NETNLand Cover
Importance / IssuesLand cover data provides key information on the status and extent of ecological systems; land use data for the larger park region provides important information on habitat alteration and a wide variety of stressors associated with land use change. Land cover change was identified as a high priority issue for all network parks due to concerns arising from the negative effects of habitat conversion within and adjacent to park boundaries. This is particularly true within NETN because many NETN parks are relatively small and potentially affected by outside activities. At a watershed level, land use and land cover affect the quality of aquatic environments (Stauffer et al. 2000, Meador and Goldstein 2003). An initial inventory of land use and land cover will provide context for the observed ecological conditions. If changes occur to this baseline condition, they can be interpreted in the context of land use or land cover at the watershed scale. Aquatic ecosystems respond to changes in land use and this response has been documented in urban, agricultural, and forested environmental settings (Meador and Goldstein 2003). Land use and cover are important vital signs because they integrate across multiple spatial scales; from the buffer around an individual stand, to the larger ecosystem complex within a park's boundary, to the distribution of systems within the region. By implementing a basic land cover change monitoring program, inferences can be drawn between measurable changes in park ecological integrity and anticipated negative effects. Land cover change detection has been identified as a high priority vital sign by most other networks within the Inventory and Monitoring Program, especially those in the eastern United States where human populations have increase dramatically during the last century. The NETN is cooperating with researchers at the University of Rhode Island to analyze land use and land cover change within and surrounding NETN parks (including 10 sections of the Appalachian Trail) between the 1970 s and 2002. A draft report of this analysis will be completed in 2006. Once the core NETN protocols are in place, NETN will work to develop a protocol for evaluating landscape change every 5 to 10 years. We will use landscape change information to test whether trends in other monitoring data can be explained by changes in land use and land cover metrics. Protocol Development & StatusA protocol for Land Cover has not yet been developed for the Northeast Temperate Network. A protocol for this vital sign will be developed in the near future. Preliminary protocol information is found in the Landscape Dynamics Protocol Development Summary. At this time the National Capital Region Network (NCRN) has started preliminary protocol development for Land Cover. For more information please see the NCRN website: Monitoring Land Use/Land Cover Change Potential MeasuresRoad network extent, nearby housing development permits, proportion of nearby lands in various categories of human uses, % impervious surface in watershed, nearby human population density, landscape buffers |
 Preliminary Monitoring ObjectiveMonitoring objectives will be a part of the protocol development. |
ReferencesMeador, M. R., and R. M. Goldstein. 2003. Assessing water quality at large geographic scales: Relations among land use, water physicochemistry, riparian condition, and fish community structure. Environmental Management 31:504-517. Stauffer, J. C., R. M. Goldstein, R. M. Newman. 2000. Relationship of wooded riparian zones and runoff potential to fish community composition in agricultural streams. Canadian Journal of Fish Aquatic Science 57:307-316. |