Forest CoverType Data Type multivariate Abstract The forest cover type for 30 x 30 meter cells obtained from US Forest Service (USFS) Region 2 Resource Information System (RIS) data. Sources Original Owner Remote Sensing and GIS Program Department of Forest Sciences College of Natural Resources Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523 (contact Jock A. Blackard, jblackard/wo_ftcol@fs.fed.us or Dr. Denis J. Dean, denis@cnr.colostate.edu) Donor Jock A. Blackard USDA Forest Service 3825 E. Mulberry Fort Collins, CO 80524 USA jblackard/wo_ftcol@fs.fed.us Dr. Denis J. Dean Associate Professor Department of Forest Sciences Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523 USA denis@cnr.colostate.edu Dr. Charles W. Anderson Associate Professor Department of Computer Science Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523 USA anderson@cs.colostate.edu Date Donated: August 28, 1998 Data Characteristics The actual forest cover type for a given observation (30 x 30 meter cell) was determined from US Forest Service (USFS) Region 2 Resource Information System (RIS) data. Independent variables were derived from data originally obtained from US Geological Survey (USGS) and USFS data. Data is in raw form (not scaled) and contains binary (0 or 1) columns of data for qualitative independent variables (wilderness areas and soil types). Summary Statistics Number of instances (observations) 581012 Number of Attributes 54 Attribute breakdown 12 measures, but 54 columns of data (10 quantitative variables, 4 binary wilderness areas and 40 binary soil type variables) Missing Attribute Values None Variable Information Given is the variable name, variable type, the measurement unit and a brief description. The forest cover type is the classification problem. The order of this listing corresponds to the order of numerals along the rows of the database. Name Data Type Measurement Description Elevation quantitative meters Elevation in meters Aspect quantitative azimuth Aspect in degrees azimuth Slope quantitative degrees Slope in degrees Horizontal_Distance_To_Hydrology quantitative meters Horz Dist to nearest surface water features Vertical_Distance_To_Hydrology quantitative meters Vert Dist to nearest surface water features Horizontal_Distance_To_Roadways quantitative meters Horz Dist to nearest roadway Hillshade_9am quantitative 0 to 255 index Hillshade index at 9am, summer solstice Hillshade_Noon quantitative 0 to 255 index Hillshade index at noon, summer soltice Hillshade_3pm quantitative 0 to 255 index Hillshade index at 3pm, summer solstice Horizontal_Distance_To_Fire_Points quantitative meters Horz Dist to nearest wildfire ignition points Wilderness_Area (4 binary columns) qualitative 0 (absence) or 1 (presence) Wilderness area designation Soil_Type (40 binary columns) qualitative 0 (absence) or 1 (presence) Soil Type designation Cover_Type (7 types) integer 1 to 7 Forest Cover Type designation Code Designations Wilderness Areas: 1 -- Rawah Wilderness Area 2 -- Neota Wilderness Area 3 -- Comanche Peak