LandPro 2012

This layer was developed by the Research & Analytics Division of the Atlanta Regional Commission to show generalized land cover for regional planning with a land use component used for forecasts and modeling at ARC. LandPro2012 should not be taken out of its regional context, though county-level or municipal-level analysis may be useful for transportation, environmental and land use planning. LandPro2012 is ARC's land use/land cover GIS database for the 21-county Atlanta Region (Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Rockdale, the EPA non-attainment (8hr standard) counties of Carroll, Coweta, Barrow, Bartow, Forsyth, Hall, Newton, Paulding, Spalding and Walton and Dawson which will become a part of the 2010 Urbanized Area). LandPro2012 was created by on-screen photo-interpretation and digitizing of ortho-rectified aerial photography. The primary source for this GIS database were the local parcels and the 2009 true color imagery with 1.64-foot pixel resolution, provided by Aerials Express, Inc. 2010 is the first year we have used parcel data to help more accurately delineate the LandPro categories.For ArcGIS 10 users: See full metadata by enabling FGDC metadata in ArcCatalog Customize > ArcCatalog Options > Metadata (tab) Though the terms are often used interchangeably, land use and land cover are not synonymous. Land cover generally refers to the natural or cultivated vegetation, rock, or water covering the land, as well as the developed surface which can be identified on aerial photography. Land use generally refers to the way that humans use or will use the land, regardless of its apparent land cover. Collateral data for the land cover mapping effort included the Aero Surveys of Georgia street atlas, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Community Facilities database and the USGS Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs) of 1:24,000 scale topographic maps. The land use component of this database was added after the land cover interpretation was completed, and is based primarily on ownership information provided by the 21 counties and the City of Atlanta for larger tracts of undeveloped land that meet the land use definition of "Extensive Institutional" or "Park Lands" (refer to the Code Descriptions and Discussion section below). Although some of the boundaries of these tracts may align with visible features from the aerial photography, these areas are generally "non-photo-identifiable," thus require other sources for accurate identification. The land use/cover classification system is adapted from the USGS (Anderson) classification system, incorporating a mix of level I, II and III classes. There are a total of 25 categories in ARC's land use/cover system (described below), 2 of which are used only for land use designations: Park Lands (Code 175) and Extensive Institutional (Code 125). The other 23 categories can describe land use and/or land cover, and in most cases will be the same. The LU code will differ from the LC code only where the Park Lands (Code 175) and Extensive Institutional (Code 125) land holdings have been identified from collateral sources of land ownership. Although similar to previous eras of ARC land use/cover databases developed before 1999 (1995, 1990 etc.), "LandPro" differs in many significant ways. Originally, ARC's land use and land cover database was built from 1975 data compiled by USGS at scales of 1:100,000 and selectively, 1:24,000. The coverage was updated in 1990 using SPOT satellite imagery and low-altitude aerial photography and again in 1995 using 1:24,000 scale panchromatic aerial photography. Unlike these previous 5-year updates, the 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005 2007, 2008 and 2009 LandPro databases were compiled at a larger scale (1:14,000) and do not directly reflect pre-1999 delineations. In addition, all components of LandPro were produced using digital orthophotos for on-screen photo-interpretation and digitizing, thus eliminating the use of unrectified photography and the need for data transfer and board digitizing. As a result, the positional accuracy of LandPro is much higher than in previous eras. There have also been some changes to the classification system prior to 1999. Previously, three categories of Forest (41-deciduous, 42-coniferous, and 43-mixed forest) were used; this version does not distinguish between coniferous and deciduous forest, thus Code 40 is used to simply designate Forest. Likewise, two categories of Wetlands (61-forested wetland, and 62-non-forested wetland) were used before; this version does not distinguish between forested and non-forested wetlands, thus Code 60 is used to simply designate Wetlands. With regard to Wetlands, the boundaries themselves are now based on the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) delineations along with the CIR imagery. Furthermore, Code 51 has been renamed "Rivers" from "Streams and Canals" and represents the Chattahoochee and Etowah Rivers which have been identified in the land use/cover database. In addition to these changes, Code 52 has been dropped from the system as there are no known instances of naturally occurring lakes in the Region. Finally, the land use code for Park Lands has been changed from 173 to 175 so as to minimize confusion with the Parks land cover code, 173. There has been a change in the agriculture classification for LandPro2005 and any LandPro datasets hereafter. Previously, four categories of agriculture (21- agriculture-cropland and pasture, 22 - agriculture - orchards, 23 - agriculture - confined feeding operations and 24 - agriculture - other) were used; this version does not distinguish between the different agricultural