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Summary
Item Identification
Keywords
Physical Location
Data Set Info
Support Roles
Extents
Spatial Info
Access Info
Distribution Info
URLs
Activity Log
Data Quality
Lineage
Catalog Details

Summary

Short Citation
Office for Coastal Management, 2026: 2021 C-CAP High Resolution Land Cover for Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/79639.
Full Citation Examples

Abstract

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. High resolution C-CAP products are developed utilizing high resolution aerial imagery, along with lidar and various available ancillary information, and can be used to track changes in the landscape through time. This is a full-scheme C-CAP land cover product, which includes up to 20 land cover classes, including impervious surfaces, agricultural areas, tree/shrub canopy, water, and wetlands. These high-resolution C-CAP land cover products enable local mapping and analyses for several applications, including water quality and stormwater management, land use planning and community development, risk assessment, natural resource management, and other community-level activities. This dataset represents land cover for the timeframe of 2021 for the Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts area.

Purpose

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

Data Access & Downloads

  • File name: ma_waquoit_2021_ccap_v2_hires_landcover.tif
    GeoTIFF

    See URLs for Bulk Download link.

Access Constraints:

None

Use Constraints:

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.

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 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.

Controlled Theme Keywords

imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, LAND USE/LAND COVER, LAND USE/LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION

URLs

Child Items

No Child Items for this record.

Contact Information

Point of Contact
NOAA Office for Coastal Management (NOAA/OCM)
coastal.info@noaa.gov
(843) 740-1202
https://coast.noaa.gov

Metadata Contact
NOAA Office for Coastal Management (NOAA/OCM)
coastal.info@noaa.gov
(843) 740-1202
https://coast.noaa.gov

Extents

Geographic Area 1

-70.633° W, -70.389° E, 41.752° N, 41.52° S

Time Frame 1
2021

Item Identification

Title: 2021 C-CAP High Resolution Land Cover for Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts
Status: Completed
Creation Date: 2026-04-28
Publication Date: 2026-04-28
Abstract:

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. High resolution C-CAP products are developed utilizing high resolution aerial imagery, along with lidar and various available ancillary information, and can be used to track changes in the landscape through time. This is a full-scheme C-CAP land cover product, which includes up to 20 land cover classes, including impervious surfaces, agricultural areas, tree/shrub canopy, water, and wetlands. These high-resolution C-CAP land cover products enable local mapping and analyses for several applications, including water quality and stormwater management, land use planning and community development, risk assessment, natural resource management, and other community-level activities. This dataset represents land cover for the timeframe of 2021 for the Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts area.

Purpose:

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

Notes:

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.

Other Citation Details:

USE RESTRICTIONS: 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.

Supplemental Information:

Attributes for this product are as follows:

0 Background,

1 Unclassified (Cloud, Shadow, etc),

2 Developed Impervious,

3

4 Developed Impervious under Tree Canopy

5 Developed Open Space,

6 Cultivated Land,

7 Pasture/Hay,

8 Grassland,

9

10

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) Houston Region High Resolution Land Cover Data. Data collected 2020. Charleston, SC: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management. Data accessed at https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/ccaphighres.html.

Keywords

Theme Keywords

Theme Keywords
Thesaurus Keyword
Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords
EARTH SCIENCE > LAND SURFACE > LAND USE/LAND COVER
Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords
EARTH SCIENCE > LAND SURFACE > LAND USE/LAND COVER > LAND USE/LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION
ISO 19115 Topic Category
imageryBaseMapsEarthCover
UNCONTROLLED
None C-CAP
None CCAP
None Land Cover
None Land Cover Analysis
None Remotely Sensed Imagery/Photos

Temporal Keywords

Temporal Keywords
Thesaurus Keyword
UNCONTROLLED
None 2021

Spatial Keywords

Spatial Keywords
Thesaurus Keyword
UNCONTROLLED
None Barnstable County
None Coastal Zone
None MA
None Waquoit

Instrument Keywords

Instrument Keywords
Thesaurus Keyword
Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Instrument Keywords
CAMERAS

Platform Keywords

Platform Keywords
Thesaurus Keyword
Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Platform Keywords
Airplane > Airplane

Physical Location

Organization: Office for Coastal Management
City: Charleston
State/Province: SC

Data Set Information

Data Set Scope Code: Data Set
Maintenance Note:

5 years

Data Presentation Form: Image (digital)
Distribution Liability:

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.

