After an interpreting session, the
interpreted point text file can be built into a coverage with another AML called
LABEL2COVER.AML. This point coverage, with all the attribute information, can be drawn up
in the next interpreting session. We have also developed an AML (ASC2FLTLN.AML) to convert
the ASCII output from TRIMBLE’s PFINDER into a flightline coverage complete with the
necessary attribute structure.
These AMLs have proven to be useful for the handling of
video data and interpretation because they allow us to apply consistent labels rapidly
through the use of menus without having to memorize and use excessive command line
instructions. You can download these files from our anonymous FTP server at:
host: ftp.ncgap.ncsu.edu
login: anonymous
password: <your_email_address>
directory: /out/interp_files/
Steve Williams
North Carolina State University, Raleigh
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ)
uses land use data routinely to fulfill federally mandated tasks under the Clean Water
Act. Among these tasks are assessing watershed impairment from nonpoint pollution sources
and targeting watersheds for best management practices. LDEQ currently relies upon land
use data that is outdated, generalized, and/or does not specify crop type. To remedy this,
the LDEQ GIS Center is developing a current, digital, agricultural land use data set for
the entire state.
A key part of this project is the Louisiana Gap Analysis
Project’s (LA-GAP) land cover data, which will serve for initial delineation of
cropland areas, that will be further categorized into distinct classes of cropping
systems. Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF) staff is assisting with
delineation of cropland areas, and supplemental field information is being sought from
other agencies. The final product will include a polygon coverage of agricultural fields,
associated attribute data (crop type, etc.), and metadata. Rapides, Madison, and Cameron
parishes have been selected as areas for method development. The GAP
agriculture/cropland/grassland class was overlaid on the SPOT-TM merged imagery, and
printed maps were distributed to LDAF field personnel for attribution. These maps have
been attributed and returned to LDEQ and are now being examined for necessary corrections.
An initial classification scheme is being developed based on the level of detail and type
of information that LDAF will be able to provide. Of all the available base data sets for
agriculture areas, the LA-GAP vegetation layer was chosen because it is the most recent
and appears to be the most accurate. Some smoothing and generalizing of the LA-GAP
polygons will be advantageous to provide a more workable base data set. The contact person
for LDEQ is Aimee Preau; the LA-GAP project contact is Steve Hartley.
Aimee Preau
Louisiana Dept. of Environmental Quality
7290 Bluebonnet Road, GIS Center
Baton Rouge, LA 70810
ap0139@deq.state.la.us
(504) 765-0086
Steve Hartley
USGS/NWRC
700 Cajundome Blvd.
Lafayette, LA 70506
steve_hartley@usgs.gov
(318) 266-8543
Steve Hartley
USGS National Wetlands Research Center, Lafayette, Louisiana
For land cover mapping of Louisiana, data from the Landsat
Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite was merged with satellite data from Le Système Pour
l’Observation de la Terre (SPOT) to create a composite image of the entire state
(Braud 1997). The merged image acquires the advantageous features of both spectral and
spatial resolution. TM imagery is multispectral-detecting energy intensities (brightness)
of seven discrete bands in the visible and infrared wavelengths of the electromagnetic
spectrum. The SPOT imagery utilized for this merger is panchromatic-a black and white
single band spanning the full visible range of the spectrum. TM imagery has a spatial
resolution of 30 meters, while SPOT panchromatic imagery has a spatial resolution of 10
meters. When the two data sets are combined, the resulting image appears as a color
10-meter image, acquiring the multispectral feature of TM and the higher spatial
resolution of SPOT. The new enhanced imagery allows data users to discriminate linear
features such as fence rows, roads, pipelines, canals, and bayous smaller than the
original 30-meter TM data. Another advantage of the merged data set is the increased
accuracy in locating shoreline boundaries.
