of new land boundary conditions from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data on the climatology of land surface variables

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tian, Y.; Dickinson, R. E.; Zhou, L.; Shaikh, M.

    2004-10-01

    This paper uses the Community Land Model (CLM2) to investigate the improvements of a new land surface data set, created from multiple high-quality collection 4 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data of leaf area index (LAI), plant functional type, and vegetation continuous fields, for modeled land surface variables. The previous land surface data in CLM2 underestimate LAI and overestimate the percent cover of grass/crop over most of the global area. For snow-covered regions with abundant solar energy the increased LAI and percent cover of tree/shrub in the new data set decreases the percent cover of surface snow and increases net radiation and thus increases ground and surface (2-m) air temperature, which reduces most of the model cold bias. For snow-free regions the increased LAI and changes in the percent cover from grass/crop to tree or shrub decrease ground and surface air temperature by converting most of the increased net radiation to latent heat flux, which decreases the model warm bias. Furthermore, the new data set greatly decreases ground evaporation and increases canopy evapotranspiration over tropical forests, especially during the wet season, owing to the higher LAI and more trees in the new data set. It makes the simulated ground evaporation and canopy evapotranspiration closer to reality and also reduces the warm biases over tropical regions.

  5. Land cover mapping of North and Central America—Global Land Cover 2000

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Latifovic, Rasim; Zhu, Zhi-Liang

    2004-01-01

    The Land Cover Map of North and Central America for the year 2000 (GLC 2000-NCA), prepared by NRCan/CCRS and USGS/EROS Data Centre (EDC) as a regional component of the Global Land Cover 2000 project, is the subject of this paper. A new mapping approach for transforming satellite observations acquired by the SPOT4/VGTETATION (VGT) sensor into land cover information is outlined. The procedure includes: (1) conversion of daily data into 10-day composite; (2) post-seasonal correction and refinement of apparent surface reflectance in 10-day composite images; and (3) extraction of land cover information from the composite images. The pre-processing and mosaicking techniques developed and used in this study proved to be very effective in removing cloud contamination, BRDF effects, and noise in Short Wave Infra-Red (SWIR). The GLC 2000-NCA land cover map is provided as a regional product with 28 land cover classes based on modified Federal Geographic Data Committee/Vegetation Classification Standard (FGDC NVCS) classification system, and as part of a global product with 22 land cover classes based on Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) of the Food and Agriculture Organisation. The map was compared on both areal and per-pixel bases over North and Central America to the International Geosphere–Biosphere Programme (IGBP) global land cover classification, the University of Maryland global land cover classification (UMd) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Global land cover classification produced by Boston University (BU). There was good agreement (79%) on the spatial distribution and areal extent of forest between GLC 2000-NCA and the other maps, however, GLC 2000-NCA provides additional information on the spatial distribution of forest types. The GLC 2000-NCA map was produced at the continental level incorporating specific needs of the region.

  6. An Iterative Inference Procedure Applying Conditional Random Fields for Simultaneous Classification of Land Cover and Land Use

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Albert, L.; Rottensteiner, F.; Heipke, C.

    2015-08-01

    Land cover and land use exhibit strong contextual dependencies. We propose a novel approach for the simultaneous classification of land cover and land use, where semantic and spatial context is considered. The image sites for land cover and land use classification form a hierarchy consisting of two layers: a land cover layer and a land use layer. We apply Conditional Random Fields (CRF) at both layers. The layers differ with respect to the image entities corresponding to the nodes, the employed features and the classes to be distinguished. In the land cover layer, the nodes represent super-pixels; in the land use layer, the nodes correspond to objects from a geospatial database. Both CRFs model spatial dependencies between neighbouring image sites. The complex semantic relations between land cover and land use are integrated in the classification process by using contextual features. We propose a new iterative inference procedure for the simultaneous classification of land cover and land use, in which the two classification tasks mutually influence each other. This helps to improve the classification accuracy for certain classes. The main idea of this approach is that semantic context helps to refine the class predictions, which, in turn, leads to more expressive context information. Thus, potentially wrong decisions can be reversed at later stages. The approach is designed for input data based on aerial images. Experiments are carried out on a test site to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. We show the effectiveness of the iterative inference procedure and demonstrate that a smaller size of the super-pixels has a positive influence on the classification result.

  7. Estimation of Land Surface Energy Balance Using Satellite Data of Spatial Reduced Resolution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vintila, Ruxandra; Radnea, Cristina; Savin, Elena; Poenaru, Violeta

    2010-12-01

    The paper presents preliminary results concerning the monitoring at national level of several geo-biophysical variables retrieved by remote sensing, in particular those related to drought or aridisation. The study, which is in progress, represents also an exercise for to the implementation of a Land Monitoring Core Service for Romania, according to the Kopernikus Program and in compliance with the INSPIRE Directive. The SEBS model has been used to retrieve land surface energy balance variables, such as turbulent heat fluxes, evaporative fraction and daily evaporation, based on three information types: (1) surface albedo, emissivity, temperature, fraction of vegetation cover (fCover), leaf area index (LAI) and vegetation height; (2) air pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed at the planetary boundary layer (PBL) height; (3) downward solar radiation and downward longwave radiation. AATSR and MERIS archived reprocessed images have provided several types of information. Thus, surface albedo, emissivity, and land surface temperature have been retrieved from AATSR, while LAI and fCover have been estimated from MERIS. The vegetation height has been derived from CORINE Land Cover and PELCOM Land Use databases, while the meteorological information at the height of PBL have been estimated from the measurements provided by the national weather station network. Other sources of data used during this study have been the GETASSE30 digital elevation model with 30" spatial resolution, used for satellite image orthorectification, and the SIGSTAR-200 geographical information system of soil resources of Romania, used for water deficit characterisation. The study will continue by processing other AATSR and MERIS archived images, complemented by the validation of SEBS results with ground data collected on the most important biomes for Romania at various phenological stages, and the transformation of evaporation / evapotranspiration into a drought index using the soil texture

  8. Sequoia National Park

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2017-12-08

    Naked peaks, sheltered valleys, snowfields, towering trees, and alpine meadows make up the varied landscape of Sequoia National Park in California. Established as a National Park by Congress on September 25, 1890, Sequoia National Park is the second-oldest U.S. National Park, after Yellowstone. This national park borders Kings Canyon National Park. The Thematic Mapper sensor on NASA’s Landsat 5 satellite captured this true-color image of Sequoia National Park, outlined in white, on October 22, 2008. Sunlight illuminates southern slopes, leaving northern faces in shadow in this autumn image. In the west, deep green conifers carpet most of the land. These forested mountains are home to the park’s most famous giant sequoia trees. Sequoia National Park sits at the southern end of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Terrain alternates between extremes, from peaks such as Mt. Whitney—the highest peak in the contiguous United States—to deep caverns. The rivers and lakes in this region are part of a watershed valuable not only to the plants and animals of the park, but also to farms and cities in California’s Central Valley. Read more: go.nasa.gov/2bzGOXr Credit: NASA/Landsat5 NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

  9. THEMATIC ACCURACY OF THE 1992 NATIONAL LAND-COVER DATA (NLCD) FOR THE EASTERN UNITED STATES: STATISTICAL METHODOLOGY AND REGIONAL RESULTS

    EPA Science Inventory

    The accuracy of the National Land Cover Data (NLCD) map is assessed via a probability sampling design incorporating three levels of stratification and two stages of selection. Agreement between the map and reference land-cover labels is defined as a match between the primary or a...

  10. Proposed wildland fire amendment to the Coronado National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan

    Treesearch

    Sherry A. Tune; Erin M. Boyle

    2005-01-01

    The Coronado National Forest proposed amending its 1986 Land and Resource Management Plan to conform to the 2001 Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy. This Policy emphasizes fire’s essential role in maintaining natural ecosystems and allows a broader range of management options for wildland fires. Under the current Forest Plan, fires must be suppressed in areas...

  11. a Study on the Improvement of Cadastral System in Mongolia - Focused on National Land Information System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Munkhbaatar, B.; Lee, J.

    2015-10-01

    National land information system (NLIS) is an essential part of the Mongolian land reform. NLIS is a web based and centralized system which covers administration of cadastral database all over the country among land departments. Current ongoing NLIS implementation is vital to improve the cadastral system in Mongolia. This study is intended to define existing problems in current Mongolian cadastral system and propose administrative institutional and systematic implementation through NLIS. Once NLIS launches with proposed model of comprehensive cadastral system it will lead to not only economic and sustainable development but also contribute to citizens' satisfaction and lessen the burdensomeness of bureaucracy. Moreover, prevention of land conflicts, especially in metropolitan area as well as gathering land tax and fees. Furthermore after establishment of NLIS, it is advisable that connecting NLIS to other relevant state administrational organizations or institutions that have relevant database system. Connections with other relevant organizations will facilitate not only smooth and productive workflow but also offer reliable and more valuable information by its systemic integration with NLIS.

  12. Classification of irrigated land using satellite imagery, the High Plains aquifer, nominal date 1992

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Qi, Sharon L.; Konduris, Alexandria; Litke, David W.; Dupree, Jean

    2002-01-01

    Satellite imagery from the Landsat Thematic Mapper (nominal date 1992) was used to classify and map the location of irrigated land across the High Plains aquifer. The High Plains aquifer underlies 174,000 square miles in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting a waterquality study of the High Plains aquifer as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program. To help interpret data and select sites for the study, it is helpful to know the location of irrigated land within the study area. To date, the only information available for the entire area is 20 years old. To update the data on irrigated land, 40 summer and 40 spring images (nominal date 1992) were acquired from the National Land Cover Data set and processed using a band-ratio method (Landsat Thematic Mapper band 4 divided by band 3) to enhance the vegetation signatures. The study area was divided into nine subregions with similar environmental characteristics, and a band-ratio threshold was selected from imagery in each subregion that differentiated the cutoff between irrigated and nonirrigated land. The classified images for each subregion were mosaicked to produce an irrigated land map for the study area. The total amount of irrigated land classified from the 1992 imagery was 13.1 million acres, or about 12 percent of the total land in the High Plains. This estimate is approximately 1.5 percent greater than the amount of irrigated land reported in the 1992 Census of Agriculture (12.8 millions acres). This information was also compared to a similar data set based on 1980 imagery. The 1980 data classified 13.7 million acres as irrigated. Although the change in the amount of irrigated land between the two times was not substantial, the location of the irrigated land did shift from areas where there were large ground-water-level declines to other areas where ground-water levels were static or rising.

  13. A Landing Site for ExoMars 2016

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2015-11-27

    This image from NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft is of a landing site that the flattest, safest place on Mars: part of Meridiani Planum, close to where the Opportunity rover landed. In March 2016, the European Space Agency in partnership with Roscosmos will launch the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. This orbiter will also carry an Entry, Descent, and Landing Demonstration Module (EDM): a lander designed primarily to demonstrate the capability to land on Mars. The EDM will survive for only a few days, running on battery power, but will make a few environmental measurements. The landing site is the flattest, safest place on Mars: part of Meridiani Planum, close to where the Opportunity rover landed. This image shows what this terrain is like: very flat and featureless. A full-resolution sample reveals the major surface features: small craters and wind ripples. HiRISE has been imaging the landing site region in advance of the landing, and will re-image the site after landing to identify the major pieces of hardware: heat shield, backshell with parachute, and the lander itself. The distribution of these pieces will provide information about the entry, descent and landing. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20159

  14. Land Boundary Delineation to Supporting of Program Systematic Complete Land Registration (PTSL) Using Multicopter-RTF Data (Case study: Wotan Village, Panceng Sub District, Gresik district)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cahyono, A. B.; Deviantari, U. W.

    2017-12-01

    According to statutory regulation issued by Ministry of Land and Spatial Planning/Head of National Land Agency (BPN) number 35/2016, Comprehensive Systematic land registration is a sequential activity of which continuously and systematically carried out by the government ranging from collecting, processing, recording and presenting, as well as maintaining the physical and juridical data in the form of map and list of land-plots and flats, including the transfer of legal title for land plots and flats with their inherent rights. Delineation is one method to identify land plots by utilizing map image or high resolution photo and defining the boundaries by drawing lines to determine the valid and recognizable boundaries. A guideline to delineate the unregistered land plots may be determined from this two methods’ accuracy result, using general boundary applied to aerial photo taken by multicopter RTF. Data taken from a height of 70 meter on an area obtained a number of 156 photos with 5 GCP resulting in an photo map with GSD 2.14 cm. The 11 samples parcels are selected in the sites of ± 7 ha. There are 11 samples of land parcels are tested. The area difference test for every parcel using a average standard deviation of 17,043 indicates that there are three land parcels which have significant area difference and 8 others do not have significant area difference. Based on the tolerance of National Land Agency, among 11 parcels studied, there are 8 parcels that fullfill the tolerances and three others do not fullfill tolerances. The percentage of area difference average between land registration map and orthophoto is 4,72%. The result shows that the differences in boundaries and areas that may be caused by a systematic error of method in describing the boundaries of the ground.

  15. The Image of Women in the National Education Text Books in Jordan

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Al-Khalidi, Nasiema Mustafa Sadeq

    2016-01-01

    The study aimed to identify the image of women and how it was dealt with in the National Education books in Jordan, where the content of the National Education books analyzed and for multiple age stages, also it addressed the content analysis of images, concepts and fees, activities and evaluation to identify the image of women in the family, at…

  16. Public lands - from concept to practice

    Treesearch

    John J. Vrablec

    1977-01-01

    Intensive timber management can and is practiced on National Forest lands in the Northeast. There are, however many constraints and limitations which are placed upon the public lands manager. The key issue here is that the National Forests are PUBLIC lands which must be managed for the public.

  17. 8 CFR 234.2 - Landing requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 8 Aliens and Nationality 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Landing requirements. 234.2 Section 234.2 Aliens and Nationality DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IMMIGRATION REGULATIONS DESIGNATION OF PORTS OF ENTRY FOR ALIENS ARRIVING BY CIVIL AIRCRAFT § 234.2 Landing requirements. (a) Place of landing. Aircraft...

  18. 8 CFR 234.2 - Landing requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 8 Aliens and Nationality 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Landing requirements. 234.2 Section 234.2 Aliens and Nationality DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IMMIGRATION REGULATIONS DESIGNATION OF PORTS OF ENTRY FOR ALIENS ARRIVING BY CIVIL AIRCRAFT § 234.2 Landing requirements. (a) Place of landing. Aircraft...

  19. 8 CFR 234.2 - Landing requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 8 Aliens and Nationality 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Landing requirements. 234.2 Section 234.2 Aliens and Nationality DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IMMIGRATION REGULATIONS DESIGNATION OF PORTS OF ENTRY FOR ALIENS ARRIVING BY CIVIL AIRCRAFT § 234.2 Landing requirements. (a) Place of landing. Aircraft...

  20. 8 CFR 234.2 - Landing requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 8 Aliens and Nationality 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Landing requirements. 234.2 Section 234.2 Aliens and Nationality DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IMMIGRATION REGULATIONS DESIGNATION OF PORTS OF ENTRY FOR ALIENS ARRIVING BY CIVIL AIRCRAFT § 234.2 Landing requirements. (a) Place of landing. Aircraft...