lands. Code 20 is now used to designate agriculture. Due to new technology and the enhancements to this database, direct comparison between LandPro99, LandPro2001, LandPro2003 and landPro2005 and all successive updates are now possible, with the 1999 database serving as ARC's new baseline. Please note that as a result of the 2003 mapping effort, LandPro2001 has been adjusted for better comparison to LandPro2003 and is named "LandPro01_adj." Likewise, LandPro99 was previously adjusted when LandPro2001 was completed, but was not further adjusted following the 2003 update. Although some adjustments were originally made to the 1995 land use/cover database for modeling applications, direct comparisons to previous versions of ARC land use/cover before 1999 should be avoided in most cases. The 2010 update has moved away from using the (1:14,000) scale, as will any future updates. Due to the use of local parcels, we have begun to snap LandPro boundaries to the parcel data, making a more accurate dataset. The major change in this update was to make residential areas reflect modern zoning codes more closely. Due to these changes you will no longer be able to compare this dataset to previous years. High density (113) has changed from lots below .25 to lots .25 and smaller. Medium density (112) has changed from .25 to 2 acre lots, to .26 to 1 acre lots. Low density has changed from 2 to 5 acre lots to 1.1 to 2 acre lots. It must be noted that in the 2010 update, you still have old acreage standards reflected in the low density. This will be corrected in the 2011 and 2012 updates. The main focus of the 2010 update was to make sure the LandPro' residential areas reflected the local parcels and change LandPro based on the parcel acreage. DeKalb is the only county not corrected at this time because no parcels were available. The future updates will consist of but are not limited to, reclassifying areas in 111 that do not meet the new acreage standards, delineating and reclassifying Cell Towers, substations and transmission lines/power cuts from TCU (14) to a subset of this (142), reclassifying airports as 141 form TCU, and reclassifying landfills form urban other (17) to 174. Other changes are delineating more roads other than just Limited Access Highways, making sure parks match the already existing Land use parks layer, and beginning to differentiate office from commercial and commercial/industrial. Classification System: 111: Low Density Single Family Residential - Houses on 1.1 - 2 acre lots. Though 2010 still reflects the old standard of lots up to 5 acres. 112: Medium Density Single Family Residential - These areas usually occur in urban or suburban zones and are generally characterized by houses on .26 to 1 acre lots. This category accounts for the majority of residential land use in the Region and includes a wide variety of neighborhood types. 113: High Density Residential - Areas that have predominantly been developed for concentrated single family residential use. These areas occur almost exclusively in urban neighborhoods with streets on a grid network, and are characterized by houses on lots .25 acre or smaller but may also include mixed residential areas with duplexes and small apartment buildings. 117: Multifamily Residential - Residential areas comprised predominantly of apartment, condominium and townhouse complexes where net density generally exceeds eight units per acre. Typical apartment buildings are relatively easy to identify, but some high rise structures may be interpreted as, or combined with, office buildings, though many of these dwellings were identified and delineated in downtown and midtown for the first time with the 2003 update. Likewise, some smaller apartments and townhouses may be interpreted as, or combined with, medium- or high-density single family residential. Housing on military bases, campuses, resorts, agricultural properties and construction work sites is not included in this or other residential categories. 119: Mobile Home Parks - Areas that have been developed for single family mobile home use. These residential areas may occur in urban, suburban, or rural zones throughout the Region, with or without a significant mix of forested land cover. Due to their sparse distribution, individual mobile homes are generally mapped with the Forest land cover (Code 40) and Low- or Medium-Density Residential (Codes 111 and 112, respectively). 12: Commercial and Services - Areas used predominantly for the sale of products and services, including urban central business districts, shopping centers in suburban and outlying areas, commercial strip developments, junk yards and resorts. The main buildings, secondary structures and areas supporting the basic use are all included: office buildings, warehouses, driveways, sheds, parking lots, landscaped areas, waste disposal areas, etc. Commercial areas may include some non-commercial uses too small to be separated out. Central business districts commonly include some institutions such as churches and schools, and commercial strip developments may include some residential units. 121: Intensive Institutional - The built-up portions of institutional land holdings, including all buildings, grounds and parking lots that compose educational, religious, health, correctional and military facilities. Institutions occupying small areas (for example, many churches and some elementary and secondary schools) may be included in other categories, principally residential or commercial. 122: Churches - subset of Commercial and Services. 