Metadata for Classified Landsat Thematic Mapper Data, U.S. Forest Service Northern Region, 1992 Metadata for Classified Landsat Thematic Mapper Data, U.S. Forest Service Northern Region, 1992

Download full XML Metadata

Identification Information:

Citation:

Originator:: University of Montana
Wildlife Spatial Analysis Laboratory
Publication date: 06/12/1996
Title:: Classified Landsat Thematic Mapper Data, U.S. Forest Service Northern Region, 1992

Browse graphic file name: http://docs.msl.mt.gov/geoinfo/Images/Metadata/wsal1.gif

Browse graphic file name: http://docs.msl.mt.gov/geoinfo/Images/Metadata/wsal2.gif

Browse graphic file name: http://docs.msl.mt.gov/geoinfo/Images/Metadata/wsal4.gif

Browse graphic file name: http://docs.msl.mt.gov/geoinfo/Images/Metadata/wsal5.gif

Browse graphic file name: http://docs.msl.mt.gov/geoinfo/Images/Metadata/wsal6.gif

Abstract:

The Wildlife Spatial Analysis Lab produced several raster data sets based on 18 Landsat Thematic Mapper scenes imaged between July 6, 1991 and September 25, 1993. The images were classifed and merged into single raster datasets that cover northern Idaho, western Montana, and Yellowstone National Park. This area is approximately equivalent to the U.S. Forest Service's Northern Region (Region One). The themes created were land cover, canopy closure, lifeform type, and tree size or shrub size. The minimum mapping unit for these scenes was 2 hectares, or approximately 5 acres. A data set is included to identify riparian vegetation in stream valleys, with no minumum mapping unit.

The lab published an executive summary and a in-depth report on the project and its result. These are included with the data archive and they are available at at https://ftpgeoinfo.msl.mt.gov/Documents/Metadata/SILC_1_Summary.pdf and https://ftpgeoinfo.msl.mt.gov/Documents/Metadata/SILC_1_Report.pdf.

Purpose:

This data was produced for the U.S. Forest Service Northern Region to map existing vegetation and land cover in a standardized, consistent manner across Northern Idaho and Western Montana. By providing an integrated GIS database, users can query and process information contained in many layers in a cost-efficient manner and at a controlled level of accuracy. The results provide a powerful tool for the Forest Service and other land management agencies to examine vegetation patterns across large areas of mixed ownerships and to conduct the following types of analyses and applications: broadscale assessment and planning efforts, such as the Columbia River Basin project; revision of National Forest Plans (Analysis of the Management Situation, cumulative effects and trade-off analyses, existing condition, alternative development) identification of land management projects that will achieve the ultimate goals of producing goods and services for people within the sustainable capacity of ecosystems monitoring trends in existing vegetation and evaluating whether land management activities have had desired effects.

Time period of content:

Beginning date: 07/06/1991
Ending date: 09/25/1993
Currentness reference: ground condition

Access constraints: None

Use constraints:

The Montana State Library provides this product/service for informational purposes only. The Library did not produce it for, nor is it suitable for legal, engineering, or surveying purposes. Consumers of this information should review or consult the primary data and information sources to ascertain the viability of the information for their purposes. The Library provides these data in good faith but does not represent or warrant its accuracy, adequacy, or completeness. In no event shall the Library be liable for any incorrect results or analysis; any direct, indirect, special, or consequential damages to any party; or any lost profits arising out of or in connection with the use or the inability to use the data or the services provided. The Library makes these data and services available as a convenience to the public, and for no other purpose. The Library reserves the right to change or revise published data and/or services at any time.

Point of contact:

Roland L. Redmond
Principal Investigator
Wildlife Spatial Analysis Laboratory
University of Montana
Missoula, Montana 59812
Telephone: 406-243-5372
Fax: 406-243-6064
E-Mail: red@atlas.wru.umt.edu

Data Quality Information:

Attribute accuracy report:

See the Wildlife Spatial Analysis Laboratory's Final Report, beginning on page 66 (PDF page 75), for a complete assesment of the attribute accuracy. This is a summary of that report.

The accuracy of covertype was assessed against ground truth plots. The map accuracy of each plot was determined to be either a perfect match, an acceptable error (such as Lodgepole Pine being mapped as Limber Pine), or an unacceptable error (such as grassland being mapped as forest). These are the results for each scene, in percent. These do not include the covertypes of Urban, Agriculture, or Cloud.

