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Completed Research

New York State Gap Analysis Project

The mission of GAP is to prevent conservation crises by providing detailed assessments of biotic elements (plant communities and native animal species) and to facilitate the application of this information to land management activities. This is accomplished through the following five objectives:

• Map actual land cover as closely as possible to the alliance level (FGDC 1997);
• Map the predicted distributions of those terrestrial vertebrates and selected other taxa that spend any important part of their life history in the project area and for which adequate spatially referenced information about habitats, associations, and important habitat variables is available;
• Document the representation of vegetation communities and animal species in areas managed for the long-term maintenance of biodiversity;
• Make all GAP information available to the public and those charged with land-use research, policy, planning, and management;
• Develop institutional cooperation in the application of this information to state and regional management activities.

To meet these objectives, it is necessary that GAP be operated at the state or regional level, yet maintain consistency with national standards. Within the state, participation by a wide variety of cooperators is necessary and desirable to ensure understanding and acceptance of the data and forge relationships that will lead to cooperative conservation planning. In NYS, our lead cooperating state agency has been the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, along with the New York Natural Heritage Program. To find out more about the NYS-GAP Analysis project visit the NY-GAP web page or the National GAP Analysis web page.

Resulting publications:
Laba, M., S. K. Gregory, J. L. Braden, D. E. Ogurcak, E. A. Hill, E. H. Fegraus, J. J. Fiore, S. D. DeGloria. 2002. Conventional and fuzzy accuracy assessment of the New York GAP land cover map, Remote Sensing of the Environment. 81(2-3): 443-455.

DeGloria, S. D., M. Laba, S. K. Gregory. 2001. Mapping the state of New York from Landsat TM, GIM International. 15(2): 76-79.

Smith, C. R., S. D. DeGloria. M. E. Richmond, S. K. Gregory, M. Laba, S. D. Smith, J. L. Braden, E. H. Fegraus, E. A Hill, D. E. Ogurcak, and J.T. Weber. 2001. The New York GAP Analysis Project Final Report. New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 134 p., append.

DeGloria, S. D., M. Laba, S. K. Gregory, J. L. Braden, D. E. Ogurcak, E. A. Hill, E. H. Fergaus, J. J. Fiore, A. Stalter, J. Beecher, R. Elliot, and J. T. Weber. 2000. Conventional and fuzzy accuracy assessment of land cover maps at regional scale. P. 153-160. In G.B.M. Heuvlink and M.J.P.M. Lemmons (ed.), Proceedings 4th International Symposium on Spatial Accuracy Assessment in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. Delft University Press, Delft, The Netherlands.