  1. 8 CFR 234.2 - Landing requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 8 Aliens and Nationality 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Landing requirements. 234.2 Section 234.2 Aliens and Nationality DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IMMIGRATION REGULATIONS DESIGNATION OF PORTS OF ENTRY FOR ALIENS ARRIVING BY CIVIL AIRCRAFT § 234.2 Landing requirements. (a) Place of landing. Aircraft...

  2. 32 CFR 855.14 - Unauthorized landings.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 6 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Unauthorized landings. 855.14 Section 855.14 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE AIRCRAFT CIVIL AIRCRAFT USE OF UNITED STATES AIR FORCE AIRFIELDS Civil Aircraft Landing Permits § 855.14 Unauthorized landings...

  3. Investigation of imaging and flight guidance concepts for rotorcraft zero visibility approach and landing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mckeown, W. L.

    1984-01-01

    A simulation experiment to explore the use of an augmented pictorial display to approach and land a helicopter in zero visibility conditions was conducted in a fixed base simulator. A literature search was also conducted to determine related work. A display was developed and pilot in-the-loop evaluations were conducted. The pictorial display was a simulated, high resolution radar image, augmented with various parameters to improve distance and motion cues. Approaches and landings were accomplished, but with higher workloads and less accuracy than necessary for a practical system. Recommendations are provided for display improvements and a follow on simulation study in a moving based simulator.

  4. 36 CFR 17.3 - Lands subject to disposition.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... except as to lands which the General Management Plan for the particular unit of the National Park System... INTERIOR CONVEYANCE OF FREEHOLD AND LEASEHOLD INTERESTS ON LANDS OF THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM § 17.3 Lands... Secretary from non-Federal sources within any unit of the National Park System other than national parks and...

  5. Land-Cover Change in the East Central Texas Plains, 1973-2000

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Karstensen, Krista A.

    2009-01-01

    Project Background: The Geographic Analysis and Monitoring (GAM) Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Land Cover Trends project is focused on understanding the rates, trends, causes, and consequences of contemporary U.S. land-use and land-cover change. The objectives of the study are to: (1) develop a comprehensive methodology for using sampling and change analysis techniques and Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) and Thematic Mapper (TM) data for measuring regional land-cover change across the United States, (2) characterize the types, rates and temporal variability of change for a 30-year period, (3) document regional driving forces and consequences of change, and (4) prepare a national synthesis of land-cover change (Loveland and others, 1999). Using the 1999 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Level III ecoregions derived from Omernik (1987) as the geographic framework, geospatial data collected between 1973 and 2000 were processed and analyzed to characterize ecosystem responses to land-use changes. The 27-year study period was divided into five temporal periods: 1973-1980, 1980-1986, 1986-1992, 1992-2000, and 1973-2000. General land-cover classes such as water, developed, grassland/shrubland, and agriculture for these periods were interpreted from Landsat MSS, TM, and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus imagery to categorize land-cover change and evaluate using a modified Anderson Land-Use Land-Cover Classification System for image interpretation. The interpretation of these land-cover classes complement the program objective of looking at land-use change with cover serving as a surrogate for land use. The land-cover change rates are estimated using a stratified, random sampling of 10-kilometer (km) by 10-km blocks allocated within each ecoregion. For each sample block, satellite images are used to interpret land-cover change for the five time periods previously mentioned. Additionally, historical aerial photographs from similar timeframes and other

  6. Regional Climate Modeling over the Marmara Region, Turkey, with Improved Land Cover Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sertel, E.; Robock, A.

    2007-12-01

    Land surface controls the partitioning of available energy at the surface between sensible and latent heat,and controls partitioning of available water between evaporation and runoff. Current land cover data available within the regional climate models such as Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), the Fifth-Generation NCAR/Penn State Mesoscale Model (MM5) and Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) was obtained from 1- km Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer satellite images spanning April 1992 through March 1993 with an unsupervised classification technique. These data are not up-to-date and are not accurate for all regions and some land cover types such as urban areas. Here we introduce new, up-to-date and accurate land cover data for the Marmara Region, Turkey derived from Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper images into the WRF regional climate model. We used several image processing techniques to create accurate land cover data from Landsat images obtained between 2001 and 2005. First, all images were atmospherically and radiometrically corrected to minimize contamination effects of atmospheric particles and systematic errors. Then, geometric correction was performed for each image to eliminate geometric distortions and define images in a common coordinate system. Finally, unsupervised and supervised classification techniques were utilized to form the most accurate land cover data yet for the study area. Accuracy assessments of the classifications were performed using error matrix and kappa statistics to find the best classification results. Maximum likelihood classification method gave the most accurate results over the study area. We compared the new land cover data with the default WRF land cover data. WRF land cover data cannot represent urban areas in the cities of Istanbul, Izmit, and Bursa. As an example, both original satellite images and new land cover data showed the expansion of urban areas into the Istanbul metropolitan area, but in the WRF

  7. South Florida Everglades: satellite image map

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Jones, John W.; Thomas, Jean-Claude; Desmond, G.B.

    2001-01-01

    These satellite image maps are one product of the USGS Land Characteristics from Remote Sensing project, funded through the USGS Place-Based Studies Program (http://access.usgs.gov/) with support from the Everglades National Park (http://www.nps.gov/ever/). The objective of this project is to develop and apply innovative remote sensing and geographic information system techniques to map the distribution of vegetation, vegetation characteristics, and related hydrologic variables through space and over time. The mapping and description of vegetation characteristics and their variations are necessary to accurately simulate surface hydrology and other surface processes in South Florida and to monitor land surface changes. As part of this research, data from many airborne and satellite imaging systems have been georeferenced and processed to facilitate data fusion and analysis. These image maps were created using image fusion techniques developed as part of this project.

  8. Ambassadors of the Swedish Nation: National Images in the Teaching of the Swedish Lecturers in Germany 1918-1945

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Åkerlund, Andreas

    2015-01-01

    This article analyses the teaching of Swedish language lecturers active in Germany during the first half of the twentieth century. It shows the centrality of literature and literary constructions and analyses images of Swedishness and the Swedish nation present in the teaching material of that time in relation to the national image present in…

  9. The National Ballistics Imaging Comparison (NBIC) project.

    PubMed

    Song, J; Vorburger, T V; Ballou, S; Thompson, R M; Yen, J; Renegar, T B; Zheng, A; Silver, R M; Ols, M

    2012-03-10

    In response to the guidelines issued by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB-International) to establish traceability and quality assurance in U.S. crime laboratories, a NIST/ATF joint project entitled National Ballistics Imaging Comparison (NBIC) was initialized in 2008. The NBIC project aims to establish a National Traceability and Quality System for ballistics identifications in crime laboratories within the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) of the U.S. NIST Standard Reference Material (SRM) 2460 bullets and 2461 cartridge cases are used as reference standards. 19 ballistics examiners from 13 U.S. crime laboratories participated in this project. They each performed 24 periodic image acquisitions and correlations of the SRM bullets and cartridge cases over the course of a year, but one examiner only participated in Phase 1 tests of SRM cartridge case. The correlation scores were collected by NIST for statistical analyses, from which control charts and control limits were developed for the proposed Quality System and for promoting future assessments and accreditations for firearm evidence in U.S. forensic laboratories in accordance with the ISO 17025 Standard. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

  10. The Ouachita and Ozark- St. Francis National Forests: A History of the Lands and USDA Forest Service Tenure

    Treesearch

    Stephen Strausberg; Walter A. Hough

    1997-01-01

    A brief history of the Ouachita and Ozark-St. Francis National Forests shows that many factors influenced the land, vegetation, wildlife, and other resources that have beenunder USDA Forest Serviceadministration for almost 90 years. This history indicates that laws, acts, and regulations not only created the national forests in Arkansas and Oklahoma but continue to...

  11. Characterizing human-environment interactions in the Galapagos Islands: A case study of land use/land cover dynamics in Isabela Island

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McCleary, Amy L.

    This dissertation examines contemporary land use and land cover (LULC) change in the communities and protected areas of Isabela Island to provide insights into human-environment interactions in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. The growing human presence in Galapagos over the last four decades has been accompanied by significant changes in LULC on inhabited islands in the archipelago. Local stakeholders and decision-makers have recently called for a more integrative approach to understanding interactions between people and the environment in the archipelago. This study is guided by two complementary bodies of work situated within the human-environment tradition of Geography---land change science and landscape ecology. First, support Vector Machine (SVM) and Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) classifiers are evaluated for mapping LULC from high spatial resolution satellite images. The results show that thematic LULC classifications produced by OBIA are more accurate overall than those generated by SVM. However, important tradeoffs exist between improvements in classification accuracy and processing requirements. The composition and spatial configuration of LULC change are then mapped and quantified from a time series of QuickBird and WorldView-2 satellite images from 2003 to 2010. The pattern metric and change detection analyses reveal that land use change is extensive within the communities due to the expansion and consolidation of built-up areas, and fragmentation of and declines in agriculture. The Galapagos National Park is primarily transformed by exotic plant invasion, forests expansion, and shrinking coastal lagoons. Patterns of agricultural land abandonment, plant invasion, and forest expansion over the same period are described from pattern metric and overlay analyses. Potential drivers of these LULC transitions are identified from logistic regression models, descriptive statistics of agricultural surveys and population censuses, and interviews with

  12. High Resolution Land Use Land Cover Classification using Landsat Earth Observation Data for the Continental Africa

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Midekisa, A.; Bennet, A.; Gething, P. W.; Holl, F.; Andrade-Pacheco, R.; Savory, D. J.; Hugh, S. J.

    2016-12-01

    Spatially detailed and temporally dynamic land use land cover data is necessary to monitor the state of the land surface for various applications. Yet, such data at a continental to global scale is lacking. Here, we developed high resolution (30 meter) annual land use land cover layers for the continental Africa using Google Earth Engine. To capture ground truth training data, high resolution satellite imageries were visually inspected and used to identify 7, 212 sample Landsat pixels that were comprised entirely of one of seven land use land cover classes (water, man-made impervious surface, high biomass, low biomass, rock, sand and bare soil). For model validation purposes, 80% of points from each class were used as training data, with 20% withheld as a validation dataset. Cloud free Landsat 7 annual composites for 2000 to 2015 were generated and spectral bands from the Landsat images were then extracted for each of the training and validation sample points. In addition to the Landsat spectral bands, spectral indices such as normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized difference water index (NDWI) were used as covariates in the model. Additionally, calibrated night time light imageries from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were included as a covariate. A decision tree classification algorithm was applied to predict the 7 land cover classes for the periods 2000 to 2015 using the training dataset. Using the validation dataset, classification accuracy including omission error and commission error were computed for each land cover class. Model results showed that overall accuracy of classification was high (88%). This high resolution land cover product developed for the continental Africa will be available for public use and can potentially enhance the ability of monitoring and studying the state of the Earth's surface.

  13. Operational Land Imager relative radiometric calibration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barsi, Julia A.; Markham, Brian L.

    2015-09-01

    The Operational Land Imager (OLI), on board the Landsat-8 satellite, is a pushbroom sensor with nearly 7000 detectors per band, divided between 14 separate modules. While rigorously characterized prior to launch, the shear number of individual detectors presents a challenge to maintaining the on-orbit relative calibration, such that stripes, bands and other artifacts are minimized in the final image products. On-orbit relative calibration of the OLI is primarily monitored and corrected by observing an on-board primary solar diffuser panel. The panel is the most uniform target available to the OLI, though as observed but the OLI, it has a slope across the field of view due to view angle effects. Just after launch, parameters were derived using the solar diffuser data, to correct for the angular effects across the 14 modules. The residual discontinuities between arrays and the detector-to-detector uniformity continue to be monitored on a weekly basis. The observed variations in the responses to the diffuser panel since launch are thought to be due to real instrument changes. Since launch, the Coastal/Aerosol (CA) and Blue bands have shown the most variation in relative calibration of the VNIR bands, with as much as 0.14% change (3-sigma) between consecutive relative gain estimates. The other VNIR bands (Green, Red and NIR) initially had detectors showing a slow drift of about 0.2% per year, though this stopped after an instrument power cycle about seven months after launch. The SWIR bands also exhibit variability between collects (0.11% 3-sigma) but the larger changes have been where individual detectors' responses change suddenly by as much as 1.5%. The mechanisms behind these changes are not well understood but in order to minimize impact to the users, the OLI relative calibration is updated on a quarterly basis in order to capture changes over time.

  14. 75 FR 19999 - Public Land Order No. 7739; Extension of Public Land Order No. 6776; Washington

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-04-16

    ...-Wenatchee National Forest, 215 Melody Lane, Wenatchee, Washington 98801, (509) 664-9262, or Charles R. Roy... Wenatchee National Forest. The United States Forest Service will continue to manage the lands to protect.... Public Land Order No. 6776 (55 FR 14422, (1990)) that withdrew 8,950 acres of National Forest System...

  15. The Landsat Data Continuity Mission Operational Land Imager: Pre-Launch Performance

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Markham, Brian L.; Knight, Edward J.; Canova, Brent; Donley, Eric; Kvaran, Geir; Lee, Kenton

    2011-01-01

    The Operational Land Imager(OLI) will be the main instrument on Landsat-8 when it launches in 2012. OLI represents a generational change from heritage Landsat instruments in its design but must maintain data continuity with the 30+ year Landsat data archive. As a result, OLI has undergone a stringent calibration and characterization campaign to ensure its characteristics are understood and consistent with past instruments. This paper presents an overview of the OLI design, its major differences from previous Landsat instruments, and a summary of its expected performance.

  16. Satellite image simulations for model-supervised, dynamic retrieval of crop type and land use intensity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bach, H.; Klug, P.; Ruf, T.; Migdall, S.; Schlenz, F.; Hank, T.; Mauser, W.

    2015-04-01

    To support food security, information products about the actual cropping area per crop type, the current status of agricultural production and estimated yields, as well as the sustainability of the agricultural management are necessary. Based on this information, well-targeted land management decisions can be made. Remote sensing is in a unique position to contribute to this task as it is globally available and provides a plethora of information about current crop status. M4Land is a comprehensive system in which a crop growth model (PROMET) and a reflectance model (SLC) are coupled in order to provide these information products by analyzing multi-temporal satellite images. SLC uses modelled surface state parameters from PROMET, such as leaf area index or phenology of different crops to simulate spatially distributed surface reflectance spectra. This is the basis for generating artificial satellite images considering sensor specific configurations (spectral bands, solar and observation geometries). Ensembles of model runs are used to represent different crop types, fertilization status, soil colour and soil moisture. By multi-temporal comparisons of simulated and real satellite images, the land cover/crop type can be classified in a dynamically, model-supervised way and without in-situ training data. The method is demonstrated in an agricultural test-site in Bavaria. Its transferability is studied by analysing PROMET model results for the rest of Germany. Especially the simulated phenological development can be verified on this scale in order to understand whether PROMET is able to adequately simulate spatial, as well as temporal (intra- and inter-season) crop growth conditions, a prerequisite for the model-supervised approach. This sophisticated new technology allows monitoring of management decisions on the field-level using high resolution optical data (presently RapidEye and Landsat). The M4Land analysis system is designed to integrate multi-mission data and is

  17. Demonstrating Change with Astronaut Photography Using Object Based Image Analysis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hollier, Andi; Jagge, Amy

    2017-01-01

    Every day, hundreds of images of Earth flood the Crew Earth Observations database as astronauts use hand held digital cameras to capture spectacular frames from the International Space Station. The variety of resolutions and perspectives provide a template for assessing land cover change over decades. We will focus on urban growth in the second fastest growing city in the nation, Houston, TX, using Object-Based Image Analysis. This research will contribute to the land change science community, integrated resource planning, and monitoring of the rapid rate of urban sprawl.

