Project Overview |
Data Description |
GIS Tutorials |
Applications |
Coastal County Maps |
Data Tools |
Data Sets & Metadata |
Other Links |
About this CD-ROM |
Partners
Community Planning
Many local governments and municipalities are finding long-term community planning to be valuable. Such planning helps cities and
towns control urbanization and focus economic development, ensuring their
community benefits from growth. Land cover and change analysis data can be useful
for planners in their comprehensive planning activities.
The following examples show how several communities in South Carolina use change analysis data
in their planning efforts.
 |
The South Carolina General Assembly grants local governments the
authority to plan and control land use and development through the
creation and maintenance of a comprehensive plan. The purpose of these plans is to allow local governments to devise a strategy to
accomplish the following five objectives:
- Identify local problems and needs
- Collect appropriate data to study local problems and needs
- Arrive at a consensus on local objectives
- Develop plans and programs to fulfill such objectives
- Utilize available resources to execute plans and programs in an
effective manner
|
In 1994, the General Assembly passed the "South Carolina Local
Government Comprehensive Planning Enabling Act." This act requires
all South Carolina counties and municipalities with planning programs to make their
plans and ordinances conform with the provisions in the 1994 act by May 3,
1999.
Each comprehensive plan developed by a county or municipality must
directly address, at a minimum, seven elements, including a natural resource
element. Incorporating a natural resource element provides government
organizations and citizens an awareness of natural resources that are both
available and used. Additionally, such information can provide insight
into how such resources might be impacted, promoted, or conserved through
controlled development. The land cover and change analysis data provide statistics that
are valuable for identifying natural resources. The data and statistics
can be broken down by county boundaries, city boundaries, watershed, or other specific areas. However, because the data resolution is 30 meters,
it is not advisable to view areas smaller than a city region. Instead, it
is best to use land cover and change analysis data to view the overall picture of a region or to
identify areas that can be focused on with other interpretive methods such
as land use mapping and inventory.
![[up arrow]](images/uparrow.gif)
Return
to Top of Page
An Example of Land Cover Statistics: Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
In their 1998 Comprehensive Plan, the Town of Mount Pleasant used
land cover and change analysis data to identify the type
and acreage of a variety of land covers. The statistics from the land cover data provided Mount Pleasant community planners insight as to what type of land cover change was occurring within the town. Below are the statistics they included in their comprehensive plan.
Land Cover and Change Analysis Data for Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
| Type of Land Cover |
1995 Acreage |
% of Total |
1990 Acreage |
% of Total |
Total Change
in Acreage |
| Marsh |
13,824 |
29.3% |
13,980 |
29.6% |
-156 |
| Palustrine Emergent Wetland |
382 |
0.8% |
412 |
0.9% |
-30 |
| Estuarine Emergent Wetland |
13,198 |
27.9% |
13,378 |
28.3% |
-179 |
| Unconsolidated Shore |
244 |
0.5% |
191 |
0.4% |
53 |
| Forests |
9,734 |
20.6% |
9,961 |
21.1% |
-227 |
| Deciduous Forest |
0 |
0.0% |
0 |
0.0% |
0 |
| Evergreen Forest |
2,578 |
5.5% |
2,121 |
4.5% |
458 |
| Mixed Forest |
2,990 |
6.3% |
3,321 |
7.0% |
-331 |
| Palustrine Forest |
4,165 |
8.8% |
4,520 |
9.6% |
-354 |
| Scrub/Shrub |
12,061 |
25.5% |
12,341 |
26.1% |
-280 |
| Scrub/Shrub |
11,105 |
23.5% |
11,517 |
24.4% |
-412 |
| Palustrine Scrub/Shrub |
956 |
2.0% |
824 |
1.7% |
132 |
| Agricultural/Bare |
6,735 |
14.3% |
6,367 |
13.5% |
368 |
| Cultivated Land |
443 |
0.9% |
484 |
1.0% |
-41 |
| Grassland |
5,380 |
11.4% |
5,226 |
11.1% |
154 |
| Bare Land |
912 |
1.9% |
657 |
1.4% |
255 |
| Developed Land |
4,906 |
10.4% |
4,600 |
9.7% |
306 |
| Developed - High Intensity |
2,024 |
4.3% |
1,912 |
4.0% |
112 |
| Developed - Low Intensity |
2,882 |
6.1% |
2,688 |
5.7% |
193 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Total Land Area |
47,249 |
|
47,249 |
|
0 |
In the 1995 and 1990 acreage columns, the bold numbers indicate the
total land cover of a specific category. Each category is further broken
down into subcategories. The total change in acreage represents the gain or loss of a particular category or subcategory. For example, total marsh area in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina decreased 156 acres from 1990 to 1995 while developed land in Mount Pleasant increased 306 acres during the same time period.
Return
to Top of Page
Clipping Land Cover and Change Analysis Data to City Boundaries
 |
Land cover and change analysis data can be a powerful visual tool allowing coastal resource managers to see where land cover changes are occurring.
For example, the image to the left represents the
1990 to 1995 change analysis data within the Town of Mt. Pleasant's city
boundary. Areas that are black or gray represent land cover
that did not change during the five-year period. Colored areas represent land cover that changed during the five-year period.
The bright green boxes
enclose two relatively large areas of change. This image shows that the
land cover, contained within these boxes, changed to predominately grassland and
bare/disturbed land cover (cream and yellow respectively). This change data captured the changes to this land as it was being prepared for development. Both
areas are now housing developments.
|
The change analysis data do an excellent job of
highlighting areas of change, and the land cover data can
also be used to determine total land cover for a county or city.
Included on this CD-ROM are the land cover data for 1990 and 1995 as
well as the 1990 to 1995 change analysis data. To see the land cover and change analysis data, click here.
Focusing on an Area of Interest
When using a Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) product, as with any remotely sensed product, it is
necessary for the user to understand the inherent limitations of the data.
C-CAP products are meant to give state, county, or regional users a method
to determine land cover change in their area of interest. However, while
the resolution of the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor is a 30-meter by 30-meter pixel, it does
not mean that users should consider the data on a pixel by pixel basis.
The recommended minimum analysis unit is one acre, or in TM
imagery, an area of approximately two pixels by two pixels. This means
that for areas smaller than one acre, users may encounter errors that are
not consistent with C-CAP’s overall intended map accuracy of 85 percent.
Return to Top |
Return to Main Menu