Challenges and opportunities for assessments of land use change in the U.S.

This presentation describes five key elements to move the field forward in assessing land use change in the U.S.: (1) accurate and intuitive terminology, (2) definitions that are precise, descriptive, and concise, that are prominently communicated, (3) transparency in methods and application, (4) availability of data and scripts, and (5) clear articulation and quantification of uncertainty that is integrated with results.

Impact/Purpose

This is an invited presentation as part of a scientific workshop organized by the National Academy of Sciences on land use change methods and datasets in the U.S. Here is the abstract for the meeting: "It is hoped that by bringing together the major stakeholders (USEPA, USDA, Agricultural Associations), the data providers (USDA, NASA, USGS) and users (EPA, Academics, USDA, Agricultural Associations) of land use/land cover data used to predict land use/land cover change in the United States, we can all come to a better understanding of the methods, limitations, results, consistencies and inconsistencies in the different datasets while moving forward to work together to improve accuracy and methods and to minimize the potential for mis-use of the datasets. Going forward, a goal could be to work together with a common dataset/method for predicting land use and change that almost everyone can agree upon or at least establish some beginning steps to achieving that goal. After the workshop, NAS will develop a review of findings which will include suggestions for future collaborative efforts."

Citation

Clark, C. Challenges and opportunities for assessments of land use change in the U.S. Virtual Workshop on Land Cover Change Datasets and Models, NA, November 18, 2020.