A NASA Grant Awarded to Kentucky to Support Land Management Decisions

The purpose of the project is to gain a clearer picture of forest, urban and rural landscape in Kentucky. The aim of the project is to develop a digital snapshot of the of the Commonwealth’s natural and man-made landscape as it is now and how land is being used from one time period to another – or change detection. Change detection compares two satellite images and shows whether or not a landscape has changed – and if it has, how the land was being used, and how it is currently being used. Knowing how the landscape is changing is an important factor when deciding how to make sound land management decisions. As part of the project tools will be developed to assist federal state and local decision makers in making future landuse decisions.

The project will be accomplished through the use of satellite and remote sensing technologies. The members of the Kentucky team who wrote and won the grant are: the Governor's Office for Technology, Office of Geographic Information, the KY Department for Natural Resources – which includes the Commissioner’s office, the Division of Forestry, and the Division of Conservation, and the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission, Morehead State University, the U.S.D.A. Forest Service - Daniel Boone National Forest, the U.S. Geological Survey and Space Imaging Services, Inc. The grant will be conducted over a three year period beginning in February of 2002.