Gulf Coast Urban Ecosystem Analysis

Gulf Coast Region Landcover Analysis Alabama Gulf Coast Landcover Analysis Louisiana Gulf Coast Landcover Analysis Mississippi Gulf Coast Landcover Analysis Biloxi and St Louis Bay Landcover Analysis

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American Forests with the financial support of the US Forest Service conducted a landcover analysis for a 48 county and parish region along the Gulf Coast of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, to measure the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the region’s ecosystem in June 2006. The project was designed to address two fundamental questions 1) Can we quantify the impact of the storm on the landcover and 2) once we have new data on the condition of the landcover, how can we use it to make better decisions about growth, development and management in the future.

The classification of the landcover before and after the storm provided the basis for updating the Southern Fire Risk model used by the state forestry agencies for fire control and for producing the ecosystem services analysis documented in this report. The change in landcover is reference data for both the fire risk and ecosystem services modeling. The findings presented document the reference change data and the calculations for ecosystem services. However, the data and the analysis techniques will continue to provide the state and local officials with new information as they grow and develop in the future.

The classified data along with CITYgreen software and training was provided to state and local officials. With this data, software and training the local people will be able to analyze the conditions in specific areas of interest and model scenarios for future growth and development plans.

The links, listed by state contain the findings from the analysis using CITYgreen, an ArcGIS extension developed by American Forests to perform Urban Ecosystem Analyses. These analyses measure the areas of various landcover classes (urban, trees, open, etc) and calculate the value of ecosystem services provided by those landcovers.

The study contains the results of two sets of analyses for this region. The first set consists of 48 county and parish analyses of landcover change between 2001 and 2006, using moderate resolution (30 m) Landsat imagery. The 2001 dataset was taken from NOAA’s Coastal Change Analysis Program. The 2006 data was created using the same methodology by Sanborn Map Company. Each county and parish contains maps of landcover in 2006 and loss in tree cover between 2001 and 2006 (pre- and post-Hurricane Katrina), as well as summaries of the value of air quality-related ecosystem services provided by the landcover in each year and changes in those values due to changes in landcover. Regionwide landcover and tree cover loss maps are shown on this and the previous page.

The second set of analyses in this study consists of 8 high resolution analyses of Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, Diamondhead, Kiln, Pass Christian, Shoreline Park, and Waveland, MS, and the St. Louis Bay drainage area for 2005 (immediately post-Hurricane Katrina) using 1 m Ikonos imagery. This imagery was classified into five basic landcover classes by Sanborn Map Company and analyzed for ecosystem services by American Forests. Each area details maps of 2005 landcover and summaries of air quality and storm water-related ecosystem services provided by the landcover.

The maps are displayed at a low resolution for the web, but can be obtained at a higher resolution for print quality by contacting Eric Ray, eray@amfor.org.