Developed and vacant land (Jersey City) derived from TIGER and LANDSAT TM: Map

Comparison map (Jersey City) of developed and vacant land derived from TIGER and LANDSAT TM; the determination of the amounts of developed land can vary when LANDSAT TM data and the TIGER data are combined, and/or when different housing unit density thresholds are used.Although the LANDSAT TM data and the TIGER data are highly independent of each other, each type of data can be used, either alone or in combination, to map and compute areas of vacant and developed land. The determination of the amounts of developed land can vary when different data types are combined, and/or when different housing unit density thresholds are used. The increase in the estimated amount of developed land, when different housing unit densities are used in combination with the satellite data, is shown for the four municipalities in this map (gaspric3.gif) and gaspric1.gif, gaspric2.gif and gaspric4.gif. As a lower housing unit density threshold is used in conjunction with the LANDSAT TM data, the estimated amount of developed land within a municipality increases. Both Jersey City (gaspric3.gif) and Upper Pittsgrove (gaspric4.gif) show little change in the amount of developed land as a percentage of total land. The primary land cover in Jersey City, which is heavily urbanized, consists of the impervious surfaces of high density housing, roads, and commercial areas. Heavily urbanized areas lack the mixture of land cover types found in municipalities such as Essex Fells and Piscataway, and thus are detectable by both the LANDSAT TM data and the TIGER data. Hence, the TIGER data does not significantly alter the amount of developed land