Research Project: Landscape Monitoring to Identify Forest Loss

Location: Forage and Range Research

Project Number: 2080-21000-018-045-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement

Start Date: Jun 1, 2021
End Date: Sep 30, 2023

Objective:
The objective of this collaboration is the development of an operational approach to labeling the cause of forest loss mapped by the Forest Service Landscape Change System (LCMS).

Approach:
1. Assemble national-scale reference data in a geographic information system. Such data are available both publicly and internally from Forest Service collaborators. Supplemental development of new reference data using photointerpretation may be required. 2. Test modeling approaches that label the cause of forest loss at the patch level. Modeling may consider remotely sensed spectral properties and/or geographic properties like ownership class and elevation. This modeling may take place on any relevant platform, including: R, Google Earth Engine; or with Python. 3. Recommend a modeling approach to be used by LCMS. Recommendation should be based upon documented proof-of-concept work in multiple areas, and should include detail sufficient to allow replication by LCMS personnel.