The process uses a red, green, and blue (RGB) composite of
band 4 (near-infrared), band 5 (mid-infrared), and band 3 (red visible) from the TM and
the SPOT panchromatic data. Global and local histogram functions were applied to the data
prior to merging. After merging, the images were reduced from three-band, 24-bit files to
a single 8-bit file that retains the true color fidelity of the composite color image. The
4, 5, 3 TM band combination provides the greatest degree of vegetation discrimination. The
merged images are paneled in 30x30-minute tiles equivalent to 16 USGS 7.5-minute
quadrangles, 100k USGS quadrangles, and parishes. The TM data were acquired during the
winter of 1992-93, and the SPOT data were acquired during the time period of 1990-95. The
data are projected to UTM Zone 15, Clarke 1866 ellipsoid, NAD 27 datum. The SPOT-TM files
are stored as GEO-TIFFs and can be viewed with most graphics software programs.
For more information on data distribution, visit the
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s web site (http://gis.deq.state.la.us). The U.S. Geological
Survey’s National Wetlands Research Center is currently developing a 3-volume CD of
the SPOT-TM merged imagery that will include a mapping software package for viewing the
data. This image-merging technique can be used with the next generation of Landsat imagery
since Landsat 7 will include a 10-m panchromatic channel in addition to the 30-m
multispectral bands.
Literature Cited
Braud, DeWitt H., Jr. 1997. Satellite view of Louisiana
from the merge of Landsat Thematic Mapper and SPOT imagery. Louisiana Department of
Environmental Quality and Department of Natural Resources, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the
U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wetlands Research Center, Lafayette, Louisiana.
Steve Hartley
USGS National Wetlands Research Center, Lafayette, Louisiana
Close to 30 posters were on display at the 1998 GAP
conference in Santa Barbara. The posters covered a wide array of GAP-related topics and
generated considerable discussion. Following is a listing of the poster titles and
authors. Those posters marked with an asterisk can be seen on the GAP home page at http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/gap/AnnualMeetings/1998/Posters/
Indiana GAP land cover map (S.M. Berta, C.M. Cowell, J. Wilson, and D.Wiseman)
A supervised approach to mapping the natural vegetation of Kansas (C.F. Blodgett, C.L.
Lauver, S. Egbert, E. Martinko, K.P. Price, E. Ellis, and J. Riffer)
Applications and limitations of species distribution models for conservation in the
Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico (L.A. Bojorquez)
Habitat suitability of the national forests of Mississippi for the black bear (J.L.
Bowman, F.J. Vilella, B.D. Leopold, and H.A. Jacobson)*
Patterns of terrestrial vertebrate richness and fire in the arid and semiarid Western
United States (J. D’Elia and G. Wright)*
Vegetation of the Texas Panhandle (A. Ernst, T.S. Schrader, S. Haskell, C.
Gonzalez-Rebeles, N.C. Parker, and Y. Lan)
The 1999 National GAP Meeting: Duluth, Minnesota/Superior, Wisconsin (D. Fitzpatrick)
Creating New York’s land cover map: The Adirondack Park as an example (J. Fiore)
Accuracy assessment of forest change detection methods: Problems encountered in accepting
forest industry GIS data as reference in the error matrix (D.J. Hayes, S.C. Vermillion,
and S.A. Sader)
An example of conservation analysis integrating vegetation cover data and site-specific
information on species associated with declining habitats (S. Hall and M. Schafale)
Mississippi avian and herpetological atlases: An integral part of mapping Mississippi
vertebrates (C. Reynolds, M.G. Williams, R.B. Minnis, and F.J. Vilella)*
A spatial assessment of the Northern Arizona GAP land cover map (S.R. Jacobs and K.
Thomas)
An accuracy assessment of Maine’s land cover/land use map (J.A. Hepinstall and
S.A. Sader)
Improving ground-truth data collection efforts using ArcView (G. Schairer)*
Interpretation of aerial videography in Western Virginia using ArcView (S. McNulty)*
Comparison of predicted vertebrate species richness and known aquatic insect richness
at 36 vernal pools in Virginia (K. Stein)
Is vertebrate richness an adequate umbrella for protecting biodiversity: Spatial
correspondence between ants and mammals (C.R. Allen, L. Pearlstine, and D.P. Wojcik)*
Using Gap Analysis information to guide planning for conserva- tion of birds in New
York State: A comparison of science-based and expert-opinion approaches (C.R. Smith)
Wildlife habitat and vegetation modeling using general vegetation classes (S.O. West,
E.V. Schmidt, F. Smith, and C. Aulbach Smith)*
If you build it, they will come: Making NBII a reality with GAP on the web (M.
