Level2_Landcover
This statewide land cover theme is a baseline digital map of Montana's natural and human land cover. The baseline map is adapted from the Northwest ReGAP project land cover classification, which used 30m resolution multi-spectral satellite imagery acquired from 2002 through 2005. Vegetation classes were drawn from the Ecological System Classification developed by NatureServe (Comer et al. 2003). The land cover classes were developed by Anderson et al. (1976). The NWGAP effort encompasses 12 map zones. Montana overlaps seven of these zones. The two NWGAP teams responsible for the initial land cover mapping effort in Montana were Sanborn and NWGAP at the University of Idaho. Both Sanborn and NWGAP employed a similar modeling approach in which Classification and Regression Tree (CART) models were applied to Landsat ETM+ scenes. The Spatial Analysis Lab within the Montana Natural Heritage Program was responsible for developing a seamless Montana land cover map with a consistent statewide legend from these two separate products. Additionally, the Montana land cover layer incorporates several other land cover and land use products (e.g., the National Land Cover Dataset, the National Wetlands Inventory, the National Hydrography Dataset, MSDI Structures and Transportation themes, and the MT. Dept of Revenue Final Land Unit classification) and reclassifications based on plot-level data and NAIP imagery to improve accuracy and enhance the usability of the theme. Additional updates to improve the accuracy are conducted on an annual basis. New MSDI Land Cover themes will be made available through the Montana Geographic Information Clearinghouse, hosted by Montana State Library (MSL) on an annual basis. Additionally, previous versions will be archived and available. This version was last updated December 2015.
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