A land-cover data infrastructure for measurement, modeling, and analysis of land-cover change dynamics

This paper describes land-cover data as part of a broad management and analytical infrastructure. This land-cover data infrastructure provides a flexible and inclusive mechanism for a full sequence of analyses of land-cover, including description, management, analysis, and modeling of land-cover change dynamics. The land-cover data infrastructure addresses the diversity of description and application of land-cover data, the sources of land-cover data, and the sequence of processing for land-cover mapping, analysis, and modeling. The design of the infrastructure produces an integrated suite of databases and processing toolboxes that supports this entire processing stream and that focuses on the data needs of the applications of land-cover data, rather than the representation of a cartographic. land-cover product. The infrastructure integrates diverse data sources, including imagery, field data, and existing land-cover maps with data processing operations; the goal is to provide data for modeling and analysis of land-cover dynamics relevant to application needs of different users. The opportunity for further development of GIS, remote sensing, and spatial analysis to be used to conduct rigorous scientific investigation of land-cover change is discussed in the context of the data infrastructure.