Several ongoing activities are aimed at consolidating and leveraging resources for land cover and ecological resource mapping at the federal government level. This is a forum for discussing standardization issues and land cover mapping cooperatives. Representatives of various federal and state government and nongovernment programs will give presentations. Examples include the Department of the Interior Land Cover Data Initiative, the U.S. Geological Survey Land Cover Characterization Program, the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), a State land cover mapping program, and Esri (regarding the development of tools for the standardized collection of land cover data). Members of the audience will be encouraged to voice their needs and concerns as users of the information generated by these mapping and software development activities. The forum will highlight opportunities for involvement in multiagency (that is, federal, state, local, and private sector) data collection cooperatives and provide points of contact for further input from participants. This forum creates an opportunity for agencies with mapping interests to reach a broad, multidisciplinary audience representing land cover data users from around the globe.
Illinois undertook the development of a landcover database from Landsat satellite imagery. The procedures and approaches used will be discussed. The resulting landcover map for Illinois has 20 landcover classes. These data have provided the primary input to a statewide screening for ecologically significant areas and to the modelling of elk habitat in southern Illinois. These applications will also be discussed.