  18. 78 FR 107 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-01-02

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Special Emphasis Panel, 2013-05 ZEB1 OSR-D(M1)S/Low- Dose CT Imaging..., National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, 6707 Democracy...

  19. Discrimination and Biophysical Characterization of Land Cover Types and Land Conversions in the Brazilian Cerrado Using EO-1 Hyperion Hyperspectral Imagery

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Miura, T.; Huete, A. R.; Ferreira, L.

    2002-12-01

    The savanna, typically found in the sub-tropics and seasonal tropics, are the dominant vegetation biome type in the southern hemisphere, covering approximately 45 % of the South America. In Brazil, the savanna, locally known as "cerrado", is the most intensely stressed biome with rapid and aggressive land use conversions. Better characterization and discrimination of cerrado land cover types are needed in order to improve assessments of the impact of these land cover conversions on carbon storage, nutrient dynamics, and the prospect for sustainable land use in the Amazon region. In this study, we explored the utility of hyperspectral remote sensing in improving discrimination and biophysical/biochemical characterization of the cerrado land cover types by taking advantage of a newly available satellite-based, hyperspectral imaging sensor, "EO-1 Hyperion". A Hyperion image was acquired over the Brasilia National Park (BNP) and surrounding areas in Brasilia on July 20, 2001. Two commonly-used techniques, spectral derivatives and spectral mixture modeling, were applied to the atmospherically-corrected Hyperion scene. Derivative spectroscopy was useful in analyzing variations in spectral signatures and absorption depths, while spectral mixture modeling provided a means to simultaneously analyze variations in component fractions of photosynthetic vegetation (PV), non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV), and soil brightness. Data sets were extracted over a range of land cover types typically found in the Brazilian Cerrado. These included cerrado grassland, shrub cerrado, wooded cerrado, and cerrado woodland as undisturbed cerrado land cover types, and gallery forest as an undisturbed forest cover type in the Cerrado domain, and cultivated pasture as a converted land cover. In the derivative spectra analysis, both the position and magnitude of the red edge peak, and the ligno-cellulose absorptions at 2090nm and around 2300nm wavelengths showed large differences among the land

  20. National Climate Assessment - Land Data Assimilation System (NCA-LDAS) Data at NASA GES DISC

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rui, Hualan; Teng, Bill; Vollmer, Bruce; Jasinski, Michael; Mocko, David; Kempler, Steven

    2016-01-01

    As part of NASA's active participation in the Interagency National Climate Assessment (NCA) program, the Goddard Space Flight Center's Hydrological Sciences Laboratory (HSL) is supporting an Integrated Terrestrial Water Analysis, by using NASA's Land Information System (LIS) and Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS) capabilities. To maximize the benefit of the NCA-LDAS, on completion of planned model runs and uncertainty analysis, NASA will provide open access to all NCA-LDAS components, including input data, output fields, and indicator data, to other NCA-teams and the general public. The NCA-LDAS data will be archived at the NASA GES DISC (Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center) and can be accessed via direct ftp, THREDDS, Mirador search and download, and Giovanni visualization and analysis system.

  1. Remote detection of buried land-mines and IEDs using LWIR polarimetric imaging.

    PubMed

    Gurton, Kristan P; Felton, Melvin

    2012-09-24

    We report results of an ongoing study designed to assess the ability for enhanced detection of recently buried land-mines and/or improvised explosive devices (IED) devices using passive long-wave infrared (LWIR) polarimetric imaging. Polarimetric results are presented for a series of field tests conducted at various locations and soil types. Well-calibrated Stokes images, S0, S1, S2, and the degree-of-linear-polarization (DoLP) are recorded for different line-of-sight (LOS) slant paths at varying distances. Results span a three-year time period in which three different LWIR polarimetric camera systems are used. All three polarimetric imaging platforms used a spinning-achromatic-retarder (SAR) design capable of achieving high polarimetric frame rates and good radiometric throughput without the loss of spatial resolution inherent in other optical designs. Receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) analysis and a standardized contrast parameter are used to compare detectability between conventional LWIR thermal and polarimetric imagery. Results suggest improved detectability, regardless of geographic location or soil type.

  2. Consequences of land use and land cover change

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Slonecker, E. Terrence; Barnes, Christopher; Karstensen, Krista; Milheim, Lesley E.; Roig-Silva, Coral M.

    2013-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Climate and Land Use Change Mission Area is one of seven USGS mission areas that focuses on making substantial scientific "...contributions to understanding how Earth systems interact, respond to, and cause global change". Using satellite and other remotely sensed data, USGS scientists monitor patterns of land cover change over space and time at regional, national, and global scales. These data are analyzed to understand the causes and consequences of changing land cover, such as economic impacts, effects on water quality and availability, the spread of invasive species, habitats and biodiversity, carbon fluctuations, and climate variability. USGS scientists are among the leaders in the study of land cover, which is a term that generally refers to the vegetation and artificial structures that cover the land surface. Examples of land cover include forests, grasslands, wetlands, water, crops, and buildings. Land use involves human activities that take place on the land. For example, "grass" is a land cover, whereas pasture and recreational parks are land uses that produce a cover of grass.

  3. LandingNav: a precision autonomous landing sensor for robotic platforms on planetary bodies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Katake, Anup; Bruccoleri, Chrisitian; Singla, Puneet; Junkins, John L.

    2010-01-01

    Increased interest in the exploration of extra terrestrial planetary bodies calls for an increase in the number of spacecraft landing on remote planetary surfaces. Currently, imaging and radar based surveys are used to determine regions of interest and a safe landing zone. The purpose of this paper is to introduce LandingNav, a sensor system solution for autonomous landing on planetary bodies that enables landing on unknown terrain. LandingNav is based on a novel multiple field of view imaging system that leverages the integration of different state of the art technologies for feature detection, tracking, and 3D dense stereo map creation. In this paper we present the test flight results of the LandingNav system prototype. Sources of errors due to hardware limitations and processing algorithms were identified and will be discussed. This paper also shows that addressing the issues identified during the post-flight test data analysis will reduce the error down to 1-2%, thus providing for a high precision 3D range map sensor system.

  4. Mapping large-area landscape suitability for honey bees to assess the influence of land-use change on sustainability of national pollination services.

    PubMed

    Gallant, Alisa L; Euliss, Ned H; Browning, Zac

    2014-01-01

    Pollination is a critical ecosystem service affected by various drivers of land-use change, such as policies and programs aimed at land resources, market values for crop commodities, local land-management decisions, and shifts in climate. The United States is the world's most active market for pollination services by honey bees, and the Northern Great Plains provide the majority of bee colonies used to meet the Nation's annual pollination needs. Legislation requiring increased production of biofuel crops, increasing commodity prices for crops of little nutritional value for bees in the Northern Great Plains, and reductions in government programs aimed at promoting land conservation are converging to alter the regional landscape in ways that challenge beekeepers to provide adequate numbers of hives for national pollination services. We developed a spatially explicit model that identifies sites with the potential to support large apiaries based on local-scale land-cover requirements for honey bees. We produced maps of potential apiary locations for North Dakota, a leading producer of honey, based on land-cover maps representing (1) an annual time series compiled from existing operational products and (2) a realistic scenario of land change. We found that existing land-cover products lack sufficient local accuracy to monitor actual changes in landscape suitability for honey bees, but our model proved informative for evaluating effects on suitability under scenarios of land change. The scenario we implemented was aligned with current drivers of land-use change in the Northern Great Plains and highlighted the importance of conservation lands in landscapes intensively and extensively managed for crops.

  5. Mapping large-area landscape suitability for honey bees to assess the influence of land-use change on sustainability of national pollination services

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Gallant, Alisa L.; Euliss, Ned H.; Browning, Zac

    2014-01-01

    Pollination is a critical ecosystem service affected by various drivers of land-use change, such as policies and programs aimed at land resources, market values for crop commodities, local land-management decisions, and shifts in climate. The United States is the world's most active market for pollination services by honey bees, and the Northern Great Plains provide the majority of bee colonies used to meet the Nation's annual pollination needs. Legislation requiring increased production of biofuel crops, increasing commodity prices for crops of little nutritional value for bees in the Northern Great Plains, and reductions in government programs aimed at promoting land conservation are converging to alter the regional landscape in ways that challenge beekeepers to provide adequate numbers of hives for national pollination services. We developed a spatially explicit model that identifies sites with the potential to support large apiaries based on local-scale land-cover requirements for honey bees. We produced maps of potential apiary locations for North Dakota, a leading producer of honey, based on land-cover maps representing (1) an annual time series compiled from existing operational products and (2) a realistic scenario of land change. We found that existing land-cover products lack sufficient local accuracy to monitor actual changes in landscape suitability for honey bees, but our model proved informative for evaluating effects on suitability under scenarios of land change. The scenario we implemented was aligned with current drivers of land-use change in the Northern Great Plains and highlighted the importance of conservation lands in landscapes intensively and extensively managed for crops.

  6. Mapping Large-Area Landscape Suitability for Honey Bees to Assess the Influence of Land-Use Change on Sustainability of National Pollination Services

    PubMed Central

    Gallant, Alisa L.; Euliss, Ned H.; Browning, Zac

    2014-01-01

    Pollination is a critical ecosystem service affected by various drivers of land-use change, such as policies and programs aimed at land resources, market values for crop commodities, local land-management decisions, and shifts in climate. The United States is the world's most active market for pollination services by honey bees, and the Northern Great Plains provide the majority of bee colonies used to meet the Nation's annual pollination needs. Legislation requiring increased production of biofuel crops, increasing commodity prices for crops of little nutritional value for bees in the Northern Great Plains, and reductions in government programs aimed at promoting land conservation are converging to alter the regional landscape in ways that challenge beekeepers to provide adequate numbers of hives for national pollination services. We developed a spatially explicit model that identifies sites with the potential to support large apiaries based on local-scale land-cover requirements for honey bees. We produced maps of potential apiary locations for North Dakota, a leading producer of honey, based on land-cover maps representing (1) an annual time series compiled from existing operational products and (2) a realistic scenario of land change. We found that existing land-cover products lack sufficient local accuracy to monitor actual changes in landscape suitability for honey bees, but our model proved informative for evaluating effects on suitability under scenarios of land change. The scenario we implemented was aligned with current drivers of land-use change in the Northern Great Plains and highlighted the importance of conservation lands in landscapes intensively and extensively managed for crops. PMID:24919181

  7. Estimation of Agricultural Pesticide Use in Drainage Basins Using Land Cover Maps and County Pesticide Data. National Water-Quality Assessment Program

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2005-01-01

    National Water-Quality Assessment Program NCFAP National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy NLCD 92 National Land Cover Data 1992 NLCDe 92 enhanced...cropland acreage and state agricultural pesticide use in the early to mid-1990s reported by the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy (NCFAP...Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). [17]. The National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy (NCFAP) is a

  8. Approximating tasseled cap values to evaluate brightness, greenness, and wetness for the Advanced Land Imager (ALI)

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Yamamoto, Kristina H.; Finn, Michael P.

    2012-01-01

    The Tasseled Cap transformation is a method of image band conversion to enhance spectral information. It primarily is used to detect vegetation using the derived brightness, greenness, and wetness bands. An approximation of Tasseled Cap values for the Advanced Land Imager was investigated and compared to the Landsat Thematic Mapper Tasseled Cap values. Despite sharing similar spectral, temporal, and spatial resolution, the two systems are not interchangeable with regard to Tasseled Cap matrices.

  9. LAND STREAMER SEISMIC DATA FROM NORTHERN DELAWARE: A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE FOR IMAGING AQUIFERS IN SUBURBAN AREAS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Velez, C. C.; McLaughlin, P. P.; McGeary, S. E.; Sargent, S. L.

    2009-12-01

    The Potomac Formation includes the most important confined aquifers in the Coastal Plain of northern Delaware. Development and a growing suburban population are increasing demand for groundwater in the area, making accurate assessment of groundwater water supply increasingly important. Previous studies of subsurface geology indicate that the Potomac Formation is characterized by laterally discontinuous fluvial sand bodies, making it difficult to precisely delineate the distribution and geometry of the aquifer facies based on well correlations alone. A 20-km high-resolution seismic reflection dataset was collected using a land-streamer system in 2008 to constrain subsurface stratigraphy between disparate well locations. The data were collected along roadways in an area of mixed development that includes suburban housing tracts, farmlands, and large industry. A 152-m-deep continuous-cored test hole was drilled in the summer of 2009 adjacent to one of the lines and a full suite of borehole geophysical logs obtained. The land-streamer data are compared to a 3-km dataset collected also in 2008 using conventional methods on farmland in the northern part of the study area. The land streamer system proved to be more effective than conventional seismic reflection methods in this area. Several advantages are evident for the land streamer: 1) overall, the conventional dataset has a higher S/N, 2) on average, collecting data with the land streamer system is four times faster, and 3) the land streamer lines can be longer and therefore more continuous than the conventional lines in a developed area. The land-streamer system has minor disadvantages: traffic control, traffic noise, and in some cases a need for larger crews. Regardless, the land streamer dataset is easier to process, of higher quality, and more cost effective. The final depth images from the land streamer data indicate that the minimum and maximum depths imaged are ~18 m and ~ 268m, with a resolution of ~4 m. This

  10. 77 FR 58146 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-09-19

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Special Emphasis Panel; Scientific Conference Award... Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, 6707...

  11. Satellite-derived land covers for runoff estimation using SCS-CN method in Chen-You-Lan Watershed, Taiwan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Wen-Yan; Lin, Chao-Yuan

    2017-04-01

    The Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) method, which was originally developed by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, is widely used to estimate direct runoff volume from rainfall. The runoff Curve Number (CN) parameter is based on the hydrologic soil group and land use factors. In Taiwan, the national land use maps were interpreted from aerial photos in 1995 and 2008. Rapid updating of post-disaster land use map is limited due to the high cost of production, so the classification of satellite images is the alternative method to obtain the land use map. In this study, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in Chen-You-Lan Watershed was derived from dry and wet season of Landsat imageries during 2003 - 2008. Land covers were interpreted from mean value and standard deviation of NDVI and were categorized into 4 groups i.e. forest, grassland, agriculture and bare land. Then, the runoff volume of typhoon events during 2005 - 2009 were estimated using SCS-CN method and verified with the measured runoff data. The result showed that the model efficiency coefficient is 90.77%. Therefore, estimating runoff by using the land cover map classified from satellite images is practicable.

