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Title: Upper Washita River experimental watersheds: Land cover data sets (1974-2007) for two southwestern Oklahoma agricultural watersheds

Author
item Starks, Patrick
item Steiner, Jean
item Stern, Alan

Submitted to: Journal of Environmental Quality
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/18/2014
Publication Date: 7/14/2014
Citation: Starks, P.J., Steiner, J.L., Stern, A.J. 2014. Upper Washita River experimental watersheds: Land cover data sets (1974-2007) for two southwestern Oklahoma agricultural watersheds. Journal of Environmental Quality. 43:1310-1318.

Interpretive Summary: A retrospective land cover analysis covering the time period from the early 1970s to early 1990s was conducted to gain a sense of the dynamics of land cover changes on the Little Washita River and Fort Cobb Reservoir experimental watersheds (LWREW, FCREW), located in southwestern Oklahoma. This study used coarse spatial resolution data from the Landsat MSS sensors for the 1970s through mid-1980s, and Thematic Mapper (TM) data from then to 1994. Numerous land cover studies have been carried out over LWREW, FCREW by various research groups since the 1990s, extending into the mid-2000s. These studies have used satellite-based sensors of various spatial, radiometric, and spectral resolutions. Moreover, the number of images used, the time of year images were acquired, and methods used to analyze the images varied from study to study. The purpose of this paper is to report on the retrospective land cover study, compare land cover between watersheds over time, and to compare findings from the various studies to elucidate any changes or trends in land cover over the 40 year period. Information on how to access to the data sets is also given.

Technical Abstract: A retrospective land cover analysis covering the time period from the early 1970s to early 1990s was conducted to gain a sense of the dynamics of land cover changes on the Little Washita River and Fort Cobb Reservoir experimental watersheds (LWREW, FCREW), located in southwestern Oklahoma. This study used coarse spatial resolution data from the Landsat MSS sensors for the 1970s through mid-1980s, and Thematic Mapper (TM) data from then to 1994. Numerous land cover studies have been carried out over LWREW, FCREW by various research groups since the 1990s, extending into the mid-2000s. These studies have used satellite-based sensors of various spatial, radiometric, and spectral resolutions. Moreover, the number of images used, the time of year images were acquired, and methods used to analyze the images varied from study to study. The purpose of this paper is to report on the retrospective land cover study, compare land cover between watersheds over time, and to compare findings from the various studies to elucidate any changes or trends in land cover over the 40 year period. Information on how to access to the data sets is also given.