Protocol for Landsat-Based Monitoring of Landscape Dynamics at North Coast and Cascades Network Parks

Kennedy RE, Cohen WB, Kirschbaum AA, Haunreiter E. 2007. Protocol for Landsat-Based Monitoring of Landscape Dynamics at North Coast and Cascades Network Parks. Chapter 1 of Book 2, Collection of environmental data Section G, Remote sensing. Techniques and Methods 2-G1. U.S. Geological Survey; National Park Service. Reston, Virginia

As part of the National Park Service's goal of developing long-term monitoring programs in response to the Natural Resource Challenge of 2000, the parks of the North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN) determined that monitoring landscape dynamics is necessary to track ecosystem health. Landscape dynamics refer to a broad suite of ecological, geomorphological, and anthropogenic processes occurring across broad spatial scales. The NCCN sought protocols that would leverage remote-sensing technologies to aid in monitoring landscape dynamics. Parks personnel considered remote sensing necessary for several reasons: 1. Monitoring must cover large areas often inaccessible by foot travel. 2. Some large-area processes are best viewed from the landscape perspective afforded by remote sensing. 3. Some small-area events are captured more efficiently and consistently with repeat viewing using remote sensing. The project was conducted under an interagency agreement between the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Geological Survey BRD/Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center program. The authors’ original plan relied on identification of baseline maps from which change areas could be mapped forward in time for monitoring. However a key problem became apparent: there was a sense that the mid-1990s Pacific Meridian Resources (PMR) maps, which were the most detailed available maps, had inadequate detail to be useful to field ecologists, and that these maps should not form the basis of a monitoring plan. Rather than build a change map based on a particular base map, the focus would instead be a methodology for detecting change that is, to the extent possible, separated from any particular baseline map. The goal of protocol development shifted from creation of new landcover maps to development of maps focused on areas that have changed. Under this “change-focused” strategy, the remote-sensing data would serve as a filter for the Parks, highlighting areas that appear to be change and which can be investigated in further detail either on the ground or with more detailed imagery. The change-focused approach is attractive for several reasons: 1. Errors in baseline maps are not incorporated into the analysis; all errors will be traceable solely to the change detection methodology. Although the end goal may be to attach the change products to a particular map, which will have errors, the errors will be separable. 2. By focusing on areas that have changed, field sampling of the landscape may be more efficient. Nevertheless, the need to validate areas labeled “no-change” still may require considerable sampling effort. 3. By making the change methodology as modular as possible, it can be “bolted on” to any map(s) at either the beginning or end of a given change-detection interval. This gives substantial flexibility to adapt the change products to the needs of different users within the Parks, or as new maps become available.

Type
Published Report
Authors
Kennedy, Robert; Cohen, Warren; Kirschbaum, Alan; Haunreiter, Erik
Date of Issue
2007
Publisher
U.S. Geological Survey; National Park Service
Units
IMDP , MORA , NCCN , NOCA , OLYM
Keywords
Avalanche chute, Change, class, clearcut, Conifer, Defoliation, Detection, Development, Disease, FIRE, Forest, hardwood, Insect, Land Use, Landsat, Landsat ETM+, Landscape dynamics, Landscape Pattern, Landslide, Monitoring, Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park, physiognomic, POM, probability of membership, Riparian, tasseled-cap, Vegetation
Subjects
Ecological Framework: Landscapes | Landscape Dynamics | Land Cover and Use

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