A land cover map was historically a representation on paper or Mylar of plant species and communities on a site, along with selected features such as topography, streams, and roads. The one or two copies produced were either kept in the office because they were too good to use, or they were taken to the field and kept in a plastic sheet so they wouldn’t get muddy. They were copied in black and white (repeatedly), subjected to spills of hot and cold beverages, and soon became illegible.
The growth of digital capabilities in the last several years has transformed this static and labor-intensive product into a stack of overlapping digital data files that can store and display a large array of individual characteristics. Advances in remote sensing, analysis and modeling, and sampling theory provide tremendous sophistication in producing and understanding the mapped data. The quality, information content, and flexibility of maps have risen dramatically. Information is no longer available to just a few, but can be shared, manipulated, and presented to serve many different clients. We can have multiple copies to take to the field! At varying scales. And in color.
Using hierarchical classifications as described in the previous section and advanced imagery, we have the ability to view our land and water resources in a different light. We can now describe the context of our site, run simulations of changes before fielding them, and perform the quantitative evaluations required in today’s funding climate. This section of EMRIS introduces some of the most relevant aspects of Spatial Analysis.
Obtaining Information and Images