In accordance with SO #3423 - The Gulf of America and SO #3424 - Mount McKinley and Landmarks Honoring the Alaskan People, new USGS data releases specific to those named places will utilize the new name Gulf of America and the restored name Mount McKinley. Per USGS practice, historical data will retain the name of the geographic features as they were known at the time the data were originally released.
Data Release
Wetland-Change Data Derived from Landsat Imagery, Assateague Island to Metompkin Island, Maryland and Virginia, 1984 to 2015
By Steven D. Douglas,1 Julie C. Bernier,2 and Kathryn E.L. Smith2
1Cherokee Nation Technologies
2U.S. Geological Survey
Summary
This data release includes geospatial datasets that were created to analyze wetland changes along the Virginia and Maryland Atlantic coasts between 1984 and 2015 as part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Barrier Island and Estuarine Wetland Physical Change Assessment. Wetland change was determined by assessing two metrics: wetland persistence and land-cover switching. Because seasonal water levels, beach width, and vegetation differences can affect change analyses, only images acquired during the spring (March, April, and May) were included in the wetland-change metrics (N=10).
USGS Data Series 968 presented data that were derived from Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 imagery from 1984 to 2014, including wetland and terrestrial habitat extents; open-ocean, back-barrier, and estuarine mainland shoreline positions; and sand-line positions along the estuarine mainland and barrier shorelines from Assateague Island, Maryland to Metompkin Island, Virginia. As part of the wetland-change analyses, 2 additional satellite images (17-April-1985 and 05-May-2015) were processed and classified using the methods described in Data Series 968 in order to provide a more complete time series. One additional image (26-April-1994) was reprocessed to correct a classification error that was identified by comparing wetland and total analysis extents among all images.
Data
| File Name and Description | Metadata (XML format) | Metadata (text format) | Download File |
|---|---|---|---|
| landsat_a2a_lc_final_v2016.zip Land-cover data derived from Landsat satellite imagery (.tif) |
landsat_a2a_lc_final_v2016-met.xml | landsat_a2a_lc_final_v2016-met.txt | landsat_a2a_lc_final_v2016.zip (441 KB) |
| landcover_switching_dataset.zip Landcover change analysis results (.tif) |
landcover_switching_metadata.xml | landcover_switching_metadata.txt | landcover_switching_dataset.zip (969 KB) |
| wetland_persistence_dataset.zip Wetland gain/loss analysis results (.tif) |
wetland_change_persistence_metadata.xml | wetland_change_persistence_metadata.txt | wetland_persistence_dataset.zip (1007 KB) |
Figure 1. Regional map showing the study area from Assateague Island, Maryland, to Metompkin Island, Virginia. Red box indicates study-area extent; urban areas on Chincoteague Island (red hatched extent) were excluded from analysis. Numbered features are (1) Assateague Island, (2) Metompkin Islands, and (3) Chincoteague Island. Base map modified from U.S. Geological Survey 1:200,000 scale digital data overlaid with coastal land area derived from Landsat 5 imagery acquired April 28, 1989.
Suggested Citation
Douglas, S.D., Bernier, J.C. and Smith, K.E.L., 2017, Wetland-change data derived from Landsat imagery, Assateague Island to Metompkin Island, Maryland and Virginia, 1984 to 2015: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F76T0KHH.