  12. 76 FR 76744 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-12-08

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical... Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of...

  13. 77 FR 51544 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-08-24

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical... Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging, and Bioengineering, National Institutes of...

  14. 77 FR 54581 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

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    2012-09-05

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical...., Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes...

  15. 78 FR 9066 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-02-07

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical... Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of...

  16. 75 FR 61769 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-10-06

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical..., Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes...

  17. 78 FR 3009 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-01-15

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical... Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of...

  18. The Land-Use and Land-Cover Change Analysis in Beijing Huairou in Last Ten Years

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhao, Q.; Liu, G.; Tu, J.; Wang, Z.

    2018-04-01

    With eCognition software, the sample-based object-oriented classification method is used. Remote sensing images in Huairou district of Beijing had been classified using remote sensing images of last ten years. According to the results of image processing, the land use types in Huairou district of Beijing were analyzed in the past ten years, and the changes of land use types in Huairou district were obtained, and the reasons for its occurrence were analyzed.

  19. 75 FR 54641 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-09-08

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical... Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, 6707...

  20. 78 FR 10185 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-02-13

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical... Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, 6707...

  1. 78 FR 78982 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-12-27

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting Notice is hereby given of a change in the meeting of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Special Emphasis Panel...

  2. 78 FR 55268 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Amended; Notice of Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-09-10

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Amended; Notice of Meeting Notice is hereby given a change in the meeting of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Special Emphasis Panel...

  3. 76 FR 40922 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-07-12

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical..., National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, 6707 Democracy...

  4. 77 FR 49821 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-08-17

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical..., National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, 6707 Democracy...

  5. 76 FR 370 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-01-04

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical..., National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, 6707 Democracy...

  6. The Second National Ballistics Imaging Comparison (NBIC-2)

    PubMed Central

    Vorburger, TV; Yen, J; Song, JF; Thompson, RM; Renegar, TB; Zheng, A; Tong, M; Ols, M

    2014-01-01

    In response to the guidelines issued by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB-International) to establish traceability and quality assurance in U.S. crime laboratories, NIST and the ATF initiated a joint project, entitled the National Ballistics Imaging Comparison (NBIC). The NBIC project aims to establish a national traceability and quality system for ballistics identifications in crime laboratories utilizing ATF’s National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN). The original NBIC was completed in 2010. In the second NBIC, NIST Standard Reference Material (SRM) 2461 Cartridge Cases were used as reference standards, and 14 experts from 11 U.S. crime laboratories each performed 17 image acquisitions and correlations of the SRM cartridge cases over the course of about half a year. Resulting correlation scores were collected by NIST for statistical analyses, from which control charts and control limits were developed for the proposed quality system and for promoting future assessments and accreditations for firearm evidence in U.S. forensic laboratories in accordance with the ISO 17025 Standard. PMID:26601051

  7. The Second National Ballistics Imaging Comparison (NBIC-2).

    PubMed

    Vorburger, T V; Yen, J; Song, J F; Thompson, R M; Renegar, T B; Zheng, A; Tong, M; Ols, M

    2014-01-01

    In response to the guidelines issued by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB-International) to establish traceability and quality assurance in U.S. crime laboratories, NIST and the ATF initiated a joint project, entitled the National Ballistics Imaging Comparison (NBIC). The NBIC project aims to establish a national traceability and quality system for ballistics identifications in crime laboratories utilizing ATF's National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN). The original NBIC was completed in 2010. In the second NBIC, NIST Standard Reference Material (SRM) 2461 Cartridge Cases were used as reference standards, and 14 experts from 11 U.S. crime laboratories each performed 17 image acquisitions and correlations of the SRM cartridge cases over the course of about half a year. Resulting correlation scores were collected by NIST for statistical analyses, from which control charts and control limits were developed for the proposed quality system and for promoting future assessments and accreditations for firearm evidence in U.S. forensic laboratories in accordance with the ISO 17025 Standard.

  8. Landsat continuity: Issues and opportunities for land cover monitoring

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wulder, M.A.; White, Joanne C.; Goward, S.N.; Masek, J.G.; Irons, J.R.; Herold, M.; Cohen, W.B.; Loveland, Thomas R.; Woodcock, C.E.

    2008-01-01

    Initiated in 1972, the Landsat program has provided a continuous record of earth observation for 35 years. The assemblage of Landsat spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions, over a reasonably sized image extent, results in imagery that can be processed to represent land cover over large areas with an amount of spatial detail that is absolutely unique and indispensable for monitoring, management, and scientific activities. Recent technical problems with the two existing Landsat satellites, and delays in the development and launch of a successor, increase the likelihood that a gap in Landsat continuity may occur. In this communication, we identify the key features of the Landsat program that have resulted in the extensive use of Landsat data for large area land cover mapping and monitoring. We then augment this list of key features by examining the data needs of existing large area land cover monitoring programs. Subsequently, we use this list as a basis for reviewing the current constellation of earth observation satellites to identify potential alternative data sources for large area land cover applications. Notions of a virtual constellation of satellites to meet large area land cover mapping and monitoring needs are also presented. Finally, research priorities that would facilitate the integration of these alternative data sources into existing large area land cover monitoring programs are identified. Continuity of the Landsat program and the measurements provided are critical for scientific, environmental, economic, and social purposes. It is difficult to overstate the importance of Landsat; there are no other systems in orbit, or planned for launch in the short-term, that can duplicate or approach replication, of the measurements and information conferred by Landsat. While technical and political options are being pursued, there is no satellite image data stream poised to enter the National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive should system failures

  9. 77 FR 74675 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meetings

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-12-17

    ... Person: Ruth Grossman, DDS, Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and... Person: Ruth Grossman, DDS, Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and...

  10. 78 FR 64519 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-10-29

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting Notice is hereby given of a change in the meeting of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Special Emphasis Panel, October...

  11. 78 FR 64506 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-10-29

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting Notice is hereby given of a change in the meeting of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Special Emphasis Panel, October...

  12. 76 FR 5184 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-01-28

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting Notice is hereby given of a change in the meeting of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Special Emphasis Panel, March...

  13. 78 FR 66755 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-11-06

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting Notice is hereby given of a change in the meeting of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Special Emphasis Panel, October...

  14. 78 FR 64966 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-10-30

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting Notice is hereby given of a change in the meeting of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Special Emphasis Panel, October...

  15. Sharpening advanced land imager multispectral data using a sensor model

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Lemeshewsky, G.P.; ,

    2005-01-01

    The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) instrument on NASA's Earth Observing One (EO-1) satellite provides for nine spectral bands at 30m ground sample distance (GSD) and a 10m GSD panchromatic band. This report describes an image sharpening technique where the higher spatial resolution information of the panchromatic band is used to increase the spatial resolution of ALI multispectral (MS) data. To preserve the spectral characteristics, this technique combines reported deconvolution deblurring methods for the MS data with highpass filter-based fusion methods for the Pan data. The deblurring process uses the point spread function (PSF) model of the ALI sensor. Information includes calculation of the PSF from pre-launch calibration data. Performance was evaluated using simulated ALI MS data generated by degrading the spatial resolution of high resolution IKONOS satellite MS data. A quantitative measure of performance was the error between sharpened MS data and high resolution reference. This report also compares performance with that of a reported method that includes PSF information. Preliminary results indicate improved sharpening with the method reported here.

  16. Radiometric Comparison between Sentinel 2A (S2A) Multispectral Imager (MSI) and Landsat 8 (L8) Operational Land Imager (OLI)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Micijevic, E.; Haque, M. O.

    2016-12-01

    With its forty-four year continuous data record, the Landsat image archive provides an invaluable source of information for essential climate variables, global land change studies and a variety of other applications. The latest in the series, Landsat 8, carries the Operational Land Imager (OLI), the sensor with an improved design compared to its predecessors, but with similar radiometric, spatial and spectral characteristics, to provide image data continuity. Sentinel 2A (S2A), launched in June 2015, carries the Multispectral Imager (MSI) that has a number of bands with spectral and radiometric characteristics similar to L8 OLI. As such, it offers an opportunity to augment the Landsat data record through increased frequency of acquisitions, when combined with OLI. In this study, we compared Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) reflectance of matching spectral bands in MSI and OLI products. Comparison between S2A MSI and L8 OLI sensors was performed using image data acquired near simultaneously primarily over Pseudo Invariant Calibration Site (PICS) Libya 4, but also over other calibration test sites. Spectral differences between the two sensors were accounted for using their spectral filter profiles and a spectral signature of the site derived from EO1 Hyperion hyperspectral imagery. Temporal stability was also assessed through temporal trending of Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) reflectance measured by the two sensors over PICS. The performed analysis suggests good agreement between the two sensors, within 5% for the costal aerosol band and better than 3% for other matching bands. It is important to note that whenever data from different sensors are used together in a study, the special attention need to be paid to the spectral band differences between the sensors because the necessary spectral difference adjustment is target dependent and may vary a lot from target to target.

  17. Characterization of Terrain in the Mars Surveyor 2001 Landing Site Latitude and Elevation Region Using Mapping Phase Mars Global Surveyor MOC Images

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Malin, M. C.; Edgett, K. S.; Parker, T. J.

    1999-01-01

    One of the original objectives of the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), as proposed in 1985, was to acquire observations to be used in assessing future spacecraft landing sites. Images obtained by the Mars Global Surveyor MOC since March 1999 provide the highest resolution views (1.5-4.5 m/pixel) of the planet ever seen. We have been examining these new data to develop a general view of what Mars is like at meter-scale within the latitudes and elevations that are accessible to the Mars Surveyor 2001 lander. Our goal is to provide guidance to the 2001 landing site selection process, rather than to use MOC images to recommend a specific landing site.

  18. Land, Cryosphere, and Nighttime Environmental Products from Suomi NPP VIIRS: Overview and Status

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Roman, Miguel O.; Justice, Chris; Csiszar, Ivan

    2014-01-01

    The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument was launched in October 2011 as part of the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP: http://npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/). VIIRS was designed to improve upon the capabilities of the operational Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and provide observation continuity with NASA's Earth Observing System's (EOS) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Since the VIIRS first-light images were received in November 2011, NASA and NOAA funded scientists have been working to evaluate the instrument performance and derived products to meet the needs of the NOAA operational users and the NASA science community. NOAA's focus has been on refining a suite of operational products known as Environmental Data Records (EDRs), which were developed according to project specifications under the former National Polar-orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). The NASA S-NPP Science Team has focused on evaluating the EDRs for science use, developing and testing additional products to meet science data needs and providing MODIS data product continuity. This paper will present to-date findings of the NASA Science Team's evaluation of the VIIRS Land and Cryosphere EDRs, specifically Surface Reflectance, Land Surface Temperature, Surface Albedo, Vegetation Indices, Surface Type, Active Fires, Snow Cover, Ice Surface Temperature, and Sea Ice Characterization (http://viirsland.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html). The paper will also discuss new capabilities being developed at NASA's Land Product Evaluation and Test Element (http://landweb.nascom.nasa.gov/NPP_QA/); including downstream data and products derived from the VIIRS Day/Night Band (DNB).

  19. A Landsat-Based Assessment of Mobile Bay Land Use and Land Cover Change from 1974 to 2008

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Spruce, Joseph; Ellis, Jean; Smoot, James; Swann, Roberta; Graham, William

    2009-01-01

    The Mobile Bay region has experienced noteworthy land use and land cover (LULC) change in the latter half of the 20th century. Accompanying this change has been urban expansion and a reduction of rural land uses. Much of this LULC change has reportedly occurred since the landfall of Hurricane Frederic in 1979. The Mobile Bay region provides great economic and ecologic benefits to the Nation, including important coastal habitat for a broad diversity of fisheries and wildlife. Regional urbanization threatens the estuary s water quality and aquatic-habitat dependent biota, including commercial fisheries and avian wildlife. Coastal conservation and urban land use planners require additional information on historical LULC change to support coastal habitat restoration and resiliency management efforts. This presentation discusses results of a Gulf of Mexico Application Pilot project that was conducted in 2008 to quantify and assess LULC change from 1974 to 2008. This project was led by NASA Stennis Space Center and involved multiple Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) partners, including the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (NEP), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration s (NOAA s) National Coastal Data Development Center (NCDDC), and the NOAA Coastal Services Center. Nine Landsat images were employed to compute LULC products because of their availability and suitability for the application. The project also used Landsat-based national LULC products, including coastal LULC products from NOAA s Coastal Change & Analysis Program (C-CAP), available at 5-year intervals since 1995. Our study was initiated in part because C-CAP LULC products were not available to assess the region s urbanization prior to 1995 and subsequent to post Hurricane Katrina in 2006. This project assessed LULC change across the 34-year time frame and at decadal and middecadal scales. The study area included the majority of Mobile and Baldwin counties that

  20. Modelling land cover change in the Ganga basin

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moulds, S.; Tsarouchi, G.; Mijic, A.; Buytaert, W.

    2013-12-01

    Over recent decades the green revolution in India has driven substantial environmental change. Modelling experiments have identified northern India as a 'hot spot' of land-atmosphere coupling strength during the boreal summer. However, there is a wide range of sensitivity of atmospheric variables to soil moisture between individual climate models. The lack of a comprehensive land cover change dataset to force climate models has been identified as a major contributor to model uncertainty. In this work a time series dataset of land cover change between 1970 and 2010 is constructed for northern India to improve the quantification of regional hydrometeorological feedbacks. The MODIS instrument on board the Aqua and Terra satellites provides near-continuous remotely sensed datasets from 2000 to the present day. However, the quality of satellite products before 2000 is poor. To complete the dataset MODIS images are extrapolated back in time using the Conversion of Land Use and its Effects at small regional extent (CLUE-s) modelling framework. Non-spatial estimates of land cover area from national agriculture and forest statistics, available on a state-wise, annual basis, are used as a direct model input. Land cover change is allocated spatially as a function of biophysical and socioeconomic drivers identified using logistic regression. This dataset will provide an essential input to a high resolution, physically based land surface model to generate the lower boundary condition to assess the impact of land cover change on regional climate.

  1. Algorithm for Autonomous Landing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kuwata, Yoshiaki

    2011-01-01

    Because of their small size, high maneuverability, and easy deployment, micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) are used for a wide variety of both civilian and military missions. One of their current drawbacks is the vast array of sensors (such as GPS, altimeter, radar, and the like) required to make a landing. Due to the MAV s small payload size, this is a major concern. Replacing the imaging sensors with a single monocular camera is sufficient to land a MAV. By applying optical flow algorithms to images obtained from the camera, time-to-collision can be measured. This is a measurement of position and velocity (but not of absolute distance), and can avoid obstacles as well as facilitate a landing on a flat surface given a set of initial conditions. The key to this approach is to calculate time-to-collision based on some image on the ground. By holding the angular velocity constant, horizontal speed decreases linearly with the height, resulting in a smooth landing. Mathematical proofs show that even with actuator saturation or modeling/ measurement uncertainties, MAVs can land safely. Landings of this nature may have a higher velocity than is desirable, but this can be compensated for by a cushioning or dampening system, or by using a system of legs to grab onto a surface. Such a monocular camera system can increase vehicle payload size (or correspondingly reduce vehicle size), increase speed of descent, and guarantee a safe landing by directly correlating speed to height from the ground.

