Western Alaska Lake Database

This vector data layer covers 6 major lake districts (Baldwin Peninsula, Kobuk Delta, Selawik Lowland, Northern Seward Peninsula, Central Seward Peninsula, and Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta) in the northern and central sub-regions of the Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperative (WALCC) region and consists of polygons of lakes with areas equal or greater than 1.0 ha. More than 58000 Lakes were mapped from Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery acquired between 1972 and 1975, 2002 and 2009, and 2013 and 2014 using Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) techniques with an classification accuracy of 96%. The spatial image resolution of Landsat TM and ETM+ is 30 m. Permafrost characteristics and surficial geology associated with lake polygons were determined from the Alaska permafrost map (Jorgenson et al. 2008).