LAND COVER / LAND USE CHANGE OF RURAL WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

Western PA has undergone numerous changes over the decades. Landsat provides a forty year data record of these changes, starting with the launch of Landsat 1 in 1972. Two locations in Western Pennsylvania have been selected for a Land Cover / Land Use Change (LCLUC) analysis: Clarion, PA and Rural Valley, PA. These areas were chosen to compare the changes in and around a rural town to a rural agriculture area. These areas will be compared for land layout, land use, changes in structures, and population growth. All Landsat satellite data will be examined to find the best quality images with no cloud cover over the desired area.

Landsats 1-3 had a four band multispectral scanner with 60 m resolution, while Landsats 4-5 had seven bands and 30 m resolution in the thematic mapper. Landsat 7 has an enhanced thematic mapper with 8 bands and resolutions of 30-60 m. Landsat 8 is the most recent mission, launched in 2013, and has operational land imager (eight 30 m bands) and thermal infrared sensor (two 100 m bands). Landsat images are categorized into CLEAR, SOME CLOUDS, or CLOUDY based on the quality of the image. Images with no clouds are CLEAR. Scattered clouds that are not over the designated location are marked SOME CLOUDS, and cloud cover over the designated area are recorded as CLOUDY.

The high quality images will show the locations that have been changed over time. In Clarion, PA I will focus on the University and how it has expanded in the last forty years, as well as changes to the Clarion River through erosion and damming. In Rural Valley, PA I will look at buildings, agriculture, and forestry on my family farm. One area to be examined in detail is a coalmine that was shut down in the early nineteen-nineties. The coalmine brought in a large amount of business and a great deal of jobs, resulting in increased population. Gas wells have also been drilled since then, changing the land use and topography. I will use Landsat image data to determine the extent and cause of all of these changes.