Information about the earth’s land use and land cover (LULC) is required for a wide range of applications including wildlife habitat assessment, conservation planning, emergency preparedness and response, water resources management, property valuation and appraisal, and municipal and county planning. UNL geographers and their colleagues are developing new and improved methods to map and characterize contemporary LULC, and to assess past and future changes in LULC using remote sensing, GIS and modeling.  Recent projects include:

• Landsat-based LULC mapping for Nebraska GAP analysis
• LULC mapping in support of the Cooperative Hydrologic Study of the Platter River
• Global land cover characterization using AVHRR data
• Drought impact assessment
• Forecasting impacts of future land use change on surface and groundwater quality
• Close-range remote sensing of crop condition, leaf pigments and biomass
• Airborne hyperspectral mapping of invasive plants
• Hyperspectral assessment of water quality in lakes
• GIS-based modeling of land use change in urban environments

Research on LULC assessment is facilitated by resources of the Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies (CALMIT).   Through CALMIT, UNL geographers have access to:

• a 29-hectare field research station at UNL’s Agricultural Research and Development Center near Ithaca, NE
• unique close-range remote sensing capabilities including platforms to deploy sensor packages that operate from the UV through the microwave spectral bands over a variety of land and water environments
• an aircraft for support of remote sensing research, outfitted with instruments that include a thermal-infrared camera and an AISA Eagle hyperspectral (244 band) imaging system