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News
08/08 - CLEAR Hosts CT 2000 LiDAR Data Set and Derived ProductsConnecticut's 2000 LIDAR data set has been made available via the World-Wide-Web on the CLEAR web site at http://clear.uconn.edu/data/ct_lidar/index.htm. These data include the "raw" positions provided as ASCII text, the positions provided as in ESRI point cloud, ESRI triangulated irregular networks (TIN), and ESRI shapefiles of the contours. The data are subdivided into quarter-quarter quadrangles that align with the USGS 7.5' topographic map series boundaries, have SPCS83 0600 planimetric coordinates and orthometric heights referred to NAVD 88, all in US Survey feet. This project resulted in a poster presentation in May 2008 given by Mr. John L. David at the Second National Lidar Meeting in Reston, VA. A copy of this poster can be viewed on the CLEAR Publications page. CLEAR Director Dan Civco Receives National Award for TeachingUse the link below to read more about Dan's prestigious award in UConn's Advance e-newsletter.
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CT NEMO recently printed its first official impact report dedicated to the work of the NEMO Program in Connecticut. The report describes the origin, objectives and progress of the program and includes a number of exciting new initiatives that have begun during this past year.
The main body of the Report, however, is given over to portrayals of selected towns that have worked with NEMO, and the ways that these towns are taking charge of their community’s future development patterns. The report profiles Old Saybrook, Waterford, Woodstock, Salem, Central Naugatuck Valley, Watertown, East Haddam, Candlewood Lake Authority and Stonington. The examples detailed in the report, while they represent only a portion of the good work being done around the state, demonstrate the power of local citizens to bring about positive change in their communities.
To order a copy of the report, free of charge, visit the NEMO website's Publications section. The profiled areas (Old Saybrook, Waterford, Woodstock, Salem, Central Naugatuck Valley, Watertown, East Haddam, Candlewood Lake Authority and Stonington) are also available as individual .pdf files for easy online viewing.
1/05
- Connecticut Stormwater Quality Manual Training The CT NEMO Program Team will be providing training around the state during 2005 on the new Stormwater Quality Manual by CT DEP. A number of key constituents will be targeted including municipal officials, town and consulting civil engineers, landscape architects, public works departments, state employees and others. View the manual at: http://dep.state.ct.us/wtr/stormwater/strmwtrman.htm
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An article about CLEAR and NEMO was recently published in Earth Imaging Journal, a fairly new high-profile publication in the remote sensing world. EIJ is published by private sector remote sensing interests, and is not a peer-reviewed journal. However, their interest in our work (they solicited the article), and the fact that they put it on the cover of the hard copy journal, is a good sign indicating our growing national recognition. Interestingly, we assumed that they wanted to know all about our latest CLEAR research, but the Editor kept asking us for more about NEMO and the on-the-ground results of our work. Thus, there are nice breakout boxes on both CT and National NEMO. The e-article is at: http://www.eijournal.com/Local_Decisions.asp
The Geospatial Technology Program recently conducted a 5-day, hands-on GIS training class at the UConn Storrs Campus. The class attracted professionals from regional planning organizations, conservation commissions and public utilities, and included town planners, assessors, college faculty and consultants.
Back by popular demand, a second class is currently being held at the Haddam Extension Center. The class is being taught using recently acquired lap top computers. GTP plans to use this “mobile class room” to host additional training classes at sites throughout the state in 2005, and beyond. GTP is in the process of redesigning and enhancing a hands-on, field-based GPS for GIS class. This class will be particularly suitable for lands trusts, conservation commissions and nonprofit organizations.
"Released by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy on April 20, 2004, this document presents the Commission’s preliminary findings and recommendations for a new, coordinated, and comprehensive national ocean policy. Mandated by the Oceans Act of 2000, the Preliminary Report is now available for review and comment by the nation’s Governors and interested stakeholders." NEMO is highlighted in Section V, chapter 14: Addressing Coastal Water Pollution, page 170.
Visit the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy website. View full report.
Project Summary: For the past 2 years, the UConn Center for Land use Education And Research (CLEAR) has been working on a project to produce improved and directly comparable land cover data for the entire state of Connecticut, for the years 1985, 1990, 1995 and 2002. This data provides, for the first time, a full 17-year record of our changing landscape, with a special emphasis on the growth of developed land throughout the state.
Statewide Data: Get charts, tables and maps of statewide land cover and land cover change.
New! Your Town: Use a drop-down menu or clickable map to get statistics and maps for any town in Connecticut. See where your town ranks in terms of developed land or landscape change!
New! Your Watershed: Get land cover and change statistics and maps for any regional watershed in the state.
Interactive Map: Explore the maps online in an interactive environment. If you can use your internet browser, you can use this site.
More Data! Data Download: Download the actual GIS data in several formats (shapefile, grid or imagine) by town, region or watershed, for your own analyses and use with your local GIS projects.
More Information! What We’re Measuring: Learn about the remote sensing technology used for the project, and the story behind the numbers and maps.
