MAPPING LAND COVER FOR LOCAL-SCALE CONSERVATION IN THE TOWN OF DANBY, UPSTATE NY

1. MAPPING LAND COVER FOR LOCAL-SCALE CONSERVATION IN THE TOWN OF DANBY, UPSTATE NY Christina Konnaris (Jake Brenner) Department of Environmental Studies & Sciences, Ithaca College The use of remotely sensed imagery for land-cover classification can play an important role in community-level conservation planning. In response to the recent appointment of a Conservation Advisory Council by the Town Board of Danby, in central upstate New York, a thematic land-cover classification was performed using Landsat TM imagery from summer 2010. Previous research conducted in this area was based on 1995 imagery and has become outdated; this classification provides a necessary update given realities of changing exurban landscape in Danby. In the process of analyzing data, we used Landsat TM imagery from July 2010 from a multi-spectral satellite to produce a new map of land cover in the Town of Danby. Several iterations of unsupervised and supervised classification were performed and we used GPS-assisted fieldwork to compare the results and confirm accuracy. We found that supervised classification produced a map with the following classes: Forest, Ag land, Successional Meadow, Lawns/Residential and Urban. In analyzing the results of our data, we compared results with the 1995 Land Cover classifi- cation and considered implications for conservation planning in Danby. Continuity of this research will lay the foundation for a potentially study of time-series change mapping.