USGS_Eco_2_SurfForm - Land Surface Forms

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has generated land surface form classes for the contiguous United States. These land surface form classes were created as part of an effort to map standardized, terrestrial ecosystems for the nation using a classification developed by NatureServe (Comer and others, 2003). Ecosystem distributions were modeled using a biophysical stratification approach developed for South America (Sayre and others, 2008) and now being implemented globally (Sayre and others, 2007). Land surface forms strongly influence the differentiation and distribution of terrestrial ecosystems, and are one of the key input layers in the ecosystem delineation process.



The methodology used to produce these land surface form classes was developed by the Missouri Resource Assessment Partnership (MoRAP). MoRAP made modifications to Hammond's (1964a, 1964b) land surface form classification, which allowed the use of 30-meter source data and a 1 km2 window for neighborhood analysis (True 2002, True and others, 2000). While Hammond's methodology was based on three variables, slope, local relief, and profile type, MoRAP's methodology uses only slope and local relief (True 2002). Slope is classified as gently sloping or not gently sloping using a slope threshold of 8%, local relief is classified into five classes (0-15m, 15-30m, 30-90m, 90-150m, and >150m), and eight landform classes (flat plains, smooth plains, irregular plains, escarpments, low hills, hills, breaks, and low mountains) were derived by combining slope class and local relief. The USGS implementation of the MoRAP methodology was executed using the USGS 30-meter National Elevation Dataset (NED) and an existing USGS slope dataset. In this implementation, a new land surface form class, the high mountains/deep canyons class, was identified by using an additional local relief class (> 400m).



The drainage channels class was derived independently from the other land surface form classes. This class was derived using two of Andrew Weiss's slope position classes, "valley" and "lower slope" (Weiss 2001, Jenness 2006). The USGS implemented Weiss's algorithm using the 30-meter NED and a 1 km2 neighborhood analysis window. The resultant drainage channel class was combined into the final land surface forms dataset.

Simple

Date (Revision)
2016-06-08T00:00:00
Edition

http://localhost:8080/demodem/editioin

Status
On going
Point of contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

USGS Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center

Jill Cress

jjcress@usgs.gov

Principal investigator
Maintenance and update frequency
As needed
Theme

  • Canyons

  • Hills

  • Mountains

  • Drainage channels

  • Terrestrial ecosystems

  • Climate
Place

  • World
Access constraints
Copyright
Use constraints
otherRestictions
Spatial representation type
Vector
Language
English
Character set
UTF8
Topic category
  • Boundaries
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Reference system identifier
WGS 1984
Distribution format
Name Version

OGC:OWS-C

1
OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name

WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link

 		http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/arcgis/rest/services/ecosys_US/MapServer

ecosys_US (MapServer)

WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link

 		http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/outgoing/ecosystems/USdata/ USGS Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center (GECSC) Outgoing Datasets

WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link

 		http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/ecosystems/

USGS Global Ecosystems page

WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link

 		http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/ecosystems/docs/us_landsurfaceforms_30m_dd83.htm

Land Surface Forms

WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link

 		http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/arcgis/rest/services/ecosys_US/MapServer/2

Layer: Land Surface Forms (ID: 2)
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Source

Metadata

File identifier
0fcc2417-b208-409d-8f4c-edb6e13ffcf2 XML
Metadata language
English
Character set
UTF8
Date stamp
2016-06-08T11:36:30
Metadata standard name

ISO 19115:2003/19139
Metadata standard version

1.0
Metadata author
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

USDA/ARS/NAL > National Agricultural Library, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture

Erin Antognoli

erin.antognoli@ars.usda.gov

Point of contact
 
 

Overviews

overview
Thumbnail in PNG format from USGS WMS server GetMap request
overview
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overview
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Spatial extent

N
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Keywords

Canyons Climate Drainage channels Hills Mountains Terrestrial ecosystems


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Associated resources

Not available