Apologies for cross posting---thought this might be of interest to the listserv
Chris Clarke ////
Hello-
My name is Alexandra Syphard, and I am a graduate student at the Center for Environmental Studies at VCU. I am working on a masters thesis project involving the analysis of change in wetland types over a 40-year time period. I am using a large data set that was developed in Arc/INFO by the USFWS. The data set includes 15 coverages for both 1953 and 1994 of the Chickahominy watershed; however, I will only need the 1953 and 1994 coverages which include wetland types as classified by the Cowardin system (NWI).
To analyze change in wetland types, my objectives for the project include the following questions:
1) What were the types of wetlands in 1953, and have they been converted to a different type of wetland or land use by 1994? 2) Were there any wetlands in 1953 that stayed the same in type but changed in size? 3) What type of land use is found in 1994 where in 1953 there was a wetland? 4) Did any wetland types disappear from 1953 to 1994? 5) Were there any new types of wetlands created in 1994? 6) What land use types did/do beavers convert into wetlands? 7) How did the wetlands change with respect to stream order and fragmentation?
To answer the above questions, I would like to use a GIS to calculate the change in wetland types and acreage over time. Has anyone used GRID, ArcView/Spatial Analyst or any other methodology to do similar analyses, or can anyone suggest an approach to answering my research questions? Though I have never used GRID, someone suggested that that would be the most efficient way to do my analysis. However, I do not know what formulas I would need to use for my calculations.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Alexandra Syphard Virginia Commonwealth University mailto: [log in to unmask] http://www.erols.com/syphard
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