Comparison of Land Cover Classifications Between Ground Observations and Remote Sensing Data in San Diego, CA

This study explored the local land cover trends of an area of interest in San Diego, California, with the goal of evaluating consistency between ground observations, manual land cover classifications, and land cover maps from remote sensing sources. Ground observations were taken using the GLOBE Observer application. Remote sensing sources were accessed through Earth Map, and included the World Cover, Dynamic World, ESRI, and Meta/WRI Global Canopy Height maps of land cover and tree canopy based on satellite imagery. Land cover change over time for the complete area of interest was explored through image chips of Fractional Impervious Surface from the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium Annual National Land Cover Database and Google Earth Engine Landsat Timeseries Explorer. Additionally, manual land cover classifications were made with the Collect Earth Online Platform.