AVHRR derived Northeastern U.S. Landcover

This dataset, used as in input to the PnET model, (see parent DIF) was formed by Scott Ollinger at a resolution of 30 arc sec (about 1 kilometer) from a dataset first extracted by R.G. Lathrop and J. A. Bognar. It classifies landcover in the Northeastern US as one of 11 categories: background, urban, agriculture, hardwoods, mixed hardwood/spruce fir, mixed hardwood/pine, water, wetland, barren, or unclassified.

As part of developing the geographic information system (GIS) to support a north-eastern U.S. regional forest change modeling effort, Lathrop and Bognar investigated the utility of several sources of AVHRR data in regional forest cover mapping. Single-date classified Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) imagery in combination with existing USGS Land Use/ Land Cover data was used to create a forest cover database that encompassed eastern New York state and all of New England.

The USGS EROS Data Center Conterminous U.S. Land Cover Characteristics database was also evaluated for comparison. Statistical analysis showed that the AVHRR-derived regional land cover datasets provided estimates of total forest area that were comparable to U.S. Forest Service county level estimates. The AVHRR imagery recorded after leaf fall appeared to enhance the discrimination of coniferous vs. deciduous forests.