125: Extensive Institutional - Public or private land holdings devoted to educational, religious, health, correctional, or military land use. This category is one of only two that is used exclusively for land use classifications, the other being Park Lands (Code 175). As the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Atlanta, ARC is required to produce long range population and employment forecasts which are used in transportation modeling. The land use categories of Extensive Institutional and Park Lands are important to ARC's long range forecasts since large tracts of land controlled by governments and institutions are more likely to be withheld from residential, commercial, or industrial development. Unlike Intensive Institutional (Code 121) which is visible on, and delineated from, the digital aerial photography, Extensive Institutional can only be identified and mapped from collateral data sources. The primary source of this information comes from the GIS Coordinators for each of the 21 counties and the City of Atlanta who reviewed the previous designations and provided updated information and additional GIS or CAD data. Various secondary sources include hard copy, digital and internet maps and files. Please note, the built-up land cover portion of these various tracts of land are generally identified as Intensive Institutional (Code 121). The Extensive Institutional land use areas identify the full extent of these tracts which are both built-up and non-built-up. 13: Industrial - Land associated with light or heavy manufacturing. Light industries, those focused on design, assembly, finishing, processing and packaging of products, can be difficult to identify using aerial photography. Heavy industries, those focused on the use of raw materials, such as timber and steel, are relatively uncommon in the Atlanta Region, but the category may include lumber mills and tank farms, as well as chemical, cement and brick-making plants. For this mapping effort, industrial land cover is more commonly captured with the Industrial and Commercial Complexes category (Code 15) which is described below. 14: Transportation, Communication and Utilities - Also referred to as "TCU," this category encompasses various land use types associated with transportation, communication, and utilities. Much of the automotive transportation is accounted for in other categories, particularly highways and their right-of-ways, which are either absorbed into the context of a more dominant land cover (e.g. residential or commercial), or are covered completely within the Limited Access Highways category (Code 145) described below. Other types of transportation include service and terminal facilities, railways (including MARTA) and their stations, parking lots, roundhouses, repair and switching yards, as well as overland track and spur connections. Airport facilities may include runways, terminals, service buildings, navigation aids, fuel storage, parking lots, and intervening land. Similar to streets and highways, communication and utility networks generally fall below the minimum mapping standards, thus are not separated out of the context of the larger land use with which they are associated. When practical, areas involved in the processing, treatment and transportation of water, gas, oil, and electricity, such as pumping stations and electric substations have been delineated. Likewise, areas used for airwave communications, such as radio, radar, or television may be mapped in this category. 142: Cell Towers, substations and transmission lines/power cuts, a subset of TCU (14). 145: Limited Access Highways - This category identifies all highways, or portions of highways that are considered "limited access," their approximate right-of-ways, ramps and interchanges. In addition to the 8 interstate highways in the Region (I-20, I-75, I-85, I-285, I-575, I-595, I-675, and I-985), this category includes the entire extents of the Stone Mountain Freeway, Ronald Reagan Parkway, Freedom Parkway, Arthur Langford Parkway, the Canton Road Connector, and Spur 14 connecting the South Fulton Parkway to I-285. Likewise, portions of the Camp Creek Parkway, Appalachian Highway, Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, and Georgia Highway 316 are also included. Finally, cartographic license was taken with Georgia Highway 400 to extend this designation northward through Forsyth County, slightly beyond where interchanges stop and intersections begin, thus ceasing to actually be limited access highway. 15: Industrial and Commercial Complexes - Industrial and commercial areas that typically occur together or in close functional proximity with one another. For this mapping effort, based primarily on the interpretation of aerial photography, industrial areas are more commonly grouped in this category than in the Industrial (Code 13) category. In as much as various functions, such as warehousing, wholesaling and occasionally retailing may be found in the same structures or adjacent structures, this more inclusive category has been used to combine commercial with industrial. Industrial parks are almost always classified in this category. 17: Other Urban - Open land in intensive or indeterminate urban uses that do not require or do not have structures. Examples include water control structures and spillways, waste dumps, landfills, golf driving ranges and other recreation areas not identified as parks. This category excludes golf courses, cemeteries and active parks, which are contained in separate categories. 171: Golf Courses - The "green space" areas of golf courses, including tees, fairways, greens and intervening land. Forest areas and ponds are often included, but may also be identified separately (Code 40 and 53, respectively) depending on their size. Likewise, other built-up facilities, such as parking lots, clubhouses, pools, courts, etc. may be classified as commercial/services (Code 12). 