Relating Land Cover Changes to Stream Water Quality in North Carolina

Learning Unit Description:

The Integrated Geospatial Education and Technology Training Project (iGETT) presents a series of Learning Units (LU) designed to incorporate federal land remote sensing data into Geographic Information System (GIS) instruction. The Land Cover Classification and Urban Stream Quality LU, created by Reed Perkins, uses remote sensing data to examine the Long Creek Watershed in North Carolina and the environmental impact of land cover changes. Students gain an understanding of the uses and limitations of remote sensing while gaining skills in GIS and geospatial critical thinking.

The iGETT Learning Units amount to about two weeks of instruction and are designed for use both as “skills-based case studies and building blocks for new courses.” All LUs are intended for students with a basic understanding of GIS. Each LU includes three core documents, an instructor’s guide, a student guide, and a curriculum support document, as well as the remote sensing data needed to complete the unit.

For orientation purposes, viewers should begin with Perkins_Thumbnail.pdf, which offers a description of the LU as well as an overview of topics covered, required software, and the intended audience.

Learning Unit Contents:

The attached files associated with this LU exist in a variety of formats and a variety of geospatial data file types.

Below is a list of the files contained in the .zip attachment, with the file name and size provided in parenthesis.

Core Documents

• Student Guide (Perk_Rubrics.pdf 159KB)
• Student Guide (Perk_SG.pdf 2.4MB)
• Student Handout (Perkins_SH.pdf 4.1MB)
• Instructor Guide (Perkins_IG_Final.pdf 279KB)
• LU Webpage Thumbnail (Perkins_Thumbnail.pdf 852KB)

Data

• Perkins_Data1.rar
  • Perkins_Data1
    • Perkins_LU_Landsat_Data
      • LT50170361988265XXX03 (10 text and image files, 364.8MB)
• ​Perkins_Data2.rar
  • Perkins_Data2
    • Perkins_LU_Landsat_Data2
      • LT50170362008160EDC00 (10 text and image files, 364.8MB)
• ​Perkins_Data3.rar
  • Perkins_Data3
    • ​​Perkins_LU_Shapefiles (36 data files, 3.2MB)
• Perkins_Data4.rar
  • Perkins_Data4
    • Question2a (4 data files, 355.1MB)
• Perkins_Data5.rar
  • Perkins_Data5
    • ​​LU_Resultsa
      • Perkins_LU_Results
        • Question4 (1 image file, 595KB)
        • Question3 (10 data files, 2.5MB)
        • Question2b (5 data files, 351.7MB)