[Talk-us-massachusetts] MassGIS landcover dataset sample

[Greg Troxel]

I downloaded the landcover dataset (8.4G unpacked), and was able to load
it in qgis and load the .lyr ESRI style file using the SLYR (open source
version) style converter.

The attached pdf is the north part of the Fells around I-93.
Colors are per MassGIS, but I think
  - mid and dark green are deciduous/evergreen
  - light green is "developed open space",
  - the dots is I think "palustrine forested wetland" (which is anywhere
    from slightly wet to actual wetland e.g. with cinnamon fern)
  - there are various swampy codes I haven't figured out
  - blue is water
  - orange/red/purple are flavors of impervious (which get a landuse
    code instead - basically this is landcover, but if the cover is
    "impervious" the code is by use from parcels)
  - not this image, but I also see "cultivated" and "pasture/hay" out west

It also has landcover labels, but they are hard to figure out because
there are so many polygons many of which are small.

What I take away from this is that even there, the trees don't stop at
the border, even if they are broken up by roads.  This also fits with
Bill's observation that NE is "green from space".

Looking at places where landuse polygons are mistagged with landcover
well outside 128 (e.g. Hudson), and flipping this layer on, it goes from
looking like only the conservation land has trees to having zero clue
that there is a boundary.   This is consistent with aerials where you
can see "this area has houses" but you can't tell
conservation/hiking-area status.

I have attached a jpg which is reasonably small even if it doesn't look
that great, as the point is just to see the flavor of the dataset.

This is all just FYI; I have no specific plans to do anything other than
try to use the data to make maps in qgis and explore it, perhaps making
a garmin img file with osm data and landcover, perhaps an osmand
landcover overlay file.   I have dimly thought of making a map using the
OSM toolchain but with 100% massgis data, basically converting layers as
if importing (not actually uploading anything!) to osm format and then
running it through various renders.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: fells-north-landcover.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 319764 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-us-massachusetts/attachments/20220723/f357df8f/attachment-0001.jpeg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 194 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-us-massachusetts/attachments/20220723/f357df8f/attachment-0001.sig>