Creation of a Conterminous U.S. Land Cover and Land Change Reference Dataset for LCMAP Validation
Abstract
The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) initiative is working toward a comprehensive capability to characterize changes in land cover, land use and land condition using dense Landsat time series data. An initial suite of map products for the conterminous United States including annual land cover and land change maps for the past 30 years will be produced using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and Operational Land Imager (OLI) data. The USGS is collaborating with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to collect independent reference data for the validation and characterization of annual land cover and change products. This reference information is being collected using the TimeSync tool, a web-based interface for manually interpreting and recording land cover from time series Landsat data. Interpreters are recording information related to land use, land cover, and land change processes at individual 30-meter sample plots. Approximately 60 percent of the sample plots are evaluated by 2 independent, randomly selected interpreters for quality assessment. Collection of a base sample at 25,000 plot locations in the conterminous United States is underway with more than half of the data collected and reviewed. The methods used to create the reference database will be presented, including: sample design, interpretation protocol, and quality assurance practices. Preliminary results related to inter-interpreter consistency and data consistency will be discussed.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.B13B..03H
- Keywords:
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- 0439 Ecosystems;
- structure and dynamics;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0480 Remote sensing;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 1632 Land cover change;
- GLOBAL CHANGEDE: 1807 Climate impacts;
- HYDROLOGY