Application of geospatial technologies and data to improve assessments of land cover dynamics across Metro Vancouver

对城市环境的全面理解，包括空间和时间维度，是至关重要的

A comprehensive understanding of the urban environment, including both spatial and temporal dimensions, is fundamental to ensure sustainable and adaptive urban ecosystems. Accurate operational modelling of urban growth and land-use change presents significant challenges to utilities, city and landscape planners, economists, and health experts. One major issue is a lack of rigorous geo-spatial data as cadastral data sources for urban planning may be limited to only a few inconsistent years, or created in a piecemeal fashion by multiple agencies and utilities with different standards and methods. The aim of the project is to build an up-to-date, contiguous land cover classification of the Metro Vancouver area from 2014/2015 RapidEye imagery, with LiDAR data where available, to produce an accurate and contemporary geo-spatial layer. Metro Vancouver requires this land cover data to support several programs including sensitive ecosystem mapping, ecosystem services assessment, the Lower Fraser Valley Emission Inventory and ecological health monitoring, amongst other uses. Land cover data information has been identified as critical for all of these applications as it can be used to investigate important indicators of ecological health that incorporate building locations, land cover types, tree cover, impervious surfaces, and urban water quality. The aim is to not only create a high-quality regional land cover dataset to meet today's needs, but also to articulate a clear, repeatable process to update the dataset at regular intervals to continue to support monitoring work over the longterm.