Identifying Forest Conversion Hotspots in the Commonwealth of Virginia using Multitemporal Landsat Data and Known Change Indicators

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dc.contributor.authorHouse, Matthew Nealen
dc.contributor.committeechairWynne, Randolph H.en
dc.contributor.committeememberRadtke, Philip J.en
dc.contributor.committeememberThomas, Valerie A.en
dc.contributor.departmentForest Resources and Environmental Conservationen
dc.date.accessioned2018-11-22T07:01:15Zen
dc.date.available2018-11-22T07:01:15Zen
dc.date.issued2017-05-30en
dc.description.abstractThis study examines the effectiveness of using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from 1326 different Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper images in finding isolated housing starts within the Commonwealth of Virginia's forests. Individual NDVI images were stacked by year for the years 1995-2011 and the yearly maximum for each pixel was extracted, resulting in a 17-year image stack of all yearly maxima (a 98.7% data reduction). Using location data from housing starts and well permits, known previously forested housing starts were isolated from all other forest disturbance types. Samples from housing starts and other forest disturbances, as well as from undisturbed forest, were used to derive vegetation index thresholds enabling separation of disturbed from undisturbed forest. Disturbances, once identified, were separated accurately (overall accuracy = 85.4 percent, F-statistic = 0.86) into housing starts and other forest disturbances using a classification tree and only two variables from the Disturbance Detection and Diagnostics (D3) algorithm: the maximum NDVI in the available recovery period and the slope between the NDVI value at the time of the disturbance and the maximum NDVI in the available recovery period. Landsat time series stacks thus show promise for identifying even the small changes associated with exurban development.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:11091en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/86139en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectRemote Sensingen
dc.subjectLandsaten
dc.subjectForest Lossen
dc.subjectLTSSen
dc.subjectNDVIen
dc.subjectHotspotsen
dc.subjectRural Developmenten
dc.subjectTrajectoryen
dc.subjectDisturbanceen
dc.subjectExurban Developmenten
dc.titleIdentifying Forest Conversion Hotspots in the Commonwealth of Virginia using Multitemporal Landsat Data and Known Change Indicatorsen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineForestryen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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