State Reports - Nebraska The Nebraska Gap Analysis Project (NE-GAP) has been funded for two years. Two dates of TM imagery have been acquired for each of the 18 scenes for the state. A mosaic poster has been created from the TM data and has been widely used within Nebraska to foster collaboration and improve public relations. We currently have cooperative agreements with about 15 agencies and organizations across Nebraska and at least 17 individual cooperators who have agreed to collect some field data or provide land cover map review for their area of the state. A Nebraska Gap Analysis home page has been developed (http://www.calmit.unl.edu/gap); many parts of the page are still under construction. Land Cover Following protocol development and testing in several counties, image processing to develop the land cover layer is progressing in western Nebraska. Path/row locations in western Nebraska have been mosaicked together so that classification is being conducted on large regions of the state. Currently, data are being merged and classified for portions of central and eastern Nebraska. Extensive field data were collected in summer 1997 for use in cluster identification and labeling. We continue to seek and acquire ancillary data sets that will assist in image processing and land cover mapping, such as NRI data from USDA-NRCS. A preliminary legend has been developed in accordance with the FGDC standard vegetation alliances that exist in Nebraska. Communication has been initiated with projects in South Dakota, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa to facilitate data sharing, polygon edge-matching, and/or legend compatibility. Animal Modeling Collection records of terrestrial vertebrates, 1980 to present, held by the University of Nebraska State Museum, have been identified and converted to digital form. Recent records for Nebraska have been sought from numerous other museums nationwide and are being incorporated. Vertebrate characterization abstracts, bibliographic information, and occurrence information have been received from the Nebraska Natural Heritage Program for all Nebraska species. Other sources of vertebrate species information are being sought, and a bibliography is being built. Land Stewardship Work on the land stewardship layer continues. We are working collaboratively with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission as they build their managed lands database. Recently, we obtained the USFWS digital coverage of wildlife refuge lands in Nebraska. Additional sources of ownership and management information continue to be sought. Contact has been made with BLM in Wyoming, BIA in South Dakota, and TNC in Minnesota to obtain additional land ownership information for Nebraska. Much of this information is not in digital form and will need to be digitized or converted from legal descriptions. |