Understanding public and personal choices regarding land protection:
 By creating several transition matrices, we ware testing alternative conceptual models about how patterns of protection influence and are influenced by surrounding landscape transition, mediated through decision-makers and the public.  This is a phase project of the AgTrans BioComplexity collaboration.



Update, April 2007:  Coweeta LTER, with training of our personnel by the Natural Resources Spatial Analysis Laboratory (NARSAL), at the University of Georgia, is developing land cover in the southern Appalachians over a range of years.  NARSAL has been the leader in land cover classification for numerous high profile projects in Georgia and the southern United States.  This data will serve to assist in the evaluation of transitions in the landscape over time.
1992, 1998, and 2002 land cover are currently available.  The next scheduled land cover classification is for 2006-2007. 

View & Download Land Cover:
       
Land Cover Classes
Metadata
About NLCD Classifications
 

LTER Sites
In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of the AGTRANS project, six different LTER sites are participating in the study.  Cross comparisons will be conducted with sites in Mexico (Yaqui Valley Study) and France (Archaeomedes Project)..

The Nature Conservancy
As a practical test of the project's results, approaches and insights will be examined by The Nature Conservancy in the context of conservation planning.  Source:  http://sustainability.asu.edu/AGTRANS/proposal.htm

Natural Resources Spatial Analysis Laboratory (NARSAL)
Located at the Institute of Ecology on the University  of Georgia campus in Athens, NARSAL's mission is to conduct research, training, and public service in the application of geospatial technology to natural resource management and planning.