Characterizing, measuring and visualizing forest resources

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Characterizing, measuring and visualizing forest
resources

• An inadequate treatment by an unqualified
  presenter.

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Things in this talk

• Remote Sensing 001
• Ways Were Measuring Forests at UConn
• Quick Note on Visualization

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Geospatial Technologies

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Remote Sensing (RS)
• Global Positioning Systems (GPS)

• Internet

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And since were talking forest rather than trees

• Remote sensing is the art and science of
  detecting, identifying, classifying, and
  analyzing the earths surface using special
  sensors onboard airplanes and satellites.

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Landscape Features Reflect Light Differently
Value
Value
Band
Band
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Examples of RS Data

• Imagery

Land Cover
Elevation
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RS Imagery

• General reference/Base mapping
• Visual background to other data
• Digitize new data
• Update existing data

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What is land cover?

• RS image

Land cover map
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Land Cover vs Land Use

• Land Cover Literally, what is covering the land
  (forest, wetland, pavement)
• Land Use What is planned, practiced or
  permitted on a given area (commercial,
  residential, dedicated open space)

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Things in this talk

• Remote Sensing 001
• Ways Were Measuring Forests at UConn
• Quick Note on Visualization

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Analysis Characterization

• Forest cover maps
• Forest block maps
• Forest fragmentation analysis
• Distance from a road analysis
• Buffer analysis

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2002 Land cover
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2002 Land cover forest only
(and water)
Coniferous Forest
Deciduous Forest
Forested Wetland
Water
Non-forest
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2002 Forest Cover by town
Town of Coventry 67 forested
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2002 Forest Cover by county
Tolland County 68 forested
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2002 Forest Cover by watershed
Willimantic Regional Basin 73 forested
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Forest Cover Advantages

• Easy to understand
• Total cover relates to watershed research,
  possible watershed plan goals
• Can easily fit into Basic NEMO educational
  approach

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Analysis Characterization

• Forest cover maps
• Forest block maps
• Forest fragmentation analysis
• Distance from a road analysis
• Buffer analysis

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Forest Block Analysis

• Isolate forest cover
• Remove any polygons smaller than the size of
  interest
• Block size is key for birds and others
• Considerable evidence that powerline corridors
  and roads reduce the quality of habitat for many
  species of forest birds in the surrounding
  habitat
• Powerlines appear to be a conduit that brings
  predators and cowbirds deep into the forest
  interior

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Forest Blocks by Town
Town of Coventry
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Forest Blocks by County
Tolland County
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Forest Blocks by Watershed
Willimantic Regional Basin
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Forest Block Advantages

• Easy to generate once you have cover data
• Relates well to specific habitat concerns
• Allows the important distinction between amount
  of forest and amount of usable forest for wildlife

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Analysis Characterization

• Forest cover maps
• Forest block maps
• Forest fragmentation analysis
• Distance from a road analysis
• Buffer analysis

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UConn CLEAR FF Analysis

• Original method developed by Riitters et al.
  (2000) of the USDA/USFS to assess global forest
  fragmentation from 1 km land cover data.
• Adapted by CLEAR for use on Landsat-derived land
  cover information (30-meter spatial resolution).

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Pixel-by-pixel analysis

• A moving analysis window (9x9 is shown) is used
  to look at each center pixel in relation to all
  the surrounding pixels.

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Forest Classes

• Core Forest - all surrounding grid cells are
  forest.
• Perforated Forest - the interior edge of a forest
  tract such as would occur around a small clearing
  or house lot.
• Edge Forest - grid cell is on the exterior edge
  of a forest tract such as would occur along a
  large agricultural field or urban area.
• Transitional Forest - about half of the
  surrounding grid cells are forest.
• Patch Forest - less than 40 of surrounding grid
  cells are forest.

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Forest Classes

• Core Forest - all surrounding grid cells are
  forest.
• Perforated Forest - the interior edge of a forest
  tract such as would occur around a small clearing
  or house lot.
• Edge Forest - grid cell is on the exterior edge
  of a forest tract such as would occur along a
  large agricultural field or urban area.
• Transitional Forest - about half of the
  surrounding grid cells are forest.
• Patch Forest - less than 40 of surrounding grid
  cells are forest.

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Forest Classes

• Core Forest - all surrounding grid cells are
  forest.
• Perforated Forest - the interior edge of a forest
  tract such as would occur around a small clearing
  or house lot.
• Edge Forest - grid cell is on the exterior edge
  of a forest tract such as would occur along a
  large agricultural field or urban area.
• Transitional Forest - about half of the
  surrounding grid cells are forest.
• Patch Forest - less than 40 of surrounding grid
  cells are forest.

