Data Construction

Coverage of Montana in this dataset is complete, but it represents the landscape as of the date of the mapping source data (varying dates from 2000 to the present).  . Maintenance includes 1) ongoing correction and refinement, as well as integration of other digital land cover data (e.g. wetlands, transportation); 2) addition of new land cover classification from higher-resolution or more current imagery; 3) complete revision of the entire basemap every 7-10 years when new regional land cover maps (e.g. ReGAP) become available; 4) modifications and revisions to classification units and edits to the Montana Field Guide, where the classification units are described; 5) crosswalking of classification units to other classification schemes as federal rules require (e.g. FGDC standard). Additionally, we rely on federal and state agencies for annual updates on fire and insect modifications of land cover.

Currently, there is one Theme Lead staff member working about 85% time on the dataset, and one Theme Lead staff member working about 20% on requests, field verification, classification edits, crosswalking, coordination with other themes, and budget/project management.  Summer seasonal staff assist in ground-level data collection when available.  If and when a new regional land cover map becomes available and needs to be brought in to the Montana LCLU database, staff needs would increase by approximately 0.75 FTE for at least a year.