Impacts of Land-Cover Change on the National Parks of the Northeast Temperate Network

Wang, Y.; Bonynge, Gregory

Study of the impact land-cover change has on National Parks in the Northeast Temperate Network. The purpose of this proposal is to provide a landscape context for the 11 parks (Table 1) in the National Park Service's Northeast Temperate Network. Superintendents and resource managers have identified changes in land use surrounding Network Parks as a primary threat to park ecosystems. This project will quantify changes in land-cover types associated with the increase in human development around Network parks over the past 30 years. This information will aid resource mangers and the National Park Service's Inventory and Monitoring program to identify and prioritize ecosystem stressors caused by human encroachment adjacent to parks. Providing this landscape context for park ecosystems, and quantifying the extent of land cover changes adjacent to parks is a critical step in the development and implementation of a long-term monitoring program. Activities will include an assessment of land-cover types using Landsat imagery from 3 time periods between 1973 and the present. Land cover types within and surrounding parks will be quantified for the three time periods, and changes in these land cover types over time will be calculated. The precise dates for each park will be based on image quality, availability, and cost. The amount of land assessed outside of each park will be determined after individual consultations with park mangers, superintendents, and Inventory and Monitoring program staff.

Impacts of Land-Cover Change on the National Parks of the Northeast Temperate Network

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