Landcover Data (WISCLAND)

"WISCLAND" is the Wisconsin Initiative for Statewide Cooperation on Landscape Analysis and Data, a partnership of public and private organizations seeking to facilitate landscape GIS data development and analysis. For more information about WISCLAND, see Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office [exit DNR]

• WISCLAND Land Cover (WLC) Data Overview
• Metadata for WISCLAND Land Cover
• Sample WISCLAND Land Cover Map
• Viewing WISCLAND Land Cover Data
• Download Land Cover Data & Documentation

WISCLAND Land Cover Data Overview

In 1991 the Wisconsin DNR Enterprise Data Management Section (EDM) completed a 5-year work effort to interpret the state's land cover from satellite images. This GAP (National Gap Analysis Program) initiative attracted a great deal of interest within the agency and from many partners and financial contributors - federal and state agencies, regional planning commissions, utilities, and university researchers.

This initiative led to the formation of WISCLAND - the Wisconsin Initiative for Statewide Cooperation on Landscape Analysis and Data, a mechanism for cooperative funding and development of land data. The WISCLAND land cover data are derived primarily from 1992 satellite imagery.

After processing, the data have a minimum mapping unit of 5 acres, meaning that most land cover features 5 acres or larger can be resolved in the data. The classified land cover types can be summarized to indicate how much of each land cover is present over large areas of interest, such as counties or watersheds. More sophisticated analyses, such as assessing proximity or delineating land cover corridors, are possible with the appropriate application software.

The land cover data have been used by the DNR Bureau of Wildlife Management to estimate available range for deer in each deer management unit, as well as for estimation of elk range in Wisconsin. Other potential uses of the land cover data include watershed characterization to evaluate fisheries quality or support runoff estimation for flood analysis.

The land cover full data model is intended for use with the spatial analyst extension to ArcView GIS, ArcInfo's GRID module, or ERDAS Imagine remote sensing software.

Information about the Upper Midwest GAP Analysis Program, including a copy of the "Upper Midwest Gap Analysis Program Image Processing Protocol," June 1998, used in preparing the WISCLAND Land Cover data, are accessible via the USGS Environmental Management Technical Center (EMTC)e [exit DNR].

A published poster displaying land cover for the state is available for purchase from the Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office [exit DNR].

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Metadata for WISCLAND Land Cover

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Sample WISCLAND Land Cover Map

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Viewing WISCLAND Land Cover Data

WISCLAND Land Cover data is now available for viewing in the DNR WebView interactive mapping application. To find Land Cover data in WebView, click on the gold "layers" tab, then click once on the "Forests & Landcover" folder in the layerlist.

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Download WISCLAND Land Cover Data & Documentation

The following links are files on our FTP site. FTP, or file transfer protocol, allows for transfering files efficiently and reliably among hosts and allowing the convenient use of remote file storage capabilities.

To restore the WISCLAND Land Cover data (full data model in ArcInfo Grid format), extract the zipfile (wlc_grid.zip) using WinZip [exit DNR]. These data are presented as is and the DNR is not available to provide technical assistance and support for the use of WinZip.

Decompression of the zipfile will result in an ArcInfo Grid directory named wlcgw930, and an accompanying info directory. Together these directories are just over 75MB, uncompressed. Do NOT decompress the zipfile at a location where an info directory already exists, or information may be lost.