A Comparison of Imperviousness Derived from a Detailed Land Cover Dataset (DLCD) versus the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) at Two Time Periods

To address accuracy concerns of the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD), this case study compares impervious surface from the NLCD to a Detailed Land Cover Dataset (DLCD) for the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia over two time periods (2005/2006 and 2011) at spatial aggregation scales (fine to coarse) and scopes (site-specific to area-extent). When comparing the total impervious surface area, the NLCD overestimated the DLCD by appreciable amounts (12-27%) for the entire town and across all specified land use zones for both time periods examined. A binary pixel-wise accuracy assessment of impervious surface revealed that the NLCD performed well for all scopes except for the single family land use zone (user accuracy <40%). The spatial aggregation of pixels to 90-m led to improved agreement between the two datasets. Using the DLCD as a reference, an empirical normalization equation was successfully applied to the NLCD to further reduce overestimation and data skewness.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Civil Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Cooper, Brandon Elliott

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Dymond, Randel L.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Young, Kevin D.
• Shao, Yang

• Land Cover
• Impervious Surface
• Land Use
• Remotely Sensed Imagery
• Stormwater

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:8301

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/72869