Gopher: Global observation of Planetary Health and Ecosystem Resources

GOPHER (Global Observation of Planetary Health and Ecosystem Resources) is a collection of data mining algorithms for detecting global land use and land cover change that builds on a decade of research on spatio temporal data mining at the University of Minnesota; the GOPHER approach to analyzing remote sensing imagery provides such a solution by providing rapid, inexpensive, robust, scalable, and precise detection of land use change. GOPHER algorithms are able to detect historical changes with high precision, and more recent changes with reasonable precision in as little as 8 weeks after changes occur (this is due to a combination of remote sensing data availability and modeling needs). This paper outlines the GOPHER approach and provides some illustrative results to demonstrate its utility.