Characterizing Changes in the Land Use and Land Cover in the Ft. Cobb Reservoir Watershed, Oklahoma

Abstract

The overall goal of this project is to quantify changes in the land use and land cover in the Ft. Cobb Reservoir Watershed located in southwestern Oklahoma. The changes were quantified over short-term (2001-2005) and long-term (1992-2005) time periods. The LULC map for 2005 was developed using Landsat TM image data for 2005. Multiseasonal imagery for the watershed comprised of Landsat images for March, June, September, and November time periods for the year 2005. Using a hybrid approach involving unsupervised and supervised classification techniques, these individual images were independently processed for better delineation of the vegetation cover types within the agriculturally dominant watershed. In addition to the remote sensing data, ground truth data pertaining to the watersheds were obtained from the USDA Grazinglands Research Laboratory (GRL), El Reno. Overall, the analysis indicated similar trends in changes for the short-term and long-term time periods, with agriculture decreasing by about 12% with a corresponding increase in grasslands.