Scene Covertype Covertype Scene Covertype Covertype
Number Correct Acceptable Number Correct Acceptable
.
p43r26 51 83 p40r27 28 54
p43r27 36 65 p40r28 47 70
p42r26 28 59 p40r29 53 62
p42r27 42 70 p39r27 78 82
p42r28 21 55 p39r28 51 69
p41r26 22 60 p39r29 47 77
p41r27 25 64 p38r27 27 51
p41r28 24 55 p38r28 33 60
p41r29 70 78 p38r29 31 52

Horizontal Positional Accuracy Report:

Claimed root-mean square error for horizontal position of the terrain-corrected Landsat TM images is 18 meters in the x direction (WNW-ESE) and 30 meters in the y direction (NNE-SSW).

Lineage:

Source information:

Originator:: Hughes STX Corporation
EROS Data Center
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
(605) 594-6572
Publication date: 05/03/1996
Title: Terrain-corrected Landsat Thematic Mapper Images
Other citation details:: scene scene image % cloud
id name date cover
P42/R26 Lake Koocanusa/Eureka 08/14/92 2
P42/R27 Thompson Falls/Noxon 08/14/92 0
P41/R26 Glacier National Park 09/06/91 1
P41/R27 Missoula/Flathead Lake 07/20/91 1
P41/R28 Selway/Bitterroot 07/20/91 1
P41/R29 Salmon River 06/04/92 1
P40/R27 East Front/Choteau 07/31/92 2
P40/R28 Georgetown Lake 07/29/91 2
P40/R29 Beaverhead/Big Hole 07/31/92 0
P39/R27 Highwood Mts/Benton Lake 07/06/91 1
P39/R28 Canyon Ferry Res/Bozeman 07/22/91 2
P39/R29 Centennial Valley 08/09/92 1
P38/R27 Judith Mts/Winifred 07/31/91 1
P38/R28 Crazy Mountains 07/31/91 1
P38/R29 Yellowstone Park 07/15/91 5
Source scale denominator: 60000
Source contribution:: These are the Landsat TM scenes that were classified to create 15 of the 18 data sets.
Beginning date: 07/06/1991
Ending date: 08/14/1992

Source information:

Originator:: U.S. Geological Survey
EROS Data Center
Sioux Falls, SD 57198-6151
(605) 594-6151
Publication date: 07/30/1994
Title: Terrain-corrected Landsat Thematic Mapper Images
Other citation details:: scene scene image % cloud
id name date cover
P43/R26 Priest Lake 09/25/93 0
P43/R27 Coeur d'Alene/Spokane 08/08/93 0
P42/R28 Dworshak Reservoir/Kooskia 06/14/93 10
Source scale denominator: 60000
Source contribution:: These are the Landsat TM scenes that were classified to create 3 of the 18 data sets.
Beginning date: 06/14/1993
Ending date: 09/25/1993

Source information:

Originator: U.S. Geological Survey
Publication date: 1996
Title: 7.5 Minute Digital Elevation Models
Other citation details:: See http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/nsdi/html/dem75/dem75 for a list of sources used by the USGS to create these files.
Source scale denominator: 60000
Source contribution:: This is the source of about 97 percent of the elevation data covering the study area. See http://nris.mt.gov/ftp/montana/dem/dem.html for the region for which this data was available. The mean elevation of each spectral region was a factor in the final supervised classification of some of the land cover types.
Beginning date: 07/01/1979
Ending date: 1996

Source information:

Originator: U.S. Geological Survey
Title: 3 arc-second DEM Data
Other citation details:: See http://nsdi.usgs.gov/nsdi/wais/maps/dem1deg.html for a complete description of how the 3 arc-second DEMs were created.
Source scale denominator: 250000
Source contribution:: This is the source of about 2 percent of the elevation data in the study area. The mean elevation of each spectral region was a factor in the final supervised classification of some of the land cover types.

Source information:

Originator:: Hughes STX Corporation
EROS Data Center
Sioux Falls, SD 57198
(605) 594-6572
Title: 3 arc-second DEM Data, Resampled to 30-meter resolution
Other citation details:: See http://nsdi.usgs.gov/nsdi/wais/maps/dem1deg.html for a complete description of how the 3 arc-second DEMs were created. The process by which Hughes STX resampled the data to 30-meter resolution is proprietary.
Source scale denominator: 250000
Source contribution:: This is the source of about 1 percent of the elevation data in the study area. The mean elevation of each spectral region was a factor in the final supervised classification of some of the land cover types.

