Features
Features
Biodiversity and Spatial Information Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh
The timing for initiating the Southeast Regional GAP Analysis Project (SEReGAP) provided a unique opportunity for collaboration with the Earth Resources Observation and Science Data Center, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP). While the federal agencies involved in the Multi-resolution Landscape Characterization Consortium (MRLC) have been working together for years toward the common goal of the National Land Cover Datasets (both 1992 and 2001), the collaboration involved image acquisition and supported mapping efforts through research and development, funding, and in an advisory role. For the NLCD 2001 the areas of common interest were expanded with the adoption of the NLCD 2001 land cover classification as the basis for the general land cover classes for both SEReGAP and C- CAP.
In 2003 GAP agreed to actively partner with USGS on the mapping of the general land cover classification using the NLCD 2001 protocol. The collaboration provided GAP with timely delivery of image mosaics of the Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery for the mapping zones within the region, a protocol for general cover classes that would guarantee a common framework with neighboring regions, and the addition of two products, impervious surface and canopy closure, that would help in mapping detailed land cover, as well as in habitat modeling. In turn, the NLCD 2001 gained a partner to anchor a relatively large region of the U.S. early in the database development process. In addition, NLCD gained local expertise with respect to the patterns of land cover throughout the Southeast with GAP involvement in Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina.
Just prior to SEReGAP’s adoption of the protocol, C-CAP expanded their commitment to working with MRLC to develop a common framework that would meet the programmatic needs of both C-CAP and NLCD 2001. A major step towards that common framework was an agreement to adopt a common map legend with the incorporation of standard wetland classes for the coastal portions of the NLCD 2001. Once the coastal legend was adopted SEReGAP agreed to incorporate the additional wetland classes for two of the coastal zones (Zone 55 and 58). The added wetland classes, while requiring additional effort to map, provide GAP with a common framework on which to base the Ecological Systems mapping in the coastal region. For those two mapping zones C-CAP is now using the NLCD 2001 land cover developed by SEReGAP as one of the end points in their Coastal Change Analysis for those zones.
The cooperative work in the Southeast is just one example of the strength and commitment of the many partners involved in the MRLC. In this case by fostering collaboration the MRLC has had a positive impact on three key land cover mapping programs, the Land Cover Characterization through the NLCD 2001, Gap Analysis Program through the work of the SEReGAP and C-CAP.