MAPPING LAND COVER FOR LOCAL-SCALE CONSERVATION IN
THE TOWN OF DANBY, UPSTATE NY
Christina Konnaris (Jake Brenner)
Department of Environmental Studies & Sciences, Ithaca College
The use of remotely sensed imagery for land-cover classification can play an
important role in community-level conservation planning. In response to the recent
appointment of a Conservation Advisory Council by the Town Board of Danby, in
central upstate New York, a thematic land-cover classification was performed using
Landsat TM imagery from summer 2010. Previous research conducted in this area
was based on 1995 imagery and has become outdated; this classification provides a
necessary update given realities of changing exurban landscape in Danby. In the
process of analyzing data, we used Landsat TM imagery from July 2010 from a
multi-spectral satellite to produce a new map of land cover in the Town of Danby.
Several iterations of unsupervised and supervised classification were performed and
we used GPS-assisted fieldwork to compare the results and confirm accuracy. We
found that supervised classification produced a map with the
following classes: Forest, Ag land, Successional Meadow,
Lawns/Residential and Urban. In analyzing the results of our
data, we compared results with the 1995 Land Cover classification and considered implications for conservation planning
in Danby. Continuity of this research will lay the foundation
for a potentially study of time-series change mapping.