  2. 77 FR 25488 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-04-30

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Amended Notice of Meeting Notice is hereby given a change in the meeting of the National Advisory Council for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, May 21, 2012, 9:00 a.m...

  3. Analysis of relationships between land surface temperature and land use changes in the Yellow River Delta

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ning, Jicai; Gao, Zhiqiang; Meng, Ran; Xu, Fuxiang; Gao, Meng

    2018-06-01

    This study analyzed land use and land cover changes and their impact on land surface temperature using Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager and Thermal Infrared Sensor imagery of the Yellow River Delta. Six Landsat images comprising two time series were used to calculate the land surface temperature and correlated vegetation indices. The Yellow River Delta area has expanded substantially because of the deposited sediment carried from upstream reaches of the river. Between 1986 and 2015, approximately 35% of the land use area of the Yellow River Delta has been transformed into salterns and aquaculture ponds. Overall, land use conversion has occurred primarily from poorly utilized land into highly utilized land. To analyze the variation of land surface temperature, a mono-window algorithm was applied to retrieve the regional land surface temperature. The results showed bilinear correlation between land surface temperature and the vegetation indices (i.e., Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, Adjusted-Normalized Vegetation Index, Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index, and Modified Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index). Generally, values of the vegetation indices greater than the inflection point mean the land surface temperature and the vegetation indices are correlated negatively, and vice versa. Land surface temperature in coastal areas is affected considerably by local seawater temperature and weather conditions.

  4. Study on Big Database Construction and its Application of Sample Data Collected in CHINA'S First National Geographic Conditions Census Based on Remote Sensing Images

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, T.; Zhou, X.; Jia, Y.; Yang, G.; Bai, J.

    2018-04-01

    In the project of China's First National Geographic Conditions Census, millions of sample data have been collected all over the country for interpreting land cover based on remote sensing images, the quantity of data files reaches more than 12,000,000 and has grown in the following project of National Geographic Conditions Monitoring. By now, using database such as Oracle for storing the big data is the most effective method. However, applicable method is more significant for sample data's management and application. This paper studies a database construction method which is based on relational database with distributed file system. The vector data and file data are saved in different physical location. The key issues and solution method are discussed. Based on this, it studies the application method of sample data and analyzes some kinds of using cases, which could lay the foundation for sample data's application. Particularly, sample data locating in Shaanxi province are selected for verifying the method. At the same time, it takes 10 first-level classes which defined in the land cover classification system for example, and analyzes the spatial distribution and density characteristics of all kinds of sample data. The results verify that the method of database construction which is based on relational database with distributed file system is very useful and applicative for sample data's searching, analyzing and promoted application. Furthermore, sample data collected in the project of China's First National Geographic Conditions Census could be useful in the earth observation and land cover's quality assessment.

  5. BOREAS TE-18 Landsat TM Physical Classification Image of the SSA

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hall, Forrest G. (Editor); Knapp, David

    2000-01-01

    The BOREAS TE-18 team focused its efforts on using remotely sensed data to characterize the successional and disturbance dynamics of the boreal forest for use in carbon modeling. The objective of this classification is to provide the BOREAS investigators with a data product that characterizes the land cover of the SSA. A Landsat-5 TM image from 02-Sep-1994 was used to derive the classification. A technique was implemented that uses reflectances of various land cover types along with a geometric optical canopy model to produce spectral trajectories. These trajectories are used as training data to classify the image into the different land cover classes. These data are provided in a binary image file format. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884), or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Activity Archive Center (DAAC).

  6. Land use and land cover digital data

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Fegeas, Robin G.; Claire, Robert W.; Guptill, Stephen C.; Anderson, K. Eric; Hallam, Cheryl A.

    1983-01-01

    The discipline of cartography is undergoing a number of profound changesthat center on the emerging influence ofdigital manipulation and analysis ofdata for the preparation of cartographic materials and for use in geographic information systems. Operational requirements have led to the development by the USGS National Mapping Division of several documents that establish in-house digital cartographic standards. In an effort to fulfill lead agency requirements for promulgation of Federal standards in the earth sciences, the documents have been edited and assembled with explanatory text into a USGS Circular. This Circular describes some of the pertinent issues relative to digital cartographic data standards, documents the digital cartographic data standards currently in use within the USGS, and details the efforts of the USGS related to the definition of national digital cartographic data standards. It consists of several chapters; the first is a general overview, and each succeeding chapter is made up from documents that establish in-house standards for one of the various types of digital cartographic data currently produced. This chapter 895-E, describes the Geographic Information Retrieval and Analysis System that is used in conjunction with the USGS land use and land cover classification system to encode, edit, manipuate, and analyze land use and land cover digital data.

  7. Oblique Photogrammetry and Usage on Land Administration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kisa, A.; Ozmus, L.; Erkek, B.; Ates, H. B.; Bakici, S.

    2013-08-01

    Projects based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have started within the body of the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre (GDLRC) by the Land Registry and Cadastre Information System (LRCIS) in the beginning of 2000s. LRCIS was followed by other projects which are Turkish National Geographic Information System (TNGIS), Continuously Operating GPS Reference Stations (CORS-TR), Geo Metadata Portal (GMP), Orthophoto Web Services, Completion of Initial Cadastre, Cadastre Renovation Project (CRP), 2B and Land Registry Achieve Information System (LRAIS). When examining the projects generated by GDLRC, it is realized that they include basic functions of land administration required for sustainable development. Sustainable development is obtained through effective land administration as is known. Nowadays, land use becomes more intense as a result of rapid population increase. The importance of land ownership has increased accordingly. At this point, the necessity of cadastre appears. In Turkey, cadastral registration is carried out by the detection of parcels. In other words, it is obtained through the division of land surface into 2D boundaries and mapping of them. However, existing land administration systems have begun to lose their efficiency while coping with rights, restrictions and responsibilities (RRRs) belonging to land which become more complicated day by day. Overlapping and interlocking constructions appear particularly in urban areas with dense housing and consequently, the problem of how to project these structures onto the surface in 2D cadastral systems has arisen. Herein, the necessity of 3D cadastre concept and 3D property data is confronted. In recent years, oblique photogrammetry, whose applications are gradually spreading, is used as an effective method for producing 3D data. In this study, applications of oblique photogrammetry and usability of oblique images as base for 3D Cadastre and Land Administration projects are examined.

  8. Coronado National Forest Draft Land and Resource Management Plan: Cochise, Graham, Pima, Pinal, and Santa Cruz Counties, Arizona, and Hidalgo County, New Mexico

    Treesearch

    Terry Austin; Yolynda Begay; Sharon Biedenbender; Rachael Biggs; Erin Boyle; Eli Curiel; Sarah Davis; Sara Dechter; Tami Emmett; Mary Farrell; Richard Gerhart; William Gillespie; Polly Haessig; Ed Holloway; Melissa Jenkins; Larry Jones; Debby Kriegel; Robert Lefevre; Mark Stamer; Mindi Lehew; Ann Lynch; George McKay; Linda Peery; Albert Peralta; Jennifer Ruyle; Jeremy Sautter; Kenna Schoenle; Salek Shafiqullah; Christopher Stetson; Mindi Sue Vogel; Laura White; Craig Wilcox; Judy York

    2013-01-01

    The Coronado National Forest is an administrative component of the National Forest System. It administers 1,783,639 acres of National Forest System lands. National forests across the United States were established to provide natural resource-based goods and services to American citizens, and to protect timber and watershed resources. Management of national forests is...

  9. Managed Clearings: an Unaccounted Land-cover in Urbanizing Regions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Singh, K. K.; Madden, M.; Meentemeyer, R. K.

    2016-12-01

    Managed clearings (MC), such as lawns, public parks and grassy transportation medians, are a common and ecologically important land cover type in urbanizing regions, especially those characterized by sprawl. We hypothesize that MC is underrepresented in land cover classification schemes and data products such as NLCD (National Land Cover Database) data, which may impact environmental assessments and models of urban ecosystems. We visually interpreted and mapped fine scale land cover with special attention to MC using 2012 NAIP (National Agriculture Imagery Program) images and compared the output with NLCD data. Areas sampled were 50 randomly distributed 1*1km blocks of land in three cities of the Char-lanta mega-region (Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh). We estimated the abundance of MC relative to other land cover types, and the proportion of land-cover types in NLCD data that are similar to MC. We also assessed if the designations of recreation, transportation, and utility in MC inform the problem differently than simply tallying MC as a whole. 610 ground points, collected using the Google Earth, were used to evaluate accuracy of NLCD data and visual interpretation for consistency. Overall accuracy of visual interpretation and NLCD data was 78% and 58%, respectively. NLCD data underestimated forest and MC by 14.4km2 and 6.4km2, respectively, while overestimated impervious surfaces by 10.2km2 compared to visual interpretation. MC was the second most dominant land cover after forest (40.5%) as it covered about 28% of the total area and about 13% higher than impervious surfaces. Results also suggested that recreation in MC constitutes up to 90% of area followed by transportation and utility. Due to the prevalence of MC in urbanizing regions, the addition of MC to the synthesis of land-cover data can help delineate realistic cover types and area proportions that could inform ecologic/hydrologic models, and allow for accurate prediction of ecological phenomena.

  10. 75 FR 57061 - Public Land Order No. 7749; Extension of Public Land Order Nos. 6801 and 6812; Arizona

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-09-17

    ... National Forest System lands from location or entry under the United States mining laws (30 U.S.C. chapter... Service Coronado National Forest Office, Federal Building, 300 West Congress Street, Tucson, Arizona 85701.... Public Land Order No. 6801 (55 FR 38550, (1990)) that withdrew 61.356 acres of National Forest System...

  11. NASA Spacecraft Images Wildfire Near Yosemite National Park

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2013-06-21

    This image, acquired by NASA Terra spacecraft, is of the Carstens, Calif. wildfire which continues to burn in the foothills west of Yosemite National Park. Vegetation is displayed in green and burned and bare areas are dark to light gray.

  12. National Geo-Database for Biofuel Simulations and Regional Analysis of Biorefinery Siting Based on Cellulosic Feedstock Grown on Marginal Lands

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Izaurralde, Roberto C.; Zhang, Xuesong; Sahajpal, Ritvik

    2012-04-01

    The goal of this project undertaken by GLBRC (Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center) Area 4 (Sustainability) modelers is to develop a national capability to model feedstock supply, ethanol production, and biogeochemical impacts of cellulosic biofuels. The results of this project contribute to sustainability goals of the GLBRC; i.e. to contribute to developing a sustainable bioenergy economy: one that is profitable to farmers and refiners, acceptable to society, and environmentally sound. A sustainable bioenergy economy will also contribute, in a fundamental way, to meeting national objectives on energy security and climate mitigation. The specific objectives of this study are to: (1)more » develop a spatially explicit national geodatabase for conducting biofuel simulation studies and (4) locate possible sites for the establishment of cellulosic ethanol biorefineries. To address the first objective, we developed SENGBEM (Spatially Explicit National Geodatabase for Biofuel and Environmental Modeling), a 60-m resolution geodatabase of the conterminous USA containing data on: (1) climate, (2) soils, (3) topography, (4) hydrography, (5) land cover/ land use (LCLU), and (6) ancillary data (e.g., road networks, federal and state lands, national and state parks, etc.). A unique feature of SENGBEM is its 2008-2010 crop rotation data, a crucially important component for simulating productivity and biogeochemical cycles as well as land-use changes associated with biofuel cropping. ARRA support for this project and to the PNNL Joint Global Change Research Institute enabled us to create an advanced computing infrastructure to execute millions of simulations, conduct post-processing calculations, store input and output data, and visualize results. These computing resources included two components installed at the Research Data Center of the University of Maryland. The first resource was 'deltac': an 8-core Linux server, dedicated to county-level and state-level simulations and

  13. Espanola/Canjilon Pilot Study: Economic, social, and cultural aspects of public land grazing on the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests

    Treesearch

    Carol Raish

    1999-01-01

    Many of the livestock grazing permittees on the Carson and Santa Fe National Forests in northern New Mexico are descendants of Hispanic settlers who have farmed and ranched in the region for 400 years. Much of the permitted land was formerly owned or used by local communities under Spanish and Mexican land grants. Cultural differences and historical issues of...

  14. Arid land monitoring using Landsat albedo difference images

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Robinove, Charles J.; Chavez, Pat S.; Gehring, Dale G.; Holmgren, Ralph

    1981-01-01

    The Landsat albedo, or percentage of incoming radiation reflected from the ground in the wavelength range of 0.5 [mu]m to 1.1 [mu]m, is calculated from an equation using the Landsat digital brightness values and solar irradiance values, and correcting for atmospheric scattering, multispectral scanner calibration, and sun angle. The albedo calculated for each pixel is used to create an albedo image, whose grey scale is proportional to the albedo. Differencing sequential registered images and mapping selected values of the difference is used to create quantitative maps of increased or decreased albedo values of the terrain. All maps and other output products are in black and white rather than color, thus making the method quite economical. Decreases of albedo in arid regions may indicate improvement of land quality; increases may indicate degradation. Tests of the albedo difference mapping method in the Desert Experimental Range in southwestern Utah (a cold desert with little long-term terrain change) for a four-year period show that mapped changes can be correlated with erosion from flash floods, increased or decreased soil moisture, and increases or decreases in the density of desert vegetation, both perennial shrubs and annual plants. All terrain changes identified in this test were related to variations in precipitation. Although further tests of this method in hot deserts showing severe "desertification" are needed, the method is nevertheless recommended for experimental use in monitoring terrain change in other arid and semiarid regions of the world.

  15. Electricity Transmission, Pipelines, and National Trails: An Analysis of Current and Potential Intersections on Federal Lands in the Eastern United States, Alaska, and Hawaii

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kuiper, James A.; Krummel, John R.; Hlava, Kevin J.

    As has been noted in many reports and publications, acquiring new or expanded rights-of-way for transmission is a challenging process, because numerous land use and land ownership constraints must be overcome to develop pathways suitable for energy transmission infrastructure. In the eastern U.S., more than twenty federally protected national trails (some of which are thousands of miles long, and cross many states) pose a potential obstacle to the development of new or expanded electricity transmission capacity. However, the scope of this potential problem is not well-documented, and there is no baseline information available that could allow all stakeholders to studymore » routing scenarios that could mitigate impacts on national trails. This report, Electricity Transmission, Pipelines, and National Trails: An Analysis of Current and Potential Intersections on Federal Lands in the Eastern United States, was prepared by the Environmental Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne). Argonne was tasked by DOE to analyze the “footprint” of the current network of National Historic and Scenic Trails and the electricity transmission system in the 37 eastern contiguous states, Alaska, and Hawaii; assess the extent to which national trails are affected by electrical transmission; and investigate the extent to which national trails and other sensitive land use types may be affected in the near future by planned transmission lines. Pipelines are secondary to transmission lines for analysis, but are also within the analysis scope in connection with the overall directives of Section 368 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and because of the potential for electrical transmission lines being collocated with pipelines.« less

  16. Using land-cover data to understand effects of agricultural and urban development on regional water quality

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Karstensen, Krista A.; Warner, Kelly L.

