# Presentation: 936350

## LAND COVER INVESTIGATION

**Data Collection**

**Mapping**

**Land Cover Sample Site and**
**Biometry Protocols**

**Manual and Computer-aided Mapping and Change Over Time Protocols**

## LAND COVER INVESTIGATION

**Collect MANY Land Cover Sample Sites.**
**Map your GLOBE Study Site using the data and topographic maps, aerial photos, etc. with manual mapping or computer-aided mapping.**
**Carry out an accuracy assessment.**
**Analyze change in two images several years apart.**

## LAND COVER SAMPLE SITE PROTOCOL

- *GPS
- *compass
- *MUC Field Guide or MUC System Table and MUC Glossary of Terms
- *camera
- *pen or pencil
- *Land Cover Sample Site and GPS Data Sheets
- *clipboard

- Student Field Guides for Land Cover Sample Site,* GPS* and Biometry Protocol
- *knowledge of your individual pace
- vegetation field guides
- markers for permanent sites
- 50m tape measure
- flags

**What you need in the field:**

- *MUC-A-THON (no Biometry) quick and easy minimum.

## LAND COVER SAMPLE SITE PROTOCOL

**90m X 90m**
**Homogeneous land cover (same MUC throughout)**
**At least one per land cover type found in your Study Site**
**Three observations**
- latitude, longitude, elevation (GPS)
- MUC
- photos

## LAND COVER SAMPLE SITE PROTOCOL

## LAND COVER SAMPLE SITES

**The thorough study in a homogeneous site:**
- mark the four corners of your 90m x 90m site and the  four corners of the center 30m x 30m pixel
- pace both diagonals and collect canopy and ground cover data
- measure the heights of the dominant land cover(s) (trees, shrubs and/or graminoids)
- determine MUC
- take GPS measurements
- take photos in the four cardinal directions

## LAND COVER SAMPLE SITES

**The MUC-A-THON quick and easy:**
- pace (N, W, E, S) into the center of a homogeneous site (at least 45m)  from a different land cover type (ex. road)
- take GPS measurements
- take photos in the four cardinal directions
- determine MUC
- Cannot determine MUC?
- pace the diagonals, collect canopy and ground cover data, take any height measurements that you need OR
- find another site where you do not need to take measurements

## USING GPS IN A LAND COVER SAMPLE SITE

**USING GPS IN A LAND COVER SAMPLE SITE**

- If we take the average of 5 minutes of GPS readings, our position is accurate to about ± 5m.
- It is impossible to determine the exact corner location of a single pixel on the ground.
- By collecting GPS data in the center of the site, we know that within the positional accuracy of the imagery and ground, the center pixel is within the 90m x 90m Land Cover Sample.

**We need to compare each Land Cover Sample Site on the ground to the corresponding area on the image.**

## GPS PROTOCOL

**Stand at the center of the site**
**Record the GPS measurements (to the highest number of decimal places for your GPS) once per minute for 5 minutes**
**Average the readings**
**Report to the highest decimal place (at least 4)**
**Use the offset GPS Protocol if you cannot get a reading from the center of the site**

## BIOMETRY PROTOCOL

**Vegetation measurements**
- canopy (tree and/or shrub) and ground cover
- tree, shrub and/or graminoid height
- tree circumference
- graminoid biomass
**All relevant Biometry measurements should be taken in order to determine and/or verify the correct land cover class.**
**After that, it’s up to you!**

## BIOMETRY EXAMPLES

## SITE SELECTION AND SET-UP

**Determine if it is 90m x 90m**
**Take biometry measurements along diagonals of center 30m x 30m pixel**
- four student groups
- one along each diagonal
- combine data

## PACING

**Convenient measurement of distance - no need to take along a meter tape**
**One pace = 2 steps**
**To find key number of paces:**
- stretch out a 50m tape
- walk along it three times and average the number of paces you find for each of these measurements:
- 30m: length of one side of a sampling pixel
- 45m: distance to the center of a Land Cover Sample Site from one side
- 21.2m: one-half of the center pixel diagonal (gives you how many canopy and ground cover measurements to make)

## PACING

## MARKING YOUR SITE (optional)

**Establish the center of your square by pacing the diagonal transects of the square and placing a marker where the two paths intersect. You may use string to make these diagonals. Also note that the two diagonals should be of equal length.**

## MAKING AND USING A DENSIOMETER

## MAKING AND USING A DENSIOMETER

## GROUND AND CANOPY COVER

**What you need in the field**
- tubular densiometer
- Tree and/or Shrub Canopy Cover and Ground Cover Data Sheet(s)
- pen or pencil
- compass
- species ID keys or local species guides
- clipboard

## GROUND AND CANOPY COVER

**From the center, at every pace along the half-diagonal:**

## GROUND AND CANOPY COVER

- look up through densiometer crosshairs
- record a (+), T or SB if you see canopy
- record if it is E or D
- record species or common name
- no canopy, record (-)
- look down for vegetation touching your legs or         feet below the knee
- record B or G for rooted (live) veg.
- record GD, FB, OG, SB, DS
- forb examples: clover, sunflowers, ferns, and milkweeds
- record (-) for no ground cover

## MAKING AND USING A CLINOMETER

## MAKING AND USING A CLINOMETER

## VEGETATION HEIGHT

**What you need in the field**
- 50 m measuring tape
- flexible measuring tape
- small bean bag
- Graminoid, Tree and Shrub Height Data Sheet
- pen or pencil
- permanent tree markers (optional)
- clinometer
- species ID keys or other local species guides
- blindfold

## VEGETATION HEIGHT

**Graminoid and shrub height**
- use a bean bag to choose samples
- average three measurements
**Tree height (for level ground)***
- choose tallest tree & shortest tree that reaches canopy, three in between
- dominant and co-dominant species
- be at least as far away as it is tall
- clinometer close to 30

- *Note: When the tree base and your feet are not at the same height, see the field guides for other methods!

