Abstract: The U.S. state of Maryland needs to monitor land use change in order to address land management objectives. This paper presents a change detection method that, through automation and standard geographic information system (GIS) techniques, facilitates the estimation of landscape change via photointerpretation. Using the protocols developed, we show a net loss of forest land, with losses due primarily to urban development and most gains in forest land coming from agricultural land conversions. This study indicates that about 75,000 photo plots w...
(read more)
Topics: 
Environmental resource management
Remote sensing
Cartography