Connecticut's Changing Landscape website
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March
22, 2004 - The Hartford Courant, Editorial
Maps
Tell Sprawl Story (pdf
27KB)
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March
21, 2004 - The Hartford Courant, Commentary
by Chester Arnold
Sprawl:
A Birds-eye View (pdf
27KB)
•
January
4, 2004 - The Hartford Courant, Article
By Mike Swift
Satellite Pinpoints State's Sprawl - New Computer
Maps Show Loss Of Land In Every Town To Development Over Decades (pdf
33KB) •
Or
read the original electronic article posted on The Hartford Courant's
ctnow.com website. Satellite
Pinpoints State's Sprawl (you
may need to sign up for a free e-subscription to access the article.)
The University of Connecticut, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
The
Project Team |
The Center for Land use Education And Research (CLEAR) has just released a new series of four dates of land cover data (1985, 1990, 1995 and 2002) for the state of Connecticut. These data, prepared from medium resolution satellite imagery, provide for the first time a consistently defined and interpreted set of land cover data that will allow state, regional and local planners to evaluate and study landscape changes over a seventeen year period. The data will be valuable to many organizations and government agencies as the state increasingly begins to deal with issues concerning development, sprawl, traffic congestion, forest loss and other aspects of landscape change.
The land cover data were interpreted from Landsat satellite imagery. Sensors aboard the satellite detect radiation reflected from the earth’s surface and store these data as images. The images, which are made up of millions of squares with a ground resolution of 30 meters (~ 100 feet) on a side, are converted via computer programs and human expertise into land cover maps. Land cover, as its name implies, shows the "covering" of the landscape. This is to be distinguished from land use, which is what is permitted, practiced or intended for a given area. For example, an area of low-density rural residential land use, as permitted by local zoning, likely will appear as forest in a Landsat image – there are a lot more trees than houses. Similarly, downtown Hartford, which is classified mostly as a “Developed” land cover is a mixture of uses that include offices, restaurants, stores, apartments, roads, parking lots, etc. From the satellite image it’s not possible to determine what the land uses are but we can describe the area as being developed.
The land cover data include eleven consistently defined classes and include: developed areas, turf and grass, other grasses and agriculture, deciduous forest, coniferous forest, water, non-forested wetlands, forested wetlands, tidal wetlands, barren areas, and utility rights-of-way. In preparing the data, care was taken to insure the accuracy of land cover classifications from one time period to the next thereby making it possible to conduct change analyses.
The land cover maps and a number of interpreted products can be viewed on the CLEAR website and each of the four dates of data can be downloaded for use in geographic information systems. http://clear.uconn.edu/projects/landscape/index.htm
A new center is being created in the College that will bring together existing land use programs and make way for new ones. The Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) creates an umbrella for these programs that will expand research, teaching, outreach, and student support.
CLEAR incorporates the philosophy of land grant, space grant, and sea grant college systems into what NASA has been calling an "earth grant college" approach. Although the term "earth grant" is not officially recognized, College faculty have taken the idea to heart.
CLEAR will focus on the impacts of land use on natural resources. "The intent of the Center is to bring together expertise, data, education, and technical tools to assist Connecticut communities in their land use planning," says Daniel Civco, CLEAR’s director.
The center assembles a talented crew with a record of success. In addition to Civco, a renowned expert on remote sensing and GIS, principals include Chet Arnold, CLEAR’s associate director and water quality educator; Jim Gibbons, land use planning educator; Sandy Prisloe, geospatial extension specialist; and Steve Broderick, state forester.
"We see the new center as an umbrella for our ongoing programs that have some key elements in common," says Arnold. "They’re all about land use and they all result in practical educational programs with information and tools for land use decision makers in the state."
"Just about every town in Connecticut is facing the challenge of how to balance the need to save their important natural resources and at the same time develop to help the tax base," adds Gibbons. He continues, "Extension’s role is to take research at the University out to the public, presenting it in a way that is understandable and meaningful so that it can make some change."
Several very successful programs will be a part of CLEAR:
One focus for the past few years has been on developing methods that characterize impervious surfaces, an important indicator of the impacts of development on waterways. Other research tracks involve measuring change in the Connecticut landscape over the past 30 years, with particular attention to the growth of urban land at the expense of forest and farmland. High-resolution satellite information is a major part of this new research. "We actually have satellites that rival the quality of those used by the intelligence community," notes Civco. With these new cutting-edge data as a foundation, CLEAR hopes to expand and enhance its many educational programs for Connecticut communities and land managers.
Current annual funding for existing CLEAR-related programs totals over $600,000, from a variety of sources including the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Connecticut Sea Grant, the Quinebaug-Shetucket National Heritage Corridor, USDA, CSREES, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, NOAA, and NASA.
With the establishment of CLEAR, researchers and educators at the University will be able to create a truly integrated research, education, applications, and outreach facility that makes meaningful contributions to our understanding of, and ability to address, the impacts of land use practices and change on natural resources.
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© University of Connecticut | Disclaimers and Copyright Statements
An article about CLEAR and NEMO was recently published in the UConn
alumni magazine, UConn Traditions. The article focuses primarily on “Connecticut’s
Changing Landscape,” the CLEAR project that is tracking statewide
changes in land cover since 1985. 