2012 Land cover mapping of the Glacial Habitat Restoration Area (GHRA)

Josephine (Jo) HortonRon Gatti

Wisconsin Dept. of Natural ResourcesWildlife and Forestry Research Section

Overview• The Glacial Habitat Restoration Area• Why was an updated map needed?• Classification process• General trends in land cover composition

(1990 and 2012)• GHRA goals vs. results

GHRA Goals2

1.Restore 11,000 acres of drained wetlands

2.Establish grassland nest cover of 38,600 acres within the GHRA

3.Restore 20,000 acres of grassland

Existing Land Cover Maps• WiscLand

– Based on 1991-1993 statewide imagery

• National Land Cover Database– Based on 2006 imagery

• 2012 USDA National Ag. Statistic Service Survey– Does not evaluate non-crop land

• Needed a map that was current AND evaluated non-crop land cover

Reference Data Collection

-Reference data was collected in June and July of 2012

-Digitized into ArcGIS and imported into ENVI

-Total of 2543 reference points used in ENVI for classification and cross-validation

Imagery Selection/Correction

-6 images (April – Sept, 2012) with minimal cloud cover -Neighborhood Similar Pixel Interpolator3

-60-band multi-temporal ‘stacked’ image

Process-Linear Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm, 80/20 K-class cross-validation for accuracy assessment

-Post-classification inclusion of soil data

-Evaluate land cover change and possible associations with wildlife population changes

Accuracy Assessment

Class Producer’s Accuracy

User’s Accuracy

Row Crop 94.2% 85.5%

Non-Row Ag 64.4 75.4

Trees 95.5 92.8

Shrubs 51.4 71.8

Grass 87.9 81.0

Cattail 83.8 87.4

Water 94.7 97.3

Developed 85.9 94.0

Overall 85.7

Kappa 0.828

Land Cover Change 1990 to 2012Percent of Study Area

Class 1990 2012 ChangeRow Crop 39.0% 40.9 +1.9Non-Row Ag 17.6 9.7 -7.9Trees 10.6 14.0 +3.4Shrubs 1.6 3.4 +1.8Grass 14.8 15.2 +0.4Cattail 5.1 4.8 -0.3Water 5.7 5.0 -0.7Developed 5.6 6.9 +1.3

GHRA vs. Control (1990 to 2012)GHRA Control Area

Forests +1.6% +4.5%Shrubs +1.8 +1.8Open Water -0.6 -1.1Cattail +2.0 -1.6Total Grass +1.3 -0.1

Upland Grass -0.6 -2.7Hydric Grass +1.8 +2.7

GHRA Grassland Change 1990-2012 (acres)Location/Source Total Grass Upland Grass

DNR-Big fee title +390 +572DNR-other fee title +4,557 +1,743DNR-easements +1,211 +688FWS +701 +416USDA-CRP +5,654 +1,915USDA-WRP +1,471 +93Private land -6,893 -8,665Total +7,091 -3,238

-CRP lost 4,700 acres since peak

GHRA Wetland Change 1990-2012 (acres)Location/Source Water and Cattail Water, Cattail, Shrub

DNR-Big fee title +277 +1,139DNR-other fee title +342 +999DNR-easements +583 +972FWS +1,391 +1,563USDA-CRP -433 +217USDA-WRP +1,169 +1,566Private land +4,390 +11,288Total +7,719 +17,744

Results vs. Goals• Goal-restore 11,000 acres of Wetland

– Water and Cattail areas +7,700 acres (70% of goal)– Including Shrubs +17,700 acres (161% of goal)

• Goal-total of 38,600 acres of Grass– Total Grass based on Satellite was 82,000 acres in

2012 (75,000 acres in 1990)• Goal-restore 20,000 acres of Grass

– Total Grass +7,100 acres (35% of goal)– Upland Grass -3,200 acres– If CRP had stayed at peak, 93% of goal

Summary• Creation of updated map allowed for GHRA land cover

composition change to be evaluated• Loss of grassland on private land is a challenge for

conservation• Wetland restoration in the GHRA close to

meeting/exceeded goals for the project• Total initial grassland was greater than tabular data

indicated, but restoration goals were not met

Acknowledgements• This project was supported through the WDNR Bureau of

Science Services, with Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Project W-160-P funds.

• Philip Polzer, Ross Jackson• Ron Gatti, Brian Woodbury, Aaron Wright, Karl Martin,

Eric Erdmann, and Alan Crossley of the WI DNR• John Krapful, Jim Lutes, and Kurt Waterstradt of the US

FWS• Gregg Kidd of the US NRCS• Annemarie Schneider and Carly Mertes of the UW-

Madison

References1. Polzer, P. 1992. Assessment of classification accuracy

improvement using multi-temporal satellite Data: case study in the Glacial Habitat Restoration Area in east-central Wisconsin. Thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.

2. Crossley, A., T. Peterson, S. Ugoretz, and G. Albright. 1990. Glacial Habitat Restoration Area environmental impact statement and feasibility study. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Unpublished Report. Madison, WI, USA.

3. Chen, J., X. Zhu, J. Vogelmann, F. Gao, and S. Jin. 2011. A simple and effective method for filling gaps in Landsat ETM+ SLC-off images. Remote Sensing of Environment 115:1053-1064.