    2010-01-01

    The Land-Cover Trends project is a collaborative effort between the Geographic Analysis and Monitoring Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to understand the rates, trends, causes, and consequences of contemporary land-use and land-cover change in the United States. The data produced from this research can lead to an enriched understanding of the drivers of future landuse change, effects on environmental systems, and any associated feedbacks. USGS scientists are using the EPA Level III ecoregions as the geographic framework to process geospatial data collected between 1973 and 2000 to characterize ecosystem responses to land-use changes. General land-cover classes for these periods were interpreted from Landsat Multispectral Scanner, Thematic Mapper, and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus imagery to categorize and evaluate land-cover change using a modified Anderson Land-Use/Land-Cover Classification System for image interpretation.

  17. The National Map - Orthoimagery

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Mauck, James; Brown, Kim; Carswell, William J.

    2009-01-01

    Orthorectified digital aerial photographs and satellite images of 1-meter (m) pixel resolution or finer make up the orthoimagery component of The National Map. The process of orthorectification removes feature displacements and scale variations caused by terrain relief and sensor geometry. The result is a combination of the image characteristics of an aerial photograph or satellite image and the geometric qualities of a map. These attributes allow users to: *Measure distance *Calculate areas *Determine shapes of features *Calculate directions *Determine accurate coordinates *Determine land cover and use *Perform change detection *Update maps The standard digital orthoimage is a 1-m or finer resolution, natural color or color infra-red product. Most are now produced as GeoTIFFs and accompanied by a Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)-compliant metadata file. The primary source for 1-m data is the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) leaf-on imagery. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) utilizes NAIP imagery as the image layer on its 'Digital- Map' - a new generation of USGS topographic maps (http://nationalmap.gov/digital_map). However, many Federal, State, and local governments and organizations require finer resolutions to meet a myriad of needs. Most of these images are leaf-off, natural-color products at resolutions of 1-foot (ft) or finer.

  18. Utilization of 3D imaging flash lidar technology for autonomous safe landing on planetary bodies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Amzajerdian, Farzin; Vanek, Michael; Petway, Larry; Pierrottet, Diego; Busch, George; Bulyshev, Alexander

    2010-01-01

    NASA considers Flash Lidar a critical technology for enabling autonomous safe landing of future large robotic and crewed vehicles on the surface of the Moon and Mars. Flash Lidar can generate 3-Dimensional images of the terrain to identify hazardous features such as craters, rocks, and steep slopes during the final stages of descent and landing. The onboard flight comptuer can use the 3-D map of terain to guide the vehicle to a safe site. The capabilities of Flash Lidar technology were evaluated through a series of static tests using a calibrated target and through dynamic tests aboard a helicopter and a fixed wing airctarft. The aircraft flight tests were perfomed over Moonlike terrain in the California and Nevada deserts. This paper briefly describes the Flash Lidar static and aircraft flight test results. These test results are analyzed against the landing application requirements to identify the areas of technology improvement. The ongoing technology advancement activities are then explained and their goals are described.

  19. Utilization of 3-D Imaging Flash Lidar Technology for Autonomous Safe Landing on Planetary Bodies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Amzajerdian, Farzin; Vanek, Michael; Petway, Larry; Pierrotter, Diego; Busch, George; Bulyshev, Alexander

    2010-01-01

    NASA considers Flash Lidar a critical technology for enabling autonomous safe landing of future large robotic and crewed vehicles on the surface of the Moon and Mars. Flash Lidar can generate 3-Dimensional images of the terrain to identify hazardous features such as craters, rocks, and steep slopes during the final stages of descent and landing. The onboard flight computer can use the 3-D map of terrain to guide the vehicle to a safe site. The capabilities of Flash Lidar technology were evaluated through a series of static tests using a calibrated target and through dynamic tests aboard a helicopter and a fixed wing aircraft. The aircraft flight tests were performed over Moon-like terrain in the California and Nevada deserts. This paper briefly describes the Flash Lidar static and aircraft flight test results. These test results are analyzed against the landing application requirements to identify the areas of technology improvement. The ongoing technology advancement activities are then explained and their goals are described.

  20. On the Implementation of a Land Cover Classification System for SAR Images Using Khoros

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Medina Revera, Edwin J.; Espinosa, Ramon Vasquez

    1997-01-01

    The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor is widely used to record data about the ground under all atmospheric conditions. The SAR acquired images have very good resolution which necessitates the development of a classification system that process the SAR images to extract useful information for different applications. In this work, a complete system for the land cover classification was designed and programmed using the Khoros, a data flow visual language environment, taking full advantages of the polymorphic data services that it provides. Image analysis was applied to SAR images to improve and automate the processes of recognition and classification of the different regions like mountains and lakes. Both unsupervised and supervised classification utilities were used. The unsupervised classification routines included the use of several Classification/Clustering algorithms like the K-means, ISO2, Weighted Minimum Distance, and the Localized Receptive Field (LRF) training/classifier. Different texture analysis approaches such as Invariant Moments, Fractal Dimension and Second Order statistics were implemented for supervised classification of the images. The results and conclusions for SAR image classification using the various unsupervised and supervised procedures are presented based on their accuracy and performance.

  1. Land-Cover Trends of the Central Basin and Range Ecoregion

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Soulard, Christopher E.

    2006-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Land Cover Trends research project is focused on understanding the amounts, rates, trends, causes, and implications of contemporary land-use and land-cover (LU/LC) change in the United States. This project is supported by the USGS Geographic Analysis and Monitoring Program in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). LU/LC change is a pervasive process that modifies landscape characteristics and affects a broad range of socioeconomic, biologic, and hydrologic systems. Understanding the impacts and feedbacks of LU/LC change on environmental systems requires an understanding of the rates, patterns, and driving forces of past, present, and future LU/LC change. The objectives of the Land Cover Trends project are to (1) determine and describe the amount, rates, and trends of contemporary LU/LC change by ecoregion for the period 1973-2000 for the conterminous United States, (2) document the causes, driving forces, and implications of change, and (3) synthesize individual ecoregion results into a national assessment of LU/LC change. The Land Cover Trends research team includes staff from the USGS National Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS), Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center, Eastern Geographic Science Center, Mid-Continent Geographic Science Center, and the Western Geographic Science Center. Other partners include researchers at South Dakota State University, University of Southern Mississippi, and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. This report presents an assessment of LU/LC change in the Central Basin and Range ecoregion for the period 1973-2000. The Central Basin and Range ecoregion is one of 84 Level-III ecoregions as defined by the Environmental Protection Agency. Ecoregions have served as a spatial framework for environmental resource management and to denote areas that contain

  2. High resolution imaging and precision photometric measurements from a small soft-landed lunar telescope --Abstract only

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Genet, R. M.; Hine, B.; Drummond, M.; Patterson-Hine, A.; Borucki, W.; Burns, J.; Genet, D.

    1994-01-01

    The ultimate imaging resolution in the UV and photometric precision achievable with a small (less than 1-meter) telescope located on the Moon is considered. The imaging resolution and photometric precision that might be practically achieved when the effects of the Lunar environment and equipment limitations are accounted for is then suggested. Finally, the practicality of soft landing such a telescope on the moon is considered, along with suggestions of how it might be directly controlled by using astronomers without any significant permanent staff.

  3. 25 CFR 502.12 - Indian lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Indian lands. 502.12 Section 502.12 Indians NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR GENERAL PROVISIONS DEFINITIONS OF THIS CHAPTER § 502.12 Indian lands. Indian lands means: (a) Land within the limits of an Indian reservation; or (b) Land...

  4. 25 CFR 502.12 - Indian lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Indian lands. 502.12 Section 502.12 Indians NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR GENERAL PROVISIONS DEFINITIONS OF THIS CHAPTER § 502.12 Indian lands. Indian lands means: (a) Land within the limits of an Indian reservation; or (b) Land...

  5. 25 CFR 502.12 - Indian lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 2 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Indian lands. 502.12 Section 502.12 Indians NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR GENERAL PROVISIONS DEFINITIONS OF THIS CHAPTER § 502.12 Indian lands. Indian lands means: (a) Land within the limits of an Indian reservation; or (b) Land...

  6. 25 CFR 502.12 - Indian lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 2 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Indian lands. 502.12 Section 502.12 Indians NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR GENERAL PROVISIONS DEFINITIONS OF THIS CHAPTER § 502.12 Indian lands. Indian lands means: (a) Land within the limits of an Indian reservation; or (b) Land...

  7. 25 CFR 502.12 - Indian lands.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Indian lands. 502.12 Section 502.12 Indians NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR GENERAL PROVISIONS DEFINITIONS OF THIS CHAPTER § 502.12 Indian lands. Indian lands means: (a) Land within the limits of an Indian reservation; or (b) Land...

  8. BOREAS TE-18 Landsat TM Maximum Likelihood Classification Image of the SSA

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hall, Forrest G. (Editor); Knapp, David

    2000-01-01

    The BOREAS TE-18 team focused its efforts on using remotely sensed data to characterize the successional and disturbance dynamics of the boreal forest for use in carbon modeling. The objective of this classification is to provide the BOREAS investigators with a data product that characterizes the land cover of the SSA. A Landsat-5 TM image from 02-Sep- 1994 was used to derive the classification. A technique was implemented that uses reflectances of various land cover types along with a geometric optical canopy model to produce spectral trajectories. These trajectories are used as training data to classify the image into the different land cover classes. These data are provided in a binary image file format. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884), or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Center (DAAC).

  9. Risk perception, future land use and stewardship: comparison of attitudes about Hanford Site and Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.

    PubMed

    Burger, J; Sanchez, J; Roush, D; Gochfeld, M

    2001-04-01

    With the ending of the Cold War, the Department of Energy (DOE) is evaluating mission, future land use and stewardship of departmental facilities. This paper compares the environmental concerns and future use preferences of 351 people interviewed at Lewiston, Idaho, about the Hanford Site and Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), two of DOE's largest sites. Although most subjects lived closer to Hanford than INEEL, most resided in the same state as INEEL. Therefore their economic interests might be more closely allied with INEEL, while their health concerns might be more related to Hanford. Few lived close enough to either site to be directly affected economically. We test the null hypotheses that there are no differences in environmental concerns and future land-use preferences as a function of DOE site, sex, age and education. When asked to list their major concerns about the sites, more people listed human health and safety, and environmental concerns about Hanford compared to INEEL. When asked to list their preferred future land uses, 49% of subjects did not have any for INEEL, whereas only 35% did not know for Hanford. The highest preferred land uses for both sites were as a National Environmental Research Park (NERP), and for camping, hunting, hiking, and fishing. Except for returning the land to the tribes and increased nuclear storage, subjects rated all future uses as more preferred at INEEL than Hanford. Taken together, these data suggest that the people interviewed know more about Hanford, are more concerned about Hanford, rate recreational uses and NERP as their highest preferred land use, and feel that INEEL is more suited for most land uses than Handford. Overall rankings for future land uses were remarkably similar between the sites, indicating that for these stakeholders, DOE lands should be preserved for research and recreation. These preferences should be taken into account when planning for long-term stewardship at

  10. Biscayne National Park

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2017-12-08

    On February 25, 2016, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite acquired this natural-color image of Biscayne National Park. The park encompasses the northernmost Florida Keys, starting from Miami to just north of Key Largo. The keys run like a spine through the center of the park, with Biscayne Bay to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. The water-covered areas span more than 660 square kilometers (250 square miles) of the park, making it the largest marine park in the U.S. National Park System. Biscayne protects the longest stretch of mangrove forest on the U.S. East Coast, and one of the most extensive stretches of coral reef in the world. Read more: go.nasa.gov/1SWs1a3 Credit: NASA/Landsat8 NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

  11. Seasat land experiments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Estes, J. E.; Barath, F.; Bryant, N.; Cannon, P. J.; Elachi, C.; Goetz, A.; Krishen, K.; Macdonald, H. C.; Marmelstein, A.; Miller, L. J.

    1978-01-01

    An overview of the Seasat land experiments is presented. The potential roles for active microwave imaging systems on board satellites were reviewed with particular emphasis on the Seasat Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). Recommendations were made concerning the type of experiments that could most profitably be conducted over land with the Seasat SAR system capabilities available.

  12. Land cover change assessment using object-oriented classification based on image segmentation in the Binah river watershed (Togo and Benin)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Badjana, M. H.; Helmschrot, J.; Wala, K.; Flugel, W. A.; Afouda, A.; Akpagana, K.

    2014-12-01

    Assessing and monitoring land cover changes over time, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa characterized by both a high population growth and the highest rate of land degradation in the world is of high relevance for sustainable land management, water security and food production. In this study, land cover changes between 1972 and 2013 were investigated in the Binah river watershed (North of Togo and Benin) using advanced remote sensing and GIS technologies to support sustainable land and water resources management efforts. To this end, multi-temporal satellite images - Landsat MSS (1972), TM (1987) and ETM+ (2013) were processed using object-oriented classification based on image segmentation and post-classification comparison methods. Five main land cover classes namely agricultural land, forest land, savannah, settlements and water bodies have been identified with overall accuracies of 75.11% (1972), 81.82% (1987), and 86.1% (2013) and respective Kappa statistics of 0.67, 0.76 and 0.83. These classification results helped to explicitly assess the spatio-temporal pattern of land cover within the basin. The results indicate that savannah as the main vegetation type in the basin has decreased from 63.3% of the basin area in 1972 to 60.4% in 1987 and 35.6% in 2013. Also the forest land which covered 20.7% in 1972 has decreased to 12.7% in 1987 and 11.7% in 2013. This severe decrease in vegetation mainly resulted from the extension of agricultural areas and settlements, which is, thus, considered as the main driving force. In fact, agricultural land increased of 61.4% from 1972 to 1987, 81.4% from 1987 to 2013 and almost twice from 1972 to 2013 while human settlements increased from 0.8% of the basin area in 1972 to 2.5% in 1987 and 7.7% in 2013. The transition maps illustrate the conversion of savannah to agricultural land at each time step relating to slash and burn agriculture, but also demonstrate the threat of environmental degradation of the savannah biome

  13. BOREAS TE-18 Landsat TM Physical Classification Image of the NSA

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hall, Forrest G. (Editor); Knapp, David

    2000-01-01

    The BOREAS TE-18 team focused its efforts on using remotely sensed data to characterize the successional and disturbance dynamics of the boreal forest for use in carbon modeling. The objective of this classification is to provide the BOREAS investigators with a data product that characterizes the land cover of the NSA. A Landsat-5 TM image from 21-Jun-1995 was used to derive the classification. A technique was implemented that uses reflectances of various land cover types along with a geometric optical canopy model to produce spectral trajectories. These trajectories are used in a way that is similar to training data to classify the image into the different land cover classes. The data are provided in a binary, image file format. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884), or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).

  14. 32 CFR 766.12 - Unauthorized landings.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 5 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Unauthorized landings. 766.12 Section 766.12 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY MISCELLANEOUS RULES USE OF DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY AVIATION FACILITIES BY CIVIL AIRCRAFT § 766.12 Unauthorized landings. An aircraft that...

