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-: Coastal areas are environmentally significant
because of their biodiversity.
Nevertheless, these areas are affected
by human socioeconomic factors.
These factors play a major role in deforestation,
land erosion, and the extension or degradation
of many local species of plants and animals.
It's also known that coastal human population densities
are three times higher than that
of the global average densities.
In addition, climate change side effects
such as rising sea levels, rising sea surface temperatures,
and the increased intensity of tropical storms
significantly degrade coastal environments.
As a result, there is a general effort
to develop reliable methods to monitor
and identify land use and land cover changes.
Land use refers to the way humans use the landscape,
whether for development, conservation, or mixed use.
Land cover refers to the physical material
on earth's surface,
whether it be vegetation, water, or concrete.
This is a classified image
of Mobile metropolitan area.
Can you guess which one is 2015?
If you guessed the one to the right, you'll be correct.
The bright red and the dark red are low-density
and high density urban environments, respectively,
while the dark green and the bright blue
are forests and forested wetlands, respectively.
As you can see by this image,
in the past four decades, low-density urban environments
have taken over large areas from forests
and forested wetlands.
In my study, I aim to use Landsat satellite data
to study the land cover change of the Mobile bay area,
which is considered one of the most important
estuary environments in the United States.
To develop a general understanding of this area,
I will use nine satellite images
from 1975 to 2015
to produce nine different land views and land cover changes.
By comparing these classifications,
I can build a general profile
of the land cover change for this area.
The results of my study can be used by federal,
state, and local officials
to be integrated into mitigation plans
to help reduce the degradation
for this environmentally sensitive area.
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