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 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.

Support Roles

Data Steward

CC ID: 1476337
Date Effective From: 2024-06-01
Date Effective To:
Contact (Organization): NOAA Office for Coastal Management (NOAA/OCM)
Address: 2234 South Hobson Ave
Charleston, SC 29405-2413
Email Address: coastal.info@noaa.gov
Phone: (843) 740-1202
URL: https://coast.noaa.gov

Distributor

CC ID: 1476339
Date Effective From: 2024-06-01
Date Effective To:
Contact (Organization): NOAA Office for Coastal Management (NOAA/OCM)
Address: 2234 South Hobson Ave
Charleston, SC 29405-2413
Email Address: coastal.info@noaa.gov
Phone: (843) 740-1202
URL: https://coast.noaa.gov

Metadata Contact

CC ID: 1476340
Date Effective From: 2024-06-01
Date Effective To:
Contact (Organization): NOAA Office for Coastal Management (NOAA/OCM)
Address: 2234 South Hobson Ave
Charleston, SC 29405-2413
Email Address: coastal.info@noaa.gov
Phone: (843) 740-1202
URL: https://coast.noaa.gov

Point of Contact

CC ID: 1476338
Date Effective From: 2024-06-01
Date Effective To:
Contact (Organization): NOAA Office for Coastal Management (NOAA/OCM)
Address: 2234 South Hobson Ave
Charleston, SC 29405-2413
Email Address: coastal.info@noaa.gov
Phone: (843) 740-1202
URL: https://coast.noaa.gov

Extents

Currentness Reference: Acquisition date of the Aerial Imagery

Extent Group 1

Extent Group 1 / Geographic Area 1

CC ID: 1476359
W° Bound: -70.633
E° Bound: -70.389
N° Bound: 41.752
S° Bound: 41.52

Extent Group 1 / Time Frame 1

CC ID: 1476358
Time Frame Type: Discrete
Start: 2021

Spatial Information

Spatial Representation

Representations Used

Grid: Yes

Grid Representation 1

CC ID: 1476351
Dimension Count: 3
Cell Geometry: Area
Transformation Parameters Available?: No

Axis Dimension 1

Dimension Type: Row
Size: 22883

Axis Dimension 2

Dimension Type: Column
Size: 14592

Axis Dimension 3

Dimension Type: Vertical
Size: 1

Access Information

Security Class: Unclassified
Data Access Constraints:

None

Data Use Constraints:

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.

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 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.

Distribution Information

Distribution 1

CC ID: 1476403
Distributor: NOAA Office for Coastal Management (NOAA/OCM) (2024-06-01 - Present)
File Name: File name: ma_waquoit_2021_ccap_v2_hires_landcover.tif
Description:

See URLs for Bulk Download link.

Distribution Format: GeoTIFF

URLs

URL 2

CC ID: 1476342
URL: https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/ccaphighres.html
Name: Information Page
Description:

C-CAP High Resolution Land Cover page on the Digital Coast website.

URL 3

CC ID: 1476343
URL: https://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/#/landcover/search/where:ID=14108
Name: Data Access Viewer (DAV)
Description:

Custom download for user-defined area and parameters.

Activity Log

Activity Log 1

CC ID: 1476345
Activity Date/Time: 2016-05-23
Description:

Date that the source FGDC record was last modified.

Activity Log 2

CC ID: 1476344
Activity Date/Time: 2017-11-14
Description:

Converted from FGDC (Federal Geographic Data Committee) CSDGM (Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata) (version FGDC-STD-001-1998) using 'fgdc_to_inport_xml.pl' script. Contact Tyler Christensen (NOS) for details.

Activity Log 3

CC ID: 1476346
Activity Date/Time: 2018-02-08
Description:

Partial upload of Positional Accuracy fields only.

Activity Log 4

CC ID: 1476347
Activity Date/Time: 2018-03-13
Description:

Partial upload to move data access links to Distribution Info.

Data Quality

Accuracy:

Accuracy assessment information pending.

Completeness Report:

Data does not exist for all classes.

