An assessment of coastal land-use and land-cover change from 1974–2008 in the vicinity of Mobile Bay, Alabama

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to quantify and assess geospatial land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes in the coastal counties of Mobile and Baldwin, Alabama using nine Landsat images from 1974-2008. A studyspecific classification scheme was devised comprising upland herbaceous, upland forest, non-woody and woody wetlands, open water, and urban categories. Upland forest was the most dominant terrestrial cover type. Wetlands averaged 17% and urban averaged 7%.

Geospatial method for computing supplemental multi-decadal US coastal land use and land cover classification products, using Landsat data and C-CAP products

“…This high specificity, however, is a potential impediment to the derivation of C-CAP products from Landsat MSS data, which has a nominal spatial resolution of 79 meters and bands only in the visible and near infrared portions of the spectrum. Not all members of the coastal zone management community require such high specificity to conduct basic, yet meaningful, coastal LULC change detection (e.g., Ellis et al 2011). For example, some coastal zone managers are simply interested in determining basic LULC trends.…”

“…However, for such a method to be successful, it needs to be conducted using a simplified LULC classification scheme and with as few as one data set per 5-year interval. The simplified LULC scheme adopted in this study is based on end-user (resource manager) requirements as described by Ellis et al (2011) and comprises: the following categories: 1) open water; 2) barren; 3) upland herbaceous; 4) nonwoody wetland; 5) upland forest; 6) woody wetlands; and 7) urban. This scheme can also be readily applied to recoded (generalized) C-CAP and NLCD products.…”

“…This method was applied to compute and analyze trends for general coastal LULC types across a 34-year era . Such products were developed to aid the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (NEP), who required multi-decadal LULC change products and analyses to support coastal conservation and restoration decisions in this region (Ellis et al 2011).…”

“…This prominent coastal estuary has been subjected to gradually increasing urbanization over the past several decades (Ellis et al 2011). Along with the expansion of urbanization comes a corresponding increase in impervious cover, which in turn increases runoff and water pollution (Schueler 1994, Arnold and Gibbons 1996, Brabec et al 2002, Schueler et al 2009).…”

Exploring Applications of GPR Methodology and Uses in Determining Floodplain Function of Restored Streams in the Gulf Coastal Plain, Alabama

“…ecological, hydrological) studying the viability of these projects is important to understanding watershed scale processes. Erosion due to urbanization over the last three decades has caused unconsolidated materials to remobilize and pollute downstream ecosystems and put a large burden on existing infrastructure 3 . The town of Daphne, in coastal Alabama, has been conducting restoration projects to mitigate erosion, but do not have a plan to comprehensively monitor built floodplains long-term (Figure 1).…”