Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Land Cover Map 1982-1993

ORNL_CLOUD provides a landcover map with 16 classes for the northern coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska. The map was derived from Landsat TM data, Digital Elevation Models, aerial photographs, existing maps, and ground-truthing. Source data covers the period from 1982 to 1993.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vegetation species distribution across the ANWR coastal plain using the 16 land cover classes.
• Modeling terrain-elevation relationships by integrating the map with the underlying Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data.
• Assessing historical land use and land cover change from 1982 to 1993 for ecological baseline studies.
• Validating newer remote sensing products against a ground-truthed historical land cover classification.

Strengths

• Map is based on multiple data sources including satellite imagery, DEMs, aerial photos, and ground-truthing.
• Provides detailed classification with 16 distinct land cover classes for a specific ecologically sensitive region.
• Data synthesis covers a multi-year period from 1982 to 1993, offering a historical baseline.

Limitations

• Key technical details are missing, including column names, row count, and precise file sizes.
• Conflicting last updated dates exist between platforms (1993-08-31 and 2026-03-13), creating uncertainty about metadata maintenance.
• The specific license terms under 'other-license-specified' are not detailed.

Provenance

Source

ORNL_CLOUD

Collection Method

Derived from Landsat Thematic Mapper data, Digital Elevation Models, aerial photographs, existing maps, and ground-truthing.

Time Range

1982 to 1993

Freshness

2026-03-13 01:21:50.593442

Geography

Northern coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), North Slope, Alaska