Herdendorf, T. Kohley, and J. Hamerlinck)*
Increased spatial resolution in primary data: The scale and aggregation problem
revisited (O. Ahlqvist)*
Library of digital aerial photography (R.J. Simpson and L. Pearlstine)*
Louisiana Gap Analysis Project (S. Hartley)*
Oregon Biodiversity Project (S. Vickerman)
Elisabeth Brackney
National Gap Analysis Program, Moscow, Idaho
The 1999 annual GAP meeting will take place in Duluth,
Minnesota, on August 2-6. It will be hosted by the Upper Midwest GAP Project (Michigan,
Minnesota, and Wisconsin) and coordinated by Daniel Fitzpatrick. The meeting sessions will
be held at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center (DECC); accommodations will be
available at the Radisson Hotel Duluth-Harborview. Duluth is the gateway to Lake
Superior’s North Shore and many recreation opportunities.
The meeting is open to GAP investigators, their staff,
project collaborators, and others interested in GAP methods and results. Because of the
meeting location’s close proximity to Canada, we expect a good turnout by our
Canadian colleagues. Additional information about the conference and the Duluth area can
be found on the GAP home page at http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/gap/AnnualMeetings/.
A call for papers will be going out soon.
Elisabeth Brackney
National Gap Analysis Program, Moscow, Idaho
Southeast regional GAP participants will be meeting in
Athens, Georgia, on February 9 and 10, 1999. The event will be hosted by Georgia-GAP, and
most activities will be held at Flinchum’s Phoenix, a local retreat and conference
center. Information about accommodation, travel, maps of the area, and conference
activities can be found at the following GA-GAP home page link: http://greer.ecology.uga.edu/gap/conference.html.
Karen Payne
University of Georgia, Athens
An international conference on modeling for the
twenty-first century, "Predicting Plant and Animal Occurrences: Issues of Scale and
Accuracy," is to be held on October 19-22, 1999, in Snowbird, Utah. Fifteen years
have passed since Wildlife 2000, new editions of texts have been written on the subject,
new technologies and techniques have evolved, and there have been several theoretical
advances. The goal is to bring together scientists and managers currently involved with
habitat modeling to discuss the state of our knowledge about predicting and mapping
species occurrences, examine the theoretical basis for model development, display current
applications of modeling techniques, and focus on the future of modeling for wildlife
conservation and management on public and private lands. We plan to examine the
theoretical basis for model development and discuss current applications of modeling
techniques. Our focus will be on the future of modeling to support multiscale landscape
planning efforts for wildlife conservation and management. We will address accuracy and
scale issues including an examination of the effects of temporal and spatial scale on
model effectiveness and on the quality and availability of specific habitat attributes to
help broaden our perspective and sharpen our creative thinking. Conference participants
will include scientists and managers from around the world.
If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to
contact Mike Scott (mscott@uidaho.edu,
208-885-6960), Patricia Heglund (pheglund@uidaho.edu, 208-885-2665), or Kathy Merk (kmerk@uidaho.edu, 208-885-2750). You can also obtain
registration information from our web site: http://www.ets.uidaho.edu/coop/1999_symposium.htm.
J. Michael Scott
Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit,
Moscow, Idaho
In January 1998, the New Mexico Gap Analysis Project
received "The Team Award" for 1997 from the College of Agriculture and Home
Economics at New Mexico State University. That award acknowledged the overall team
accomplishment of the project and specifically recognized the 11 members of the core team
while the project was under way.
Bruce Thompson
New Mexico State University, Las Cruces |