  15. Land use and land cover data changes in Indian Ocean Islands: Case study of Unguja in Zanzibar Island.

    PubMed

    Mwalusepo, Sizah; Muli, Eliud; Faki, Asha; Raina, Suresh

    2017-04-01

    Land use and land cover changes will continue to affect resilient human communities and ecosystems as a result of climate change. However, an assessment of land use and land cover changes over time in Indian Ocean Islands is less documented. The land use/cover data changes over 10 years at smaller geographical scale across Unguja Island in Zanzibar were analyzed. Downscaling of the data was obtained from SERVIR through partnership with Kenya-based Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) database (http://www.servirglobal.net), and clipped down in ArcMap (Version 10.1) to Unguja Island. SERVIR and RCMRD Land Cover Dataset are mainly 30 m multispectral images include Landsat TM and ETM+Multispectral Images. Landscape ecology Statistics tool (LecoS) was used to analysis the land use and land cover changes. The data provide information on the status of the land use and land cover changes along the Unguja Island in Zanzibar. The data is of great significance to the future research on global change.

  16. Computer-aided boundary delineation of agricultural lands

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cheng, Thomas D.; Angelici, Gary L.; Slye, Robert E.; Ma, Matt

    1989-01-01

    The National Agricultural Statistics Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) presently uses labor-intensive aerial photographic interpretation techniques to divide large geographical areas into manageable-sized units for estimating domestic crop and livestock production. Prototype software, the computer-aided stratification (CAS) system, was developed to automate the procedure, and currently runs on a Sun-based image processing system. With a background display of LANDSAT Thematic Mapper and United States Geological Survey Digital Line Graph data, the operator uses a cursor to delineate agricultural areas, called sampling units, which are assigned to strata of land-use and land-cover types. The resultant stratified sampling units are used as input into subsequent USDA sampling procedures. As a test, three counties in Missouri were chosen for application of the CAS procedures. Subsequent analysis indicates that CAS was five times faster in creating sampling units than the manual techniques were.

  17. Leave No Trace! Land Ethics [and] Tread Lightly! On Public and Private Land. A National Land Use Ethics Program.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Forest Service (USDA), Washington, DC.

    This document consists of two brochures that provide land ethics guidelines for outdoor recreationists. The brochures provide techniques that visitors can use to help reduce evidence of their presence in the back country, designated "Wilderness" areas. The first brochure, titled "Leave no Trace! Land Ethics," provides…

  18. Do we need a national incident reporting system for medical imaging?

    PubMed

    Itri, Jason N; Krishnaraj, Arun

    2012-05-01

    The essential role of an incident reporting system as a tool to improve safety and reliability has been described in high-risk industries such as aviation and nuclear power, with anesthesia being the first medical specialty to successfully integrate incident reporting into a comprehensive quality improvement strategy. Establishing an incident reporting system for medical imaging that effectively captures system errors and drives improvement in the delivery of imaging services is a key component of developing and evaluating national quality improvement initiatives in radiology. Such a national incident reporting system would be most effective if implemented as one piece of a comprehensive quality improvement strategy designed to enhance knowledge about safety, identify and learn from errors, raise standards and expectations for improvement, and create safer systems through implementation of safe practices. The potential benefits of a national incident reporting system for medical imaging include reduced morbidity and mortality, improved patient and referring physician satisfaction, reduced health care expenses and medical liability costs, and improved radiologist satisfaction. The purposes of this article are to highlight the positive impact of external reporting systems, discuss how similar advancements in quality and safety can be achieved with an incident reporting system for medical imaging in the United States, and describe current efforts within the imaging community toward achieving this goal. Copyright © 2012 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. 77 FR 2987 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-01-20

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical..., Ph.D., Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering...

  20. 77 FR 37684 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-06-22

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical... Grossman, DDS, Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering...

  1. 78 FR 35041 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-06-11

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical...: Ruth Grossman, DDS, Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and...

  2. Mapping the global land surface using 1 km AVHRR data

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Lauer, D.T.; Eidenshink, J.C.

    1998-01-01

    The scientific requirements for mapping the global land surface using 1 km advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) data have been set forth by the U.S. Global Change Research Program; the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP); The United Nations; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); the Committee on Earth Observations Satellites; and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission to planet Earth (MTPE) program. Mapping the global land surface using 1 km AVHRR data is an international effort to acquire, archive, process, and distribute 1 km AVHRR data to meet the needs of the international science community. A network of AVHRR receiving stations, along with data recorded by NOAA, has been acquiring daily global land coverage since April 1, 1992. A data set of over 70,000 AVHRR images is archived and distributed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) EROS Data Center, and the European Space Agency. Under the guidance of the IGBP, processing standards have been developed for calibration, atmospheric correction, geometric registration, and the production of global 10-day maximum normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) composites. The major uses of the composites are for the study of surface vegetation condition, mapping land cover, and deriving biophysical characteristics of terrestrial ecosystems. A time-series of 54 10-day global vegetation index composites for the period of April 1, 1992 through September 1993 has been produced. The production of a time-series of 33 10-day global vegetation index composites using NOAA-14 data for the period of February 1, 1995 through December 31, 1995 is underway. The data products are available from the USGS, in cooperation with NASA's MTPE program and other international organizations.

  3. Mapping and improving frequency, accuracy, and interpretation of land cover change: Classifying coastal Louisiana with 1990, 1993, 1996, and 1999 Landsat Thematic Mapper image data

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Nelson, G.; Ramsey, Elijah W.; Rangoonwala, A.

    2005-01-01

    Landsat Thematic Mapper images and collateral data sources were used to classify the land cover of the Mermentau River Basin within the chenier coastal plain and the adjacent uplands of Louisiana, USA. Landcover classes followed that of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastal Change Analysis Program; however, classification methods needed to be developed to meet these national standards. Our first classification was limited to the Mermentau River Basin (MRB) in southcentral Louisiana, and the years of 1990, 1993, and 1996. To overcome problems due to class spectral inseparable, spatial and spectra continuums, mixed landcovers, and abnormal transitions, we separated the coastal area into regions of commonality and applying masks to specific land mixtures. Over the three years and 14 landcover classes (aggregating the cultivated land and grassland, and water and floating vegetation classes), overall accuracies ranged from 82% to 90%. To enhance landcover change interpretation, three indicators were introduced as Location Stability, Residence stability, and Turnover. Implementing methods substantiated in the multiple date MRB classification, we spatially extended the classification to the entire Louisiana coast and temporally extended the original 1990, 1993, 1996 classifications to 1999 (Figure 1). We also advanced the operational functionality of the classification and increased the credibility of change detection results. Increased operational functionality that resulted in diminished user input was for the most part gained by implementing a classification logic based on forbidden transitions. The logic detected and corrected misclassifications and mostly alleviated the necessity of subregion separation prior to the classification. The new methods provided an improved ability for more timely detection and response to landcover impact. ?? 2005 IEEE.

  4. Riparian Land Use/Land Cover Data for Five Study Units in the Nutrient Enrichment Effects Topical Study of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Johnson, Michaela R.; Buell, Gary R.; Kim, Moon H.; Nardi, Mark R.

    2007-01-01

    This dataset was developed as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program, Nutrient Enrichment Effects Topical (NEET) study for five study units distributed across the United States: Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin, Central Columbia Plateau-Yakima River Basin, Central Nebraska Basins, Potomac River Basin and Delmarva Peninsula, and White, Great and Little Miami River Basins. One hundred forty-three stream reaches were examined as part of the NEET study conducted 2003-04. Stream segments, with lengths equal to the logarithm of the basin area, were delineated upstream from the downstream ends of the stream reaches with the use of digital orthophoto quarter quadrangles (DOQQ) or selected from the high-resolution National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). Use of the NHD was necessary when the stream was not distinguishable in the DOQQ because of dense tree canopy. The analysis area for each stream segment was defined by a buffer beginning at the segment extending to 250 meters lateral to the stream segment. Delineation of land use/land cover (LULC) map units within stream segment buffers was conducted using on-screen digitizing of riparian LULC classes interpreted from the DOQQ. LULC units were mapped using a classification strategy consisting of nine classes. National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) data were used to aid in wetland classification. Longitudinal transect sampling lines offset from the stream segments were generated and partitioned into the underlying LULC types. These longitudinal samples yielded the relative linear extent and sequence of each LULC type within the riparian zone at the segment scale. The resulting areal and linear LULC data filled in the spatial-scale gap between the 30-meter resolution of the National Land Cover Dataset and the reach-level habitat assessment data collected onsite routinely for NAWQA ecological sampling. The final data consisted of 12 geospatial datasets: LULC within 25 meters of the stream reach

  5. The Land Use and Land Cover Dichotomy: A Comparison of Two Land Classification Systems in Support of Urban Earth Science Applications

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    McAllister, William K.

    2003-01-01

    One is likely to read the terms 'land use' and 'land cover' in the same sentence, yet these concepts have different origins and different applications. Land cover is typically analyzed by earth scientists working with remotely sensed images. Land use is typically studied by urban planners who must prescribe solutions that could prevent future problems. This apparent dichotomy has led to different classification systems for land-based data. The works of earth scientists and urban planning practitioners are beginning to come together in the field of spatial analysis and in their common use of new spatial analysis technology. In this context, the technology can stimulate a common 'language' that allows a broader sharing of ideas. The increasing amount of land use and land cover change challenges the various efforts to classify in ways that are efficient, effective, and agreeable to all groups of users. If land cover and land uses can be identified by remote methods using aerial photography and satellites, then these ways are more efficient than field surveys of the same area. New technology, such as high-resolution satellite sensors, and new methods, such as more refined algorithms for image interpretation, are providing refined data to better identify the actual cover and apparent use of land, thus effectiveness is improved. However, the closer together and the more vertical the land uses are, the more difficult the task of identification is, and the greater is the need to supplement remotely sensed data with field study (in situ). Thus, a number of land classification methods were developed in order to organize the greatly expanding volume of data on land characteristics in ways useful to different groups. This paper distinguishes two land based classification systems, one developed primarily for remotely sensed data, and the other, a more comprehensive system requiring in situ collection methods. The intent is to look at how the two systems developed and how they

  6. Inventory of oaks on California's national forest lands

    Treesearch

    Thomas Gaman; Kevin Casey

    2002-01-01

    California has 18+ million acres of land owned by the USDA Forest Service. This is almost 20 percent of the area of the state. From 1994-2000 the Region 5 Remote Sensing Lab collected forest, vegetation and fuels inventory data from thousands of permanent monitoring plots established on diverse sites on Forest Service lands throughout the region. The plots are...

  7. American Attitudes Toward the Land

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, Charles A.

    1975-01-01

    The colonial attitude toward land depended on the climate of the area and the culture of the settlers. With independence came a national attitude that land represented economic and political freedom for the individual. Abundant land fostered unregulated lumbering, mining, and farming. Today environmental awareness has created the conservation…

  8. Ecosystems and Land Use Change

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    DeFries, Ruth S.; Asner, Gregory P.; Houghton, Richard A.

    Land use is at the center of one of the most vexing challenges for the coming decades: to provide enough food, fiber and shelter for the world's population; raise the standard of living for the billion people currently below the poverty line; and simultaneously sustain the world's ecosystems for use by humans and other species. The intended consequence of cropland expansion, urban growth, and other land use changes is to satisfy demands from the increasing appetite of the world's population. Unintended consequences, however, can alter ecological processes and have far-reaching and long-term effects that potentially compromise the basic functioning of ecosystems. Recently, the scientific community has begun to confront such issues. Several national and international programs have been at the forefront of scientific enquiry on the causes and consequences of land use change, including: the Land Use and Land Cover Change Program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Land Use program element in the interagency U.S. Climate Change Science Program, and the International Geosphere-Biosphere's Land Use and Cover Change (LUCC) core project. The result has been significant advances in understanding the complex socioeconomic, technological, and biophysical factors that drive land use change worldwide.

  9. Nature's Web: Caring for the Land. National Wildlife Week Educator's Guide, April 19-25, 1998 = Nature's Web: El Cuidado de la Tierra. National Wildlife Week Guia para el Educador, April 19-25, 1998.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tunstall, Margaret; Kier, Jennifer; Dixon, Cheryl; Bradley, Sara; Hodges, Elenor; Levey, Sharon

    This guide features Aldo Leopold's land ethic woven into a series of activities that also represent the five core issues of most concern to the National Wildlife Federation (NWF): (1) wetlands; (2) water quality; (3) land stewardship; (4) endangered habitats; and (5) sustainable communities. Each activity is introduced by a biographical sketch of…

  10. Land Treatment Digital Library

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Pilliod, David S.

    2009-01-01

    Across the country, public land managers make hundreds of decisions each year that influence landscapes and ecosystems within the lands they manage. Many of these decisions involve vegetation manipulations known as land treatments. Land treatments include activities such as removal or alteration of plant biomass, seeding burned areas, and herbicide applications. Data on these land treatments are usually stored at local offices, and gathering information across large spatial areas can be difficult. There is a need to centralize and store treatment data for Federal agencies involved in land treatments because these data are useful to land managers for policy and management and to scientists for developing sampling designs and studies. The Land Treatment Digital Library (LTDL) was created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to catalog information about land treatments on Federal lands in the western United States for all interested parties. The flexible framework of the library allows for the storage of a wide variety of data in different formats. The LTDL currently stores previously established land treatments or what often are called legacy data. The project was developed and has been refined based on feedback from partner agencies and stakeholders, with opportunity for the library holdings to expand as new information becomes available. The library contains data in text, tabular, spatial, and image formats. Specific examples include project plans and implementation reports, monitoring data, spatial data files from geographic information systems, digitized paper maps, and digital images of land treatments. The data are entered by USGS employees and are accessible through a searchable web site. The LTDL can be used to respond to information requests, conduct analyses and other forms of information syntheses, produce maps, and generate reports for DOI managers and scientists and other authorized users.

  11. 75 FR 39547 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-07-09

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical..., National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, 6707 Democracy Boulevard, Room 960, Bethesda...

  12. 78 FR 11660 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging And Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-02-19

    ... Biomedical Imaging And Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, 6707 Democracy Boulevard, Room 959...

  13. 76 FR 58023 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meetings

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-09-19

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meetings Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical.... Hayes, PhD, Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering...

  14. 78 FR 77474 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-12-23

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical..., National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, 6707 Democracy Boulevard, Suite 959, Bethesda...

  15. 78 FR 45254 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-07-26

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical... Person: Manana Sukhareva, Ph.D., Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and...

  16. 77 FR 25487 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-04-30

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical...: Manana Sukhareva, Ph.D., Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and...

  17. 76 FR 23326 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-04-26

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical...). Contact Person: Manana Sukhareva, PhD, Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging...

  18. 76 FR 10910 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-02-28

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical...: Manana Sukhareva, PhD, Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and...

  19. 75 FR 25273 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-05-07

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical...: Manana Sukhareva, PhD, Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging & Bioeng...

  20. 77 FR 17080 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-03-23

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical... Sukhareva, Ph.D., Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering...

  1. 76 FR 572 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-01-05

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, 6707 Democracy Boulevard, Suite 959...

