Home

The Kentucky Landscape Census Project

A NASA funded project for the Commonwealth

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has funded the three year Kentucky Landscape Census (KLC) project to develop a web portal providing access to GIS data and remote sensing derived change detection functionality for user groups in selected counties within the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

The KLC Project effort is designed to link geographic data from a variety of sources (GIS data, aerial and space-based imagery products, land cover and land use information, etc.) in a common, loosely coupled, multi-jurisdictional network of local government organizations within the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The vehicle for these ambitious goals is this web-based mapping system allowing local governments and other key user groups to exchange or share information via the internet through a system of open data exchange standards.

When successful this project will improve access to and understanding of remote sensing and GIS technologies and data, enabling these data to be used by decision makers. Through these data the project will enhance the social (better urban planning and landuse decisions & policy) and economic (better response to disasters and better protection of natural resources) conditions for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The web-based application being developed during this project will introduce new remotely sensed products to the local government communities that will reduce their costs and improve resource management, decision and policy making, and thus improve the quality of life in their communities. The use of OGC compliant approaches and working with the USGS GAM and National Map leadership we will leverage off technologies and initiatives currently underway in the US. Finally, this project’s objectives are firmly focused on making these data usable through the roll out of a technology that provides a cross-cutting solution to current data distribution and usability challenges.