Land Cover Shapefiles for Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota

Abstract

This project’s aim was to produce a land cover model of downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. Our purpose was to discriminate features that offer potential cover and foraging habitat for birds (i.e. trees, shrubs, turf grass, water) from features that are less suitable for birds (i.e. impervious surfaces and buildings). Though we had birds in mind, the models we produced have broad utility in many contexts. To achieve our objectives, we integrated a variety of freely available spatial data. Object-based Image Analysis (OBIA) was the primary methodology we used to generate thematic land cover models.