Showing posts with label Habitat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Habitat. Show all posts

Monday, August 16, 2010

National Land Cover Map and Online Map Viewer Now Available

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has just handed conservation professionals across the United States another tool to aid their efforts to preserve habitat for both sensitive and non-sensitive species nationwide. The USGS Gap Analysis Program (GAP) has released a comprehensive, seamless, national land cover dataset that can assist in the identification of those places in the country with sufficient habitat to support wildlife. The map can be viewed online via the GAP Web site. These data are freely available and can be downloaded. The GAP national land cover data are the most detailed, consistent map of vegetative associations ever available for the United States. These data are critical for determining the status of biodiversity, as baseline data for assessing climate change impacts, and for predicting the availability of habitat for wildlife. The new GAP dataset will facilitate the planning and management of biological diversity on a regional and national scale.

Monday, July 26, 2010

The NBII LIFE and the Gap Analysis Program Have Begun Uploading a Comprehensive Photo Collection of Southwest U.S. Habitats

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has just made available valuable data on the landscapes of the Southwest to a wider audience. The USGS coordinates both the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), which helps make biological data and other information available online, and the Gap Analysis Program (GAP), which identifies native animal and plant communities not adequately represented in existing conservation lands.  The NBII's Library of Images From the Environment (LIFE) staff recently worked with the GAP staff to extract images and data from the GAP database and load them into the LIFE. The first collection is now live and contains approximately 15,000 images of the different habitats of Utah, with data accompanying each on the composition of the landscape, date photographed, and more.  The GAP images are public domain images and thus are now free for use to a new audience consisting of researchers, educators, students, and the general public.  To see this collection, select the Special Collections tab on the LIFE home page, and then select the Gap Analysis Program.  The next state to be uploaded this summer is Arizona, followed in the fall by Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico. Adding this comprehensive collection of landscape images supports LIFE's mission of serving images to support research and education – and the mission of treating each image as scientific data.

(Photo: Barren Upland Cliff. Credit: Southwest Regional Gap Analysis Project Field Crew/life.nbii.gov.)

Friday, June 11, 2010

First Detailed National Map of Land-Cover Vegetation Released Will Help Determine Places with Habitat to Support Wildlife

The most detailed national vegetation U.S. land-cover map to date was released today by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The map will enable conservation professionals to identify places in the country with sufficient habitat to support wildlife.

The map, produced by the USGS Gap Analysis Program (GAP), can be viewed online and downloaded for free.


“These data are critical for determining the status of biodiversity, as baseline data for assessing climate change impacts, and for predicting the availability of habitat for wildlife,” said John Mosesso, Gap Analysis Program Manager. “Large datasets of this type are extremely important to land and wildlife managers because they allow for analysis and planning across extensive geographic areas.”

The GAP national land cover data, based on the NatureServe Ecological Systems Classification, is the most detailed, consistent map of vegetative associations ever available for the United States and will help facilitate the planning and management of biological diversity on a regional and national scale.

GAP’s mission is to keep common species common by providing information on the status of native species. The creation and dissemination of the national landcover dataset and online map viewer furthers that goal by putting crucial information into the hands of conservation professionals. Information about land cover is a key component of effective conservation planning and the management of biological diversity. 


Landcover Map Portrays Complex Data
The final version of the landcover map contains 551 Ecological Systems and modified Ecological Systems (the modified ecological systems represent 32 land use classes which depict developed and/or disturbed land cover classes). The map combines data from previous GAP projects in the Southwest, Southeast, and Northwest United States with recently updated California data. For areas of the continental United States where ecological system-level GAP data has not yet been developed, data from the LANDFIRE project compiled by Landscope was used. This allows for the construction of a seamless representation of ecological system distributions across the continental United States.

The map also meets natural resources agencies’ need for a way to characterize land cover. Finally, the new map furthers the mission of GAP to promote conservation by providing state, regional, and national assessments of the conservation status of land cover types to resource managers, planners, and policy makers who can use the map and its underlying data to make informed decisions.


Online Map Viewer Shows Data at Multiple Scales
The online map viewing interface has been designed to allow users to explore land cover data at three levels of complexity.  Level 1 contains eight classes: grassland, shrubland, forest, aquatic, sparse and barren, recently disturbed, riparian, and human land use. Level 2 contains 43 classes, and incorporates information on elevation and climate. Level 3 contains the full 583 classes. This online tool facilitates exploration of ecological system distribution patterns at multiple scales and allows users to calculate statistics on the types of vegetation occurring within a mapping zone, a state, or a county.

As part of the USGS National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) — a collaborative program coordinated by the USGS to provide increased access to data and information on the nation’s biological resources — GAP data and associated analytical tools have been used in hundreds of applications, from basic research to comprehensive state wildlife plans, and from education projects in schools to ecoregional assessments of biodiversity.

GAP has developed land cover data since the 1980s — initially on a state-by-state basis and more recently on a regional basis. The national land cover map provides seamless coverage across political boundaries, facilitating its use by governmental agencies, researchers, conservation organizations and others.

(Photo: Online Map Viewer for Land-Cover Classification Map. The GAP (GAP Analysis Program) online map viewer shows land cover classifications at three levels. Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey Multimedia Gallery)
(This technical announcement was originally published by the U.S. Geological Survey)