172: Cemeteries - Public and private lands devoted to burial grounds, including primary and secondary buildings and associated infrastructure. Because of their unique photo "signature," many small cemeteries can be identified from the digital imagery at a scale of 1:14,000; many others, however, may be combined with residential, commercial, forest, or agriculture land cover. Forest areas and ponds are often included in this category, but may also be identified separately (Code 40 and 53, respectively) depending on their size. 173: Parks - Active recreation areas identified from aerial photography, including baseball and other sports fields, tennis courts, swimming pools, camp grounds, parking lots, structures, drives, and trails. Forest areas and ponds are often included, but may also be identified separately (Code 40 and 53, respectively) depending on their size. 175: Park Lands - Local, state, or federal land holdings devoted to preservation, conservation or recreation, as identified from secondary sources. This category is one of only two that is used exclusively for land use classifications, the other being Extensive Institutional (Code 125). As the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Atlanta, ARC is required to produce long range population and employment forecasts which are used in transportation modeling. The land use categories of Park Lands and Extensive Institutional are important to ARC's long range forecasts since large tracts of land controlled by governments and institutions are more likely to be withheld from residential, commercial, or industrial development. Unlike Parks (Code 173) which are visible on, and delineated from, the digital aerial photography, Park Lands can only be identified and mapped from collateral data sources. The primary source of this information comes from the GIS Coordinators for each of the 21 counties and the City of Atlanta who reviewed the previous designations and provided updated information and additional GIS or CAD data. Various secondary sources include hardcopy, digital and internet maps and files. Please note, the built-up land cover portion of these various tracts of land are generally identified as Parks (Code 173). The Park Land land use areas identify the full extent of these tracts which are both built-up. 20: Agriculture - All areas of cropland, pasture, orchards, vineyards, nurseries, and confined feeding operations. Cropland and Pasture are regularly used to grow field crops or to pasture animals. Orchards, Vineyards and Nurseries are land used to produce fruit, nuts or living plants for sale or for propagation. Confined Feeding Operations are land used for specialized livestock production enterprises where large animal populations are restricted to small areas. Such land uses include cattle feed lots, dairy operations with little or no pasture, large poultry farms and hog feed lots. Shipping corrals and other temporary holding facilities are generally excluded, as are horse farms and equestrian facilities which have lower animal population densities. Agriculture-Other is land used for livestock holding, breeding and training areas, including farmsteads and associated infrastructure, such as small farm lanes, roads, ditches, canals and ponds. 40: Forest - All forested areas of coniferous and/or deciduous trees. 51: Rivers - The Chattahoochee River extending from Buford Dam in Gwinnett and Forsyth counties south to Heard County and the Etowah River extending from the Bartow, Floyd County boundary to the Allatoona Dam. Other "linear" water bodies, such as smaller rivers, streams, creeks, and canals fall below the mapping standards used for inclusion in this category. 53: Reservoirs, Lakes, and Ponds - Man-made impoundments, often referred to as "lakes" or "ponds," which are persistently covered with water. Please note, as there are no known naturally occurring lakes in the Region, the previous class called Lakes (Code 52) has been dropped from the classification system. For larger reservoirs, the water control structures themselves are often classified in Other Urban (Code 17). 60: Wetlands - Forested and/or herbaceous areas where the water table is at, near or above the land surface for a significant part of the growing season in most years. Wetland polygons were delineated at a scale of 1:6,000 using the CIR imagery after all other land cover delineations had been made at 1:14,000, mostly with the true color imagery. The NWI data was used as the primary "back coverage" in ARC/Info for reference to wetland boundary and classification information. This information was concurrently compared to USGS digital raster graph (DRGs) topographic images which were viewed at the same scale in ArcView for reference to contours, hydrography, and other topographic information. ARC's land cover delineations represent the synthesis of these two older data sources against the 1999 CIR digital imagery using the minimum mapping standards established for the project. 74: Bare Exposed Rock - Naturally occurring areas of exposed bedrock with little or no vegetative cover. 75: Quarries, Gravel Pits, and Strip Mines - Land which is currently, or was in the past, used to extract rocks and minerals, and has had its vegetation cover removed and not replaced. Pits which have been flooded with water are often included in this category, but may also be identified separately as artificial impoundments (Code 53) depending on their size. 76: Transitional Areas - Recently cleared or altered land in transition from one land use activity, either built-up or non-built-up, to another unknown or non-determinate land use. Source: Atlanta Regional Commission Date: 2012