Data Management Plan

The NOAA Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) produces national standardized land cover and change products for the coastal regions of the U.S. C-CAP products inventory coastal intertidal areas, wetlands, and adjacent uplands with the goal of monitoring changes in these habitats, on a one-to-five year repeat cycle. The timeframe for this metadata is reported as 2001-Era, but the actual dates of the Landsat imagery used to create the land cover may have been acquired a few years before or after each era. These maps are developed utilizing Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery, and can be used to track changes in the landscape through time. This trend information gives important feedback to managers on the success or failure of management policies and programs and aid in developing a scientific understanding of the Earth system and its response to natural and human-induced changes. This understanding allows for the prediction of impacts due to these changes and the assessment of their cumulative effects, helping coastal resource managers make more informed regional decisions. NOAA C-CAP is a contributing member to the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics consortium and C-CAP products are included as the coastal expression of land cover within the National Land Cover Database.

Process Steps:

• 2020-03-01 00:00:00 - C-CAP data sets have always been created using standardized and repeatable methods to ensure consistency across eras of land cover. The 2016 C-CAP land cover update cycle was different from previous approaches. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) produced its National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2016 update prior to C-CAP updating the coastal areas, in addition to remapping all previous dates of their land cover. There were significant changes made to all dates of NLCD land cover, resulting corresponding differences to existing C-CAP data holdings. A multi-step approach was taken to create new C-CAP land cover data sets, incorporating improvements from the NLCD, adding C-CAP wetland categories, and multiple quality assurance steps to ensure quality. The first step was to normalize the difference between the existing 2010 C-CAP and new NLCD 2010 land cover. Areas of difference were examined to identify improvements to be kept, and areas which need additional work. Logic models were initially used to keep the best features from NLCD. Areas needing improvement were isolated and modeled through a series of object-based processing, spectral analysis, and finally hand-edits. The end result was a new 2010 C-CAP land cover product. Areas of possible change to 2006 were then identified by combining NLCD changes (2006-2010) and C-CAP changes (2006-2010). These possible change areas were then modeled through a similar approach to the 2010 land cover (logic models, object-based processing, spectral analysis, and hand-edits). These steps resulted in a finalized 2006 land cover. A similar approach was used to create the 2001 and 1996 land cover. The 1996 land cover did not have a corresponding NLCD date, thus possible change areas were identified through using only the original C-CAP 1996-2001 change.