There are no pixels representing: class 1 (unclassified), class 9 (Deciduous Forest), class 10 (Evergreen Forest), class 24 (Tundra), and class 25 (Perennial Ice/Snow).

Conceptual Consistency:

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.

Lineage

Sources

External Contractor

CC ID: 1476355
Contact Role Type: Originator
Contact Type: Organization
Contact Name: Ecopia AI
Extent Type: Discrete
Extent Start Date/Time: 2021
Citation URL: https://www.ecopiatech.com/

External Contractor

CC ID: 1476402
Contact Role Type: Originator
Contact Type: Organization
Contact Name: NV5
Citation URL: https://www.nv5.com/

Process Steps

Process Step 1

CC ID: 1476356
Description:

This dataset was created as part of NOAA's Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP), which is housed within the National Ocean Service, Office for Coastal Management (OCM). Contractor work was performed through NOAA’s Coastal Geospatial Services Contract (CGSC) vehicle.

Initial Classification

Initial 1m spatial resolution feature extraction for Impervious, Water, and Canopy (tree and scrub/shrub) mapping was conducted by Ecopia AI (https://www.ecopiatech.com/) using a proprietary feature recognition technology. This involves taking each image and classifying the pixels based on spectral and spatial properties, based on training examples and analyst refinement.

Refined Classification

The refinement of initial mapping layers, including the additional of up to 20 standard C-CAP categories of land cover feature types was conducted by NV5 (https://www.nv5.com/). Refinement specifics were broken down into a series of stages, and the specifics of each are discussed below.

Impervious Surface Refinement: Commission and omission errors associated with the Impervious class were addressed through manual interpretation and clean up using OpenStreetMap road, building, and railroad layers as reference. Once the review and edits were complete, the refined Impervious class was incorporated back into the land cover data set.

Water Refinement: Commission and omission errors associated with the Water class were addressed through a combination of modeling, expert rulesets, and manual interpretation. Once the review and edits were complete, the refined Water class was incorporated back into the land cover data set.

Canopy Surface Refinement: Commission and omission errors associated with the Canopy class were addressed through manual interpretation and clean up. Once the review and edits were complete, the refined Canopy class was incorporated back into the land cover data set.

Agriculture and Open Space Developed: Cultivated land, Pasture/Hay, and Open Space Developed features were derived from the grassland class of the initial land cover product using a combination of deep learning and image segmentation approaches. Predictions from a Convolutional Neural Network were summarized by image objects generated for grassland regions withing the AOI. Commission and omission errors associated with these categories were addressed through manual review and editing. Once the review and edits were complete, the new classes were incorporated into the land cover data set.

Wetlands: Wetlands were derived through a modeling process which used ancillary data such as Soils (SSURGO), the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI), and topographic derivatives (derived from USGS OPR data). Forest, shrub and grassland objects within the initial land cover that exhibited hydric characteristics based on the input ancillary layers were designated to their appropriate wetland category. The process relied mainly on the NWI to determine palustrine and estuarine distinctions.

Grass and Bare: Grass and Bare classifications were extracted from regions within the AOI not covered by the Ecopia AI Impervious, Water, and Canopy layer. This was accomplished through a combination of image segmentation, expert rulesets, and manual editing. Once the review and edits were complete, Bare and Grass features were incorporated into the land cover data set.

Attributes for this product are as follows:

0 Background

1 Unclassified

2 Developed Impervious

3

4 Developed Impervious under Tree Canopy

5 Developed, Open Space

6 Cultivated Crops

7 Pasture/Hay

8 Grassland/Herbaceous

9

10

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

Process Date/Time: 2026-04-28 00:00:00

Catalog Details

Catalog Item ID: 79639
GUID: gov.noaa.nmfs.inport:79639
Metadata Record Created By: David Betenbaugh
Metadata Record Created: 2026-04-27 17:06+0000
Metadata Record Last Modified By: David Betenbaugh
Metadata Record Last Modified: 2026-05-21 13:36+0000
Metadata Record Published: 2026-05-08
Owner Org: OCM
Metadata Publication Status: Published Externally
Do Not Publish?: N
Metadata Last Review Date: 2024-06-12
Metadata Review Frequency: 1 Year
Metadata Next Review Date: 2025-06-12