2021 C-CAP Land Cover Data of the State of Maine

The NOAA Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) produces national standardized land cover and change products for the coastal regions of the U.S. C-CAP products inventory coastal intertidal areas, wetlands, and adjacent uplands with the goal of monitoring changes in these habitats through time. These maps are developed utilizing high resolution aerial imagery, primarily from the summer of 2021, along with lidar and various available ancillary information, and can be used to track changes in the landscape through time. This trend information gives important feedback to managers on the success or failure of management policies and programs and aid in developing a scientific understanding of the Earth system and its response to natural and human-induced changes. This understanding allows for the prediction of impacts due to these changes and the assessment of their cumulative effects, helping coastal resource managers make more informed regional decisions.

C-CAP is dedicated to the development, distribution, and application of land cover and change data for the coastal regions of the U.S.

C-CAP data sets are not jurisdictional or intended for use in litigation. While efforts have been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable within the limits of current technology, NOAA cannot assume liability for any damages or misrepresentations caused by inaccuracies in the data, or as a result of the data to be used on a particular system. NOAA makes no warranty, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty. This is a national and regional data set that should be used only as a screening tool for very local or site-specific management decisions. Small features and changes should be verified with a higher-resolution data source.

USE RESTRICTIONS: This land cover data may not be used for the purpose of creating, training, improving, modifying, validating, testing, or evaluating machine learning algorithms, or otherwise leverage the product for the purposes of machine learning for a period of five years from its date of creation.

Attributes for this product are as follows:

0 Background,

1 Unclassified (Cloud, Shadow, etc),

2 Developed Impervious,

4 Developed Impervious under Tree Canopy

5 Developed Open Space,

6 Cultivated Land,

7 Pasture/Hay,

8 Grassland,

11 Upland Tree (Forest),

12 Scrub/Shrub,

13 Palustrine Forested Wetland,

14 Palustrine Scrub/Shrub Wetland,

15 Palustrine Emergent Wetland,

16 Estuarine Forested Wetland,

17 Estuarine Scrub/Shrub Wetland,

18 Estuarine Emergent Wetland,

19 Unconsolidated Shore,

20 Bare Land,

21 Open Water,

22 Palustrine Aquatic Bed,

23 Estuarine Aquatic Bed,

Recommended Citation. NOAA Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) State of Maine High Resolution Land Cover Data. Data collected 2021. Charleston, SC: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management. Data accessed at https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/ccaphighres.html.

5 years

Users must assume responsibility to determine the usability of these data.

License: Users are granted a perpetual, non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to use these data, and to create derived and value-added products, in any manor and for any purpose with the exception of creating, training, improving, modifying, validating, testing, evaluating, or otherwise leveraging machine learning algorithms in order to explicitly create similar land cover data for a period of five years from its date of creation. After that date this limitation is removed and these data will be available under the [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)]

None

Data set is not for use in litigation. While efforts have been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable within the state of the art, NOAA, cannot assume liability for any damages, or misrepresentations, caused by any inaccuracies in the data, or as a result of the data to be used on a particular system. NOAA makes no warranty, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty.

THE PRODUCT IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT OR NON-MISAPPROPRIATION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OF A THIRD PARTY, CUSTOM, TRADE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, ACCURACY OF INFORMATION, CONTENT OR RESULTS, OR CONDITIONS ARISING UNDER ANY OTHER LEGAL REQUIREMENT. NEITHER ECOPIA NOR ITS LICENSORS WARRANT THAT THE PRODUCT WILL BE ACCURATE, CURRENT OR COMPLETE, THAT THE PRODUCT WILL MEET END USER'S NEEDS OR EXPECTATIONS, OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE PRODUCT WILL BE ERROR FREE OR UNINTERRUPTED. FURTHER, SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL ACCURACY IS NOT GUARANTEED.

Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.2.2.1350

According to the accuracy assessment performed by NOAA Office for Coastal Management staff, the overall accuracy of this product is 85.6%. There were 914 total points distributed across the study area. The accuracy of each class is as follows (Producer's, User's accuracies):

Impervious (92.7%, 94.4%)

Impervious under Tree Canopy (66.7%, 100%)

Open Space Developed (81.3%, 93.8%)

Cultivated (94.3%, 84.6%)

Pasture/Hay (95.9%, 86.2%)

Grassland (59.2%, 86.5%)

Upland Tree (Forest) (100%, 66.7%)

Shrub/Scrub (75.0%, 78.1%)

Palustrine Forested Wetland (87.5%, 87.5%)

Palustrine Shrub/Scrub Wetland (86.6%, 89.2%)

Palustrine Emergent Wetland (84.1%, 84.1%)

Estuarine Forested Wetland (N/A, N/A)

Estuarine Shrub/Scrub Wetland (N/A, N/A)

Estuarine Emergent Wetland (100%, 100%)

Unconsolidated Shore (93.5%, 97.7%)

Bare Land (75.7%, 73.7%) Water (97.1%, 90.4%)

Palustrine Aquatic Bed (64.7%, 68.8%)

Estuarine Aquatic Bed (88.9%, 94.1%)

Overall accuracy (85.6%)

Points were sampled using a stratified random sampling scheme, with a minimum target sample of 20 points per class. A few of the rarer categories did not meet this minimum threshold or were not sampled at all due to the relatively low total area of those classes. Only the Palustrine Aquatic Bed and Estuarine Aquatic Bed categories had fewer than the target 20 point minimum, though several additional categories had relatively few sample locations, including: Estuarine Emergent Wetlands, Cultivated, and Impervious Under Canopy. Estuarine Scrub/Shrub Wetland and Estuarine Forested were not samples at all. The correct land cover classification was determined through analyst interpretation of the imagery used in creating the map, as well as possible references to Google Earth in order to reference additional dates/seasons of imagery for that location. All points were interpreted by two analysts, plus a third who made a final determination when there was disagreement on the call. This analysis allowed for the use of fuzzy designations, or alternate calls to the truth category where that truth call may not have been completely obvious, or where point locations are located so they could possibly be more than one category.

Data does not exist for all classes. There are no pixels representing: class 1 (unclassified), class 9 (Deciduous Forest), 10 (Evergreen Forest), 25 (Perennial Ice/Snow). Deciduous and Evergreen trees were not differentiated. These features were mapped as either Mixed Forest, Palustrine Forested Wetlands, or Estuarine Forested Wetlands.

Tests for logical consistency indicate that all row and column positions in the selected latitude/longitude window contain data. Conversion and integration with vector files indicates that all positions are consistent with earth coordinates covering the same area. Attribute files are logically consistent.