## VEGETATION HEIGHT

- measure three times
- average must be within 1m of  the heights
- measure the same trees, report heights & circumferences in the same order

## TREE CIRCUMFERENCE

**What you need in the field**
- flexible measuring tape
- Tree Circumference Data Sheet
- pen or pencil
- species ID keys or other local species guides

## TREE CIRCUMFERENCE

**Tree circumference**
- same trees as tree height
- measured at 1.35m

## GRAMINOID BIOMASS

**What you need in the field**
- small bean bag
- Graminoid Biomass Data Sheet
- pen or pencil
- blindfold
- grass clippers or strong scissors
- small brown paper bags
- species ID keys or other local species guides
- IN THE CLASSROOM: balance  and drying oven

## GRAMINOID BIOMASS

**Within random 1m square**
- clip all attached graminoid vegetation at ground
- discard leaves, twigs, non-grasses
- sort into brown (senescent) and green (living) clippings
- place separately into brown paper bags
- repeat twice for a total of 3 samples
**In the classroom**
- dry the bags in a drying oven (50-70° C) until mass no longer changes
- calculate mass of brown and green graminoids

## MAPPING

**Manual Mapping**
- satellite image (print)
- transparency markers
- tranparency
- reference data, maps, aerial photos, etc.
**Computer-aided Mapping (Advanced)**

## MAP USES

**studying the habitat of a certain animal or plant**
**looking at the succession of fields to forests**
**studying the rate of growth of a particular village, town or city**
**looking at the amount of undeveloped land**
**deciding how to protect water resources **
**deciding where to plant certain crops during the next growing season. **
**deciding new school boundaries**
**choosing where to connect recreational trails to create one continuous system**
**deciding how to efficiently run public transportation**
**studying another specific question**

## MAPPING

## MAPPING

## MAPPING

## LANDSAT IMAGE

**LANDSAT IMAGE**

**Using the Land Cover data entry pages, you can request your GLOBE Study Site image once you have reported 250 measurements and submitted the GPS coordinates of your school location. **

## MANUAL MAPPING

**Assemble your materials**
**Place transparency over the satellite image**
**Using topographic maps and aerial photographs, start to outline areas**
**To start, use common names but work up to MUC classes!**

## MANUAL MAPPING

**Identify Water Bodies**

## MANUAL MAPPING

**Transportation Features Are Added**

## MANUAL MAPPING

**Buildings and Developed Areas are Added **

## MANUAL MAPPING

**Vegetated Areas and Other Features are Added**

## MANUAL MAPPING

**Final Product - Student Classified Land Cover Map**

## MANUAL MAPPING

**Outline Water**

**Outline Roads**

**MANUAL MAPPING**

## MANUAL MAPPING

**Outline Other Classes**

**MANUAL MAPPING**

**Final Land Cover Map**

## MANUAL MAPPING

**MANUAL MAPPING**

## MANUAL MAPPING

**MANUAL MAPPING**

## ACCURACY ASSESSMENT

**ACCURACY ASSESSMENT**

## ACCURACY ASSESSMENT

**After we collect many *****Land Cover Sample Sites***** throughout the GLOBE  Study Site, perform an accuracy assessment on the land cover type map.**

**ACCURACY ASSESSMENT**

## ACCURACY ASSESSMENT

**Using the Land Cover Sample Site data, complete the Accuracy Assessment Work Sheet.**

## ACCURACY ASSESSMENT

**Build an empty difference/error matrix.**

**Label the matrix with the titles and MUC classes.**

## ACCURACY ASSESSMENT

**ACCURACY ASSESSMENT**

**Tally each row of data.**

## ACCURACY ASSESSMENT

## ACCURACY ASSESSMENT

**Calculate:**
- Row Totals
- Column Totals
- Total Data Samples

## ACCURACY ASSESSMENT

***Overall Accuracy***** indicates how well the map identifies all land cover types on the ground.**

## ACCURACY ASSESSMENT

***Producer’s Accuracy***** indicates what percentage of the time a particular land cover type on the ground was identified as that land cover type on the map. It expresses how well the map producer identified a land cover type on the map from the satellite imagery data.**

## ACCURACY ASSESSMENT

***User’s Accuracy***** indicates what percentage of the time a particular land cover type on the map is really that land cover type on the ground. It expresses how well a person using the map will find that land cover type on the ground.**

## ACCURACY ASSESSMENT

## ACCURACY ASSESSMENT

## ACCURACY ASSESSMENT