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Forest Classes

• Core Forest - all surrounding grid cells are
  forest.
• Perforated Forest - the interior edge of a forest
  tract such as would occur around a small clearing
  or house lot.
• Edge Forest - grid cell is on the exterior edge
  of a forest tract such as would occur along a
  large agricultural field or urban area.
• Transitional Forest - about half of the
  surrounding grid cells are forest.
• Patch Forest - less than 40 of surrounding grid
  cells are forest.

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Forest Classes

• Core Forest - all surrounding grid cells are
  forest.
• Perforated Forest - the interior edge of a forest
  tract such as would occur around a small clearing
  or house lot.
• Edge Forest - grid cell is on the exterior edge
  of a forest tract such as would occur along a
  large agricultural field or urban area.
• Transitional Forest - about half of the
  surrounding grid cells are forest.
• Patch Forest - less than 40 of surrounding grid
  cells are forest.

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Forest Cover Map
2002
Forested area 1,886,426 acres 59.3 of CT
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Forest Fragmentation Map
( 9x9 analysis window )
2002
Core Forest 576,764 acres 18.1 of CT
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Forest Blocks by Town
Developed 2672
Non-forest 5098
Water 546
Core/Interior Forest 3461
Perforated Forest 4876
Edge Forest 5724
Transitional Forest 1780
Patch Forest 548
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Forest Blocks by County
Developed 32439
Non-forest 47377
Water 6065
Core/Interior Forest 57771
Perforated Forest 50610
Edge Forest 53491
Transitional Forest 14505
Patch Forest 5490
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Forest Blocks by Watershed
Developed 16372
Non-forest 20325
Water 3209
Core/Interior Forest 30216
Perforated Forest 29549
Edge Forest 31042
Transitional Forest 7780
Patch Forest 2325
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Forest Frag Advantages

• Provide data about quality as well as quantity of
  forest
• Can be run at different scales/grid sizes
  depending on concerns
• Tells you something about pattern of the forested
  landscape and its suitability for habitat

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Forest Cover
Forest Cover
Forest Blocks
Forest Fragmentation

• all based on the same input data (land cover)
• best use(s) for each???

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The Forest Frag Wizard!
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There are many other Forest Fragmentation tools
out there
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Analysis Characterization

• Forest cover maps
• Forest block maps
• Forest fragmentation analysis
• Distance from a road analysis
• Buffer analysis

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A Road Runs Through It

• A nationwide study by Foreman (2000) estimates
  that 22 of total land area is affected
  ecologically by roads (within 100m of roads).
• This is further supported by Riitters Wickham
  (2003).
• A study in Massachusetts along Rte. 2 by Foreman
  Deblinger (2000) reports that the maximum
  distance that could be directly impacted by roads
  is up to 300m (984ft).

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• 11 of Connecticut forest is within 100 ft of
  roads
• 29 of Connecticut forest is within 300 ft of
  roads
• 52 of Connecticut forest is within 600 ft of
  roads

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Distance of Forest From Roads
100 feet
A nationwide study by Foreman (2000) estimates
that 22 of total land area is affected
ecologically by roads (within 100m of roads).
5400 feet
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Analysis Characterization

• Forest cover maps
• Forest block maps
• Forest fragmentation analysis
• Distance from a road analysis
• Buffer analysis

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Land Cover Within Buffers
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Land Cover Within Buffers
100 ft
200 ft
300 ft
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What we measured
Developed
Turf Grass
Other Grasses Ag.
Deciduous Forest
Coniferous Forest
Water
Forest Wetland
Non-forested Wetland
Tidal Wetland
Barren
Utility Right-of-way

• Natural Vegetation

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25 Basins with greatest Natural Vegetation loss
(percent) 1985-2002
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Combined Indicators of Stream Health
Stream Health Impervious Watershed Natural Veg. 100 ft riparian buffer
Excellent lt 6 gt 65
Good lt10 gt60
Fair 10-25 40-60
Poor gt25 lt40
After Goetz et al., 2003
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Visualization
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Stupid PPT Photoshop Tricks
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Economic modeling
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Web Tools
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Build Out Analysis

• ArcGIS and Scenario360

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Potential New Homes
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Google Earth
Residential buildout analysis
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Are you insinuating that my talk wasnt all it
was supposed to be??!