Time series analysis of satellite data reveals continuous deforestation of New England since the 1980s

Abstract

Land cover and land change were monitored continuously between 1985 and 2011 at 30 m resolution across New England in the Northeastern United States in support of modeling the terrestrial carbon budget. It was found that the forest area has been decreasing throughout the study period in each state of the region since the 1980s. A total of 386 657 ± 98 137 ha (95% confidence interval) of forest has been converted to other land covers since 1985. Mainly driven by low density residential development, the deforestation accelerated in the mid-1990s until 2007 when it plateaued as a result of declining new residential construction and in turn, the financial crisis of 2007–08. The area of forest harvest, estimated at 226 519 ± 66 682 ha, was mapped separately and excluded from the deforestation estimate, while the area of forest expansion on non-forested lands was found to not be significantly different from zero. New England is often held as a principal example of a forest transition with historical widespread deforestation followed by recovery of forestlands as farming activities diminished, but the results of this study support the notion of a reversal of the forest transition as the region again is experiencing widespread deforestation. All available Landsat imagery acquired after 1985 for the study area were collected and used in the analysis. Areas of land cover and land change were estimated from a random sample of reference observations stratified by a twelve-class land change map encompassing the entire study area and period. The statistical analysis revealed that the net change in forest area and the associated modeled impact on the terrestrial carbon balance would have been considerably different if the results of the map were used without inferring the area of forest change by analysis of a reference sample.