  2. 77 FR 27784 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-05-11

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical..., National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, 6707 Democracy Boulevard, Room 960, Bethesda...

  3. Land use mapping from CBERS-2 images with open source tools by applying different classification algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sanhouse-García, Antonio J.; Rangel-Peraza, Jesús Gabriel; Bustos-Terrones, Yaneth; García-Ferrer, Alfonso; Mesas-Carrascosa, Francisco J.

    2016-02-01

    Land cover classification is often based on different characteristics between their classes, but with great homogeneity within each one of them. This cover is obtained through field work or by mean of processing satellite images. Field work involves high costs; therefore, digital image processing techniques have become an important alternative to perform this task. However, in some developing countries and particularly in Casacoima municipality in Venezuela, there is a lack of geographic information systems due to the lack of updated information and high costs in software license acquisition. This research proposes a low cost methodology to develop thematic mapping of local land use and types of coverage in areas with scarce resources. Thematic mapping was developed from CBERS-2 images and spatial information available on the network using open source tools. The supervised classification method per pixel and per region was applied using different classification algorithms and comparing them among themselves. Classification method per pixel was based on Maxver algorithms (maximum likelihood) and Euclidean distance (minimum distance), while per region classification was based on the Bhattacharya algorithm. Satisfactory results were obtained from per region classification, where overall reliability of 83.93% and kappa index of 0.81% were observed. Maxver algorithm showed a reliability value of 73.36% and kappa index 0.69%, while Euclidean distance obtained values of 67.17% and 0.61% for reliability and kappa index, respectively. It was demonstrated that the proposed methodology was very useful in cartographic processing and updating, which in turn serve as a support to develop management plans and land management. Hence, open source tools showed to be an economically viable alternative not only for forestry organizations, but for the general public, allowing them to develop projects in economically depressed and/or environmentally threatened areas.

  4. America National Parks Viewed in 3D by NASA MISR Anaglyph 3

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2016-08-25

    Just in time for the U.S. National Park Service's Centennial celebration on Aug. 25, NASA's Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite is releasing four new anaglyphs that showcase 33 of our nation's national parks, monuments, historical sites and recreation areas in glorious 3D. Shown in the annotated image are Lewis and Clark National Historic Park, Mt. Rainier National Park, Olympic National Park, Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve, San Juan Island National Historic Park, North Cascades National Park, Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, and Ross Lake National Recreation Area (also Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, administered by the U.S. Forest Service) MISR views Earth with nine cameras pointed at different angles, giving it the unique capability to produce anaglyphs, stereoscopic images that allow the viewer to experience the landscape in three dimensions. The anaglyphs were made by combining data from MISR's vertical-viewing and 46-degree forward-pointing camera. You will need red-blue glasses in order to experience the 3D effect; ensure you place the red lens over your left eye. The images have been rotated so that north is to the left in order to enable 3D viewing because the Terra satellite flies from north to south. All of the images are 235 miles (378 kilometers) from west to east. These data were acquired May 12, 2012, Orbit 65960. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20891

  5. Inyo National Forest Land Exchange Act

    THOMAS, 113th Congress

    Sen. Feinstein, Dianne [D-CA

    2013-12-20

    Senate - 07/30/2014 Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 113-433. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status IntroducedHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

  6. Camera Image Transformation and Registration for Safe Spacecraft Landing and Hazard Avoidance

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jones, Brandon M.

    2005-01-01

    Inherent geographical hazards of Martian terrain may impede a safe landing for science exploration spacecraft. Surface visualization software for hazard detection and avoidance may accordingly be applied in vehicles such as the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) to induce an autonomous and intelligent descent upon entering the planetary atmosphere. The focus of this project is to develop an image transformation algorithm for coordinate system matching between consecutive frames of terrain imagery taken throughout descent. The methodology involves integrating computer vision and graphics techniques, including affine transformation and projective geometry of an object, with the intrinsic parameters governing spacecraft dynamic motion and camera calibration.

  7. A Method to Retrieve Rainfall Rate Over Land from TRMM Microwave Imager Observations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Prabhakara, C.; Iacovazzi, R., Jr.; Yoo, J.-M.; Lau, William K. M. (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    Over tropical land regions, rain rate maxima in mesoscale convective systems revealed by the Precipitation Radar (PR) flown on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite are found to correspond to thunderstorms, i.e., Cbs. These Cbs are reflected as minima in the 85 GHz brightness temperature, T85, observed by the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) radiometer. Because the magnitude of TMI observations do not discriminate satisfactorily convective and stratiform rain, we developed here a different TMI discrimination method. In this method, two types of Cbs, strong and weak, are inferred from the Laplacian of T85 at minima. Then, to retrieve rain rate, where T85 is less than 270 K, a weak (background) rain rate is deduced using T85 observations. Furthermore, over a circular area of 10 km radius centered at the location of each T85 minimum, an additional Cb component of rain rate is added to the background rain rate. This Cb component of rain rate is estimated with the help of (T19-T37) and T85 observations. Initially, our algorithm is calibrated with the PR rain rate measurements from 20 MCS rain events. After calibration, this method is applied to TMI data taken from several tropical land regions. With the help of the PR observations, we show that the spatial distribution and intensity of rain rate over land estimated from our algorithm are better than those given by the current TMI-Version-5 Algorithm. For this reason, our algorithm may be used to improve the current state of rain retrievals on land.

  8. A comparison of stratification effectiveness between the National Land Cover Data set and photointerpretation in western Oregon

    Treesearch

    Paul Dunham; Dale Weyermann; Dale Azuma

    2002-01-01

    Stratifications developed from National Land Cover Data (NLCD) and from photointerpretation (PI) were tested for effectiveness in reducing sampling error associated with estimates of timberland area and volume from FIA plots in western Oregon. Strata were created from NLCD through the aggregation of cover classes and the creation of 'edge' strata by...

  9. 78 FR 52938 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-27

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical...). Contact Person: John K. Hayes, Ph.D., Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging...

  10. 76 FR 62814 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-10-11

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Special Emphasis Panel, 2012-01 NIBIB R13 Conference Grant Review. Date...

  11. 77 FR 13347 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meetings

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-03-06

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meetings Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical..., 301-496-4773, [email protected] . Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and...

  12. 78 FR 76632 - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-12-18

    ... Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; Notice of Closed Meeting Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal... clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute of Biomedical...). Contact Person: John K. Hayes, Ph.D., Scientific Review Officer, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging...

  13. Land Area Change and Fractional Water Maps in the Chenier Plain, Louisiana, following Hurricane Rita (2005)

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Monica; Kranenburg, Christine J.; Brock, John C.

    2010-01-01

    In this study, we estimated the changes in land and water coverage of a 1,961-square-kilometer (km2) area in Louisiana's Chenier Plain. The study area is roughly centered on the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge, which was impacted by Hurricane Rita on September 24, 2005. The objective of this study is twofold: (1) to provide pre- and post-Hurricane Rita moderate-resolution (30-meter (m)) fractional water maps based upon multiple source images, and (2) to quantify land and water coverage changes due to Hurricane Rita.

  14. Evaluating the Synergistic Use of Low-Altitude AVIRIS and AIRSAR Data for Land Cover Mapping in Northeast Yellowstone National Park

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Berglund, Judith; Spruce, Joseph

    2001-01-01

    Current land cover maps are needed by Yellowstone National Park (YNP) managers to assist them in protecting and preserving native flora and fauna. Synergistic use of hyperspectral and radar imagery offers great promise for mapping habitat in terms of cover type composition and structure. In response, a study was conducted to assess the utility of combining low-altitude AVIRIS and AIRSAR data for mapping land cover in a portion of northeast YNP. Land cover maps were produced from individual AVIRIS and AIRSAR data sets, as well as from a hybrid data stack of selected AVIRIS and AIRSAR data bands. The three resulting classifications were compared to field survey data and aerial photography to assess apparent benefits of hyperspectral/SAR data fusion for land cover mapping. Preliminary results will be presented.

  15. Proton pinhole imaging on the National Ignition Facility

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zylstra, A. B.; Park, H.-S.; Ross, J. S.; Fiuza, F.; Frenje, J. A.; Higginson, D. P.; Huntington, C.; Li, C. K.; Petrasso, R. D.; Pollock, B.; Remington, B.; Rinderknecht, H. G.; Ryutov, D.; Séguin, F. H.; Turnbull, D.; Wilks, S. C.

    2016-11-01

    Pinhole imaging of large (mm scale) carbon-deuterium (CD) plasmas by proton self-emission has been used for the first time to study the microphysics of shock formation, which is of astrophysical relevance. The 3 MeV deuterium-deuterium (DD) fusion proton self-emission from these plasmas is imaged using a novel pinhole imaging system, with up to five different 1 mm diameter pinholes positioned 25 cm from target-chamber center. CR39 is used as the detector medium, positioned at 100 cm distance from the pinhole for a magnification of 4 ×. A Wiener deconvolution algorithm is numerically demonstrated and used to interpret the images. When the spatial morphology is known, this algorithm accurately reproduces the size of features larger than about half the pinhole diameter. For these astrophysical plasma experiments on the National Ignition Facility, this provides a strong constraint on simulation modeling of the experiment.

  16. Proton pinhole imaging on the National Ignition Facility.

    PubMed

    Zylstra, A B; Park, H-S; Ross, J S; Fiuza, F; Frenje, J A; Higginson, D P; Huntington, C; Li, C K; Petrasso, R D; Pollock, B; Remington, B; Rinderknecht, H G; Ryutov, D; Séguin, F H; Turnbull, D; Wilks, S C

    2016-11-01

    Pinhole imaging of large (mm scale) carbon-deuterium (CD) plasmas by proton self-emission has been used for the first time to study the microphysics of shock formation, which is of astrophysical relevance. The 3 MeV deuterium-deuterium (DD) fusion proton self-emission from these plasmas is imaged using a novel pinhole imaging system, with up to five different 1 mm diameter pinholes positioned 25 cm from target-chamber center. CR39 is used as the detector medium, positioned at 100 cm distance from the pinhole for a magnification of 4 ×. A Wiener deconvolution algorithm is numerically demonstrated and used to interpret the images. When the spatial morphology is known, this algorithm accurately reproduces the size of features larger than about half the pinhole diameter. For these astrophysical plasma experiments on the National Ignition Facility, this provides a strong constraint on simulation modeling of the experiment.

  17. Assessment of NPP VIIRS Albedo Over Heterogeneous Crop Land in Northern China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Xiaodan; Wen, Jianguang; Xiao, Qing; Yu, Yunyue; You, Dongqin; Hueni, Andreas

    2017-12-01

    In this paper, the accuracy of Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) land surface albedo, which is derived from the direct estimation algorithm, was assessed using ground-based albedo observations from a wireless sensor network over a heterogeneous cropland in the Huailai station, northern China. Data from six nodes spanning 2013-2014 over vegetation, bare soil, and mixed terrain surfaces were utilized to provide ground reference at VIIRS pixel scale. The performance of VIIRS albedo was also compared with Global LAnd Surface Satellite (GLASS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) albedos (Collection 5 and 6). The results indicate that the current granular VIIRS albedo has a high accuracy with a root-mean-square error of 0.02 for typical land covers. They are significantly correlated with ground references indicated by a correlation coefficient (R) of 0.73. The VIIRS albedo shows distinct advantages to GLASS and MODIS albedos over bare soil and mixed-cover surfaces, while it is inferior to the other two products over vegetated surfaces. Furthermore, its time continuity and the ability to capture the abrupt change of surface albedo are better than that of GLASS and MODIS albedo.

  18. Remote sensing of vegetation and land-cover change in Arctic Tundra Ecosystems

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Stow, Douglas A.; Hope, Allen; McGuire, David; Verbyla, David; Gamon, John A.; Huemmrich, Fred; Houston, Stan; Racine, Charles H.; Sturm, Matthew; Tape, Ken D.; Hinzman, Larry D.; Yoshikawa, Kenji; Tweedie, Craig E.; Noyle, Brian; Silapaswan, Cherie; Douglas, David C.; Griffith, Brad; Jia, Gensuo; Howard E. Epstein,; Walker, Donald A.; Daeschner, Scott; Petersen, Aaron; Zhou, Liming; Myneni, Ranga B.

    2004-01-01

    The objective of this paper is to review research conducted over the past decade on the application of multi-temporal remote sensing for monitoring changes of Arctic tundra lands. Emphasis is placed on results from the National Science Foundation Land–Air–Ice Interactions (LAII) program and on optical remote sensing techniques. Case studies demonstrate that ground-level sensors on stationary or moving track platforms and wide-swath imaging sensors on polar orbiting satellites are particularly useful for capturing optical remote sensing data at sufficient frequency to study tundra vegetation dynamics and changes for the cloud prone Arctic. Less frequent imaging with high spatial resolution instruments on aircraft and lower orbiting satellites enable more detailed analyses of land cover change and calibration/validation of coarser resolution observations.The strongest signals of ecosystem change detected thus far appear to correspond to expansion of tundra shrubs and changes in the amount and extent of thaw lakes and ponds. Changes in shrub cover and extent have been documented by modern repeat imaging that matches archived historical aerial photography. NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) time series provide a 20-year record for determining changes in greenness that relates to photosynthetic activity, net primary production, and growing season length. The strong contrast between land materials and surface waters enables changes in lake and pond extent to be readily measured and monitored.

  19. Surface water data and geographic relation to Tertiary age intrusions and hydrothermal alteration in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests (GMUG) and intervening Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Bove, Dana J.; Knepper, Daniel H.

    2000-01-01

    This data set covering the western part of Colorado includes water quality data from eight different sources (points), nine U.S. Geological Survey Digital Raster Graph (DRG) files for topographic bases, a compilation of Tertiary age intrusions (polygons and lines), and two geotiff files showing areas of hydrothermally altered rock. These data were compiled for use with an ongoing mineral resource assessment of theGrand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests (GMUG) and intervening Bureau of Land Management(BLM) lands. This compilation was assembled to give federal land managers a preliminary view of water within sub-basinal areas, and to show possible relationships to Tertiary age intrusion and areas of hydrothermal alteration.

  20. Temporal changes in land cover types and the incidence of malaria in Mangalore, India.

    PubMed

    Mohan, Venkata Raghava; Naumova, Elena N

    2014-01-01

    Malaria contributes to 881000 deaths worldwide annually and India is a major contributor in the region. This study aimed at detecting land cover changes and assesses their relationship with the burden of malaria in Mangalore taluk of southern India. Landsat TM images were obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey data repository. The statistics for the malaria incidences in the region were obtained from the National Vector Borne Diseases Control Program division of the State of Karnataka. The images were preprocessed, classified and change detection statistics were employed for major land cover types. An increase in the urban land cover by 20% with a reduction in the mountainous terrain by 34.7% and vegetation by 38.7% was noted between the years 2003 and 2005. The annual incidence of malaria increased five-fold from 203 to 1035/100000 population during the period. This study demonstrates the application of publicly available remote sensed data as a cost effective approach to study the agent, host and environment relationships in resource scarce settings which would provide valuable information planning and policy making at regional levels.

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