Land cover map along the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway corridor

• Main Author: Zhang, Yu
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Cryospheric Information Network 2016
• Subjects: Land cover; Maps; Permafrost; Satellite imagery; Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula; Vegetation; Polar Knowledge Canada/Canadian High Arctic Research Station; Arctic; Canada; Inuvik; Tuktoyaktuk; permafrost; Tundra
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.21963/12664; https://www.polardata.ca/pdcsearch/?doi_id=12664

This land cover map was developed using isodata unsupervised classification method based on two SPOT 4 scenes (both acquired on 4 September 2006) and one SPOT 5 scene (acquired on 27 August 2007). The ITH corridor was classified into 14 land cover types at 20 m spatial resolution. CODE DESCRIPTIONS: 0-Water bodies or outside the map area; 1-Forest dominated by coniferous trees, mainly spruce; 2-Forest dominated by deciduous trees; 3-Shrub with sparse trees; 4-High and dense shrubs (>1.0m); 5-Medium to high shrubs (0.5-1.0m); 6-Medium height shrubs (about 0.5m); 7-Sparse shrubs in slopes; 8-Sedge/shrub low lands; 9-Shrub/sedge polygons; 10-Wetland with small water bodies, usually wide trenches; 11-Seasonally flooded wetland, usually near lake shores; 12-Mixture of water and land, usually along lake shores; 13-Barren land (non-vegetated area, streets, roads, airports). The image is in 8 bits (or 1 byte) binary format (0-13) containing 7863 lines and 5182 pixels. The projection is in UTM 8W D122 at 20 m spatial resolution (Upper left: 513660 E,7734000 N; Lower right: 617300 E, 7576740 N). : Purpose: This land cover map was developed mainly for permafrost mapping along the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH) corridor. Along the ITH corridor, vegetation changes from forest in the south to typical arctic tundra in the north. Vegetation conditions play important roles affecting permafrost, and they also are indicators of snow and subsurface conditions, which are critical for permafrost as well. : Summary: This land cover map in ITH corridor was developed using SPOT 4 and 5 satellite images at 20 m spatial resolution. The area was classified into 14 types, including water bodies, forest types (coniferous and deciduous), shrub with sparse trees, upland tundra types, lowland tundra types, and barren land.