APA Completes NASA Research Contract

APA has completed a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Earth Science Applications Directorate at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to evaluate the data assimilation capacity of APA's Land Based Classification Standards (LBCS) using NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) data. LBCS is a data protocol and methodology to collect and aggregate land-use data using multiple dimensions. APA developed LBCS several years ago under contract with six federal agencies (see www.planning.org/lbcs/).

APA explored the feasibility of developing an integrated methodology for classifying land use/land cover using LBCS and remotely-sensed data using satellite sources, such as MODIS, ASTER, Hyperion, ALI, SRTM, TRMM, GRACE, and other NASA resources.

Under the NASA contract, APA developed three sample applications from among seven possible application types:

• Surface analysis for flood and stormwater management
• Earth fissure analysis for establishing stable development areas
• Landscape mapping for arid regions for water conservation
• Landscape analysis for air quality, heat island effects, forest and urban interface
• Landslide analysis for hazard mitigation and emergency management
• Mapping extractive resources (aggregates mainly) essential for development
• Mapping impervious surfaces with land use to better manage local effects of flooding

The final task will involve benchmarking the effectiveness of data assimilation capacity.

The final report is entitled The Evaluation, Validation, and Benchmarking of Earth Observing Systems Data Assimilation in the Land Based Classification Standards Decision Support System. 

Click here to download a copy of the report.

For more information about the project, or to suggest possible sample applications to be studied, send an e-mail to research@planning.org.

April 1, 2004