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Data release for the Historical land use and land cover for assessing the northern Colorado Front Range urban landscape

Dates

Publication Date

Citation

Drummond, M.A., Stier, M.P., and Diffendorfer, J.E., 2019, Data release for the Historical land use and land cover for assessing the northern Colorado Front Range urban landscape: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P995RGC9.

Summary

The dataset was generated to describe historical land-use and land-cover (LULC)for the northern Colorado urban Front Range (which includes the cities of Boulder, Fort Collins, Greeley, and Denver) for an area covering approximately 1,023,660 hectares. The Front Range urban landscape is diverse and interspersed with highly productive agriculture as well as natural land cover types including evergreen forest in the Rocky Mountain foothills and Great Plains grassland. To understand the dynamics of urban growth, raster maps were created at a 1-meter resolution for each of four time steps, nominally 1937, 1957, 1977, and 1997. In total, 8 to 38 LULC classes were identified using manual interpretation techniques, aerial photographs, historical [...]

Contacts

Point of Contact :
Mark A Drummond
Originator :
Mark A Drummond
Metadata Contact :
Michael P Stier
Publisher :
U.S. Geological Survey
Distributor :
U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase
SDC Data Owner :
Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
USGS Mission Area :
Land Resources

Attached Files

Click on title to download individual files attached to this item.

1937to1997_Front_range_lulc_extended_tifs.zip
“1937 to 1997 extended Front Range tifs”
360.34 MB application/zip
1937to1997_north_front_range_tifs.zip
“1937 to 1997 north Front Range tifs”
277.35 MB application/zip

Purpose

The aim of the temporal LULC maps is to provide consistent data for understanding the historical progression of the northern Colorado Front Range urban landscape. These data will be used as the basis for a number of studies related to urbanization of this region and its impacts on human and natural systems. The relatively high temporal, spatial, and thematic resolution of these data allow detailed studies of urbanization dynamics and the linking of observed changes through time with local land use policy, growth in road networks, and changes in the local economy and culture. An understanding of urban growth will generate historical insights on how land cover developed, impacted regional water use, and affected urban heat islands. In addition, the data can be used to understand how urban growth has impacted both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems via studies of habitat loss and fragmentation, and changes to watersheds and water quality.

Additional Information

Identifiers

Type Scheme Key
DOI https://www.sciencebase.gov/vocab/category/item/identifier doi:10.5066/P995RGC9

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