This is a poster submitted by our some of the graduate students in our group for GIS Day 2012.
Abstract:
Current land cover maps used by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) provide complete coverage of the 12 km meteorological modeling domain. However, this dataset provides only general urban classes that were assigned without taking into account the species composition, abundance, and spatial distribution of forested areas within urban landscapes. The quantification of urban forests is critical for biogenic emissions modeling since urban forests are typically located near anthropogenic sources of Oxides and Nitrogen (NOx), and can affect ozone generation. The objective of this project was to create high-resolution (1 m spatial resolution) urban forest maps for select metropolitan areas in Texas where high ozone levels are commonly experienced. The 1 m spatial resolution maps were generalized to produce medium-resolution (30 m spatial resolution) urban forest maps. Both high and medium spatial resolution metropolitan area classifications resulting from this project will be utilized to improve TCEQ biogenic emissions modeling outputs.
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