Pattern-based assessment of 2001/2006 land cover change over the entire United States

Remote sensing provides repetitive coverage of the terrestrial landmass with imagery data of relatively high resolution and consistent quality. Availability of such data coupled with advances in image processing algorithms makes possible auto-detection of changes in Earth´s surface features. Land cover change is the most popular form of surface change analysis. Numerous techniques of land cover change have been developed [1], most of them pertaining to tracking the change at the level of the individual raster cell. Such techniques are useful for assessment of changes over spatially focused study area where cell-to-cell changes provide relevant information, but are less useful for large-scale (continental or global scale) assessment where cell-level details are not pertinent.