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