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About the Site
About the Site
The principle purpose of this Web site is to make remotely sensed data,
and specifically impervious surface data, available to state and local
government agencies. There is a growing amount of literature that suggests
that imperviousness directly affects the environmental quality of streams
and their watersheds. In addition to the data, this Web site also provides
background information on imperviousness and its environmental effects,
and on the principles and use of remotely sensed data.
State and local government officials have long struggled with the complexity
involved in protecting and improving water quality in their jurisdictions.
Due to technical, environmental, and regulatory complications, these officials
have grappled with this important issue, often coming up short of a workable,
consistent plan for water resource management. Recently, scientific literature
has shown that the amount of impervious surface in a watershed proves
to be a useful, easily identifiable indicator of overall water quality.
In response to this finding, the Towson University Center for Geographic
Information Sciences (CGIS) and its partners--the Towson University Department
of Geography and Environmental Planning, the Maryland Space Grant Consortium,
the Washington College Center for the Environment and Society, and the
Maryland Virtual High School--completed a project to map impervious cover
for the entire Chesapeake Bay and Maryland Coastal Bays watersheds. The
goal of this project is to supply state and local official with the impervious
surface data and with the technical and theoretical background they need
to integrate imperviousness into their water quality protection measures.
To complete the impervious surface mapping project, CGIS used remote
sensing and geographic information system (GIS) technologies to identify
pervious and impervious land cover types throughout the Chesapeake Bay
and Maryland Coastal Bays watersheds. The data was then "clipped" by watershed
and county boundaries to make the information as useful as possible to
its intended audience--state and local government officials. This data
was then uploaded onto a CGIS server to be distributed to its end users
via an online Infomart, complete with raw remotely sensed data (Landsat
7 ETM+), geospatial data, and background information on remote sensing/digital
image processing. Additionally, the Infomart contains a link for K-12
teachers, which includes lesson plans on imperviousness that teachers
can use within their classrooms. K-12 teachers and their students have
already played an integral role in the impervious surface project by ground
truthing over 15,000 land-cover points, using portable GPS units supplied
to them by CGIS. Finally, the Infomart serves as the focus of a Project
NEMO (Non-Point Education of Municipal Officials), university-based outreach
program to educate government officials on watershed ecology, imperviousness,
and potential mitigation measures.
Project Partners and Affiliates
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