Source information:

Originator: U.S. Forest Service Northern Region Ranger Districts
Publication date: unpublished material
Title: Ground-Truth Field Data
Other citation details:: 671 7.5-minute quadrangles were selected for field sampling. A spectral class map was created for each quadrangle, and Forest Service field crews attempted to visit as many different spectral regions as possible in each quadrangle and classify them. The locations where the classifications were made were recorded by GPS. In all, 22,125 locations were sampled.
Source contribution:: 80 percent of the Ground Truth points were entered as training sets for the supervised classification. The remaining 20 percent of the points were used to assess the accuracy of the classification.
Beginning date: 04/30/1994
Ending date: 10/03/1995

Source information:

Originator: U.S. Forest Service Northern Region Ranger Districts
Publication date: unpublished material
Title: Ground-Truth Existing Databases
Other citation details:: These are 9244 field samples from existing Forest Service databases collected before 1994.
Source contribution:: 80 percent of the Ground Truth points were entered as training sets for the supervised classification. The remaining 20 percent of the points were used to assess the accuracy of the classification.

Process step:

Perform unsupervised classification of TM scenes. This step was performed with ERDAS and VIMAP software. See pages 14 (PDF page 23) and G.1 (PDF page 900) of the Final Report for more detailed information.


Process date: 04/24/1994

Process step:

Regroup the classes produced in the unsupervised classification to produce fewer classes. This typically reduced the number of classes per image from 60-80 down to 30-40. See pages 15 (PDF page 24) and G.9 (PDF page 908) of the Final Report for more detailed information.


Process date: 04/25/1994

Process step:

Run majority filter to eliminate "salt and pepper" pixels. See pages 15 (PDF page 24) and G.16 (PDF page 915) of the Final Report for more detailed information.


Process date: 04/25/1994

Process step:

Merge regions less than the Minumum Mapping Unit size of 2 hectares (about 22 pixels) with their most similar neighbors. See pages 16 (PDF page 25) and G.11 (PDF page 910) of the Final Report for more detailed information. Data was converted from ERDAS format to Arc/Info Grid format after this step.


Process date: 04/27/1994

Process step:

Analyze all the U.S.G.S. quadrangles in the study area to determine their spectral diversity according to the merged unsupervised classification grids.


Process date: 04/30/1994

Process step:

Select the U.S.G.S. quadrangles where training set data will be collected. Select approximately 40 quads in each of the 18 TM scenes such that the spectral diversity of the selected set is maximized, while ensuring that rare spectral classes are represented. See page D.1 (PDF page 118) of the Final Report for more detailed information.


Process date: 05/30/1994

Process step:

Gather the ground truth database. Performed in the field by Forest Service personell according to the ECODATA method (Keane, R. E., M. E. Jensen, and W. J. Hann. 1990. ECODATA and ECOPAC: analytical tools for integrated resource management. The Compiler, 8(3):24-29, 31, 33-37.)


Process date: 10/03/1995

Process step:

Process the ground truth databases: Verify that the location attributes of the plots in the databases agree with the attributes of which quad, TM scene, and spectral class the plots were supposed to be in. Plots which could not be resolved to their correct locations and spectral values were discarded. See the page 27 of the Final Report (PDF page 36) for more information.


Process date: 11/30/1995

Process step:

Build a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for each TM scene: Collect 30-meter DEMs from the USGS and Hughes STX, and choose the best data where duplication existed. Create patches from 250K DEM data where no 30-meter data exists. Manually correct any errors in the 30-meter data, and merge the individual 7.5 minute quadrangles into 60x30 minute quadrangles. Fill in any null values between 7.5 minute quads with averages of adjacent values. See Appendix B of the Final Report (PDF page 103) for additional details.


Process date: 01/20/1996

Process step:

Build a Value Attribute Table for each TM scene: For each spectral region, determine the mean elevation and slope and the majority aspect using the DEM data. Determine the mean MNDVI and mean value of each TM spectral channel using the original scene data. Determine the area in hectares, perimeter, and x and y center coordinate.


Process date: 02/21/1996

Process step:

Label agricultural, urban, and cloud areas: Manually determine which spectal regions are agriculture, urban, or cloud and assign the covertype of these regions.


Process date: 02/29/1996

Process step:

Label cover type, size class, life form, and canopy: Perform supervised classification of the spectral regions based on the training data. This was an iterative process that included automatic assignment of a cover type to each spectral region based on the training data, evaluation of the results, modification of the training data and addition of new training sets based on the Forest Service's knowledge of ground truth, re-doing the automatic classification, and manual or automatic modification of the results based on combinations of the covertype assigned by the automatic classification with elevation and slope. See page 30 (PDF page 39) and Appendix F (PDF pages 131-899) in the Final Report for more details.


Process date: 02/29/1996

Process step:

Set dominance data for each spectral region: Determine which spectral regions should be retained when mapping areas covered more than one TM scene. See page 36 (PDF page 46) of the Final Report for more details.


Process date: 02/08/1996

Process step:

Standardize final products and validate attributes. See page 47 (PDF page 56) of the Final Report for more details.


Process date: 03/11/1996

Process step:

Combine the 18 TM scenes into one data set and save only the covertype attribute.


Process date: 03/11/1996

Spatial Data Organization Information:

Raster object information:

Raster object type: grid cell
Row count: 19478
Column count: 20897

Spatial Reference Information:

Horizontal coordinate system definition:

Map projection:

Map projection name: Albers Conical Equal Area
Albers conical equal area:

Planar distance units: meters

Geodetic model:

Horizontal datum name: North American Datum of 1927
Ellipsoid name: Clarke 1866
Semi-major axis: 6378206.4
Denominator of flattening ratio: 294.98

Entity and Attribute Information:

Entity type label: LandCover_USFSR1_1992.tif.vat.dbf

Entity type definition: Land cover grid cell value attributes

Attribute label: OID

Attribute definition: database record number

Attribute label: VALUE

Attribute definition: grid cell value

Attribute label: COUNT

Attribute definition: count of number of grid cells with this value

Attribute label: LC_CODE

Attribute definition: Code for Land cover type assigned to the region

Attribute label: LANDCOVER

Attribute definition: Explanation of the LC_CODE value

Attribute label: SYMGROUP

Attribute definition:: Numeric Arc/Info Workstation symbol number that was used to map the data. This value can be used to group the land cover types into a smaller number of classes

Entity type label: Riparian_USFSR1_1992.tif.vat.dbf

Entity type definition: Riparian land cover grid cell value attributes

Attribute label: OID

Attribute definition: database record number

Attribute label: Value

Attribute definition: grid cell value

Attribute label: Count

Attribute definition: count of number of grid cells with this value

Attribute label: LC_Code

Attribute definition: Code for riparian land cover type assigned to the region

Attribute label: LandCover

Attribute definition: Explanation of the LC_Code value

Entity type label: LifeForm_USFSR1_1992.tif.vat.dbf

Entity type definition: Lifeform grid cell value attributes

Attribute label: OID

Attribute definition: database record number

Attribute label: VALUE

Attribute definition: grid cell value

Attribute label: COUNT

Attribute definition: count of number of grid cells with this value

Attribute label: CHARCODE

Attribute definition: Code for Lifeform type assigned to the region

Entity type label: Canopy_USFSR1_1992.tif.vat.dbf

Entity type definition: Canopy closure grid cell value attributes

Attribute label: OID

Attribute definition: database record number

Attribute label: VALUE

Attribute definition: grid cell value and canopy closure code

Attribute label: COUNT

Attribute definition: count of number of grid cells with this value

Attribute label: Definition

Attribute definition: Explanation of the canopy closure class code

Entity type label: SizeClass_USFSR1_1992.tif.vat.dbf

Entity type definition: Tree and shrub size class grid cell value attributes

Attribute label: OID

Attribute definition: database record number

Attribute label: VALUE

Attribute definition: grid cell value and size class code

Attribute label: COUNT

Attribute definition: count of number of grid cells with this value

Attribute label: Definition

Attribute definition: Explanation of the canopy closure class code

Distribution Information:

Distributor:

Montana State Library
PO Box 201800
Helena, MT 59620-1800
Telephone: 406-444-5354
TDD/TTY telephone: Montana Relay 711
Fax: 406-444-0266
E-Mail: geoinfo@mt.gov

Resource description: Offline Data

Distribution liability:

The Montana State Library Geographic Information Services provides this product/service for informational purposes only. The Library did not produce it for, nor is it suitable for legal, engineering, or surveying purposes. Consumers of this information should review or consult the primary data and information sources to ascertain the viability of the information for their purposes. The Library provides these data in good faith but does not represent or warrant its accuracy, adequacy, or completeness. In no event shall the Library be liable for any incorrect results or analysis; any direct, indirect, special, or consequential damages to any party; or any lost profits arising out of or in connection with the use or the inability to use the data or the services provided. The Library makes these data and services available as a convenience to the public, and for no other purpose. The Library reserves the right to change or revise published data and/or services at any time.

Metadata Reference Information:

Metadata date: 06/08/2015

Metadata review date: 08/15/1996

Metadata contact:

Montana State Library
PO Box 201800
Helena, MT 59620-1800
Telephone: 406-444-5354
TDD/TTY telephone: Montana Relay 711
Fax: 406-444-0266
E-Mail: geoinfo@mt.gov