Land Cover
Mapping at
Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area
The Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area (CBWA)
covers approximately 19,857 acres in central
Kansas and serves as a critical food and nesting
site to hundreds of thousands of migrating shore-
birds and waterfowl. In addition to the birds,
CBWA also supports 28 species of fish, 27
species of herptiles, and 20 species of mammals
(many of which are endemic to wetlands).
As in many other wetlands, sedimentation and cattails
have become a management issue that KDWP must face. The wetlands now
demand intense management to control the cattail that have spread to
cover as much as 7,000 acres in 1998, and dramatically altered the habitat
structure that the wildlife depend on. From 1998 through 2000, the KDWP
partnered with the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to utilize annual near
infra-red (NIR) aerial imagery to map the vegetation (especially cattail)
and track the success and progress of management actions. In 2000, the
KARS program began working with the BOR to finish the last two years
of the five-year mapping effort.
In 2005, as part of the cooperative agreement, the
KDWP requested an updated landcover map of the CBWA using the multispectral
(NIR, red, green) aerial
imaging system owned and operated by the KARS program. In September,
a week of intense field observations was conducted to record the location
and condition of vegetation communities present at Cheyenne Bottoms,
then, on October 8, 2005, one-meter imagery was acquired over the wildlife
area. The images were geo registered, projected, and mosaiced together
to create one large seamless image. The image mosaic was then used to
create a landcover map using a combination of field notes, object orientated
classification algorithms, and manual digitizing of vegetation community
polygons. The resulting landcover map showed the location and extent
of 16 landcover categories to help park managers be more effective in
their efforts to manage vegetation conditions and promote desirable
habitat.
Click on desired icon to view
Adobe.pdf file
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| NIR aerial image mosaic |
2005 CBWA Landcover Mapping report.pdf
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2005 Landcover Map |
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For additional information, contact:
Mike Mitchener, KDWP Wildlife Section Chief, mikewm@wp.state.ks.us
Mike Houts, KARS/KDWP GIS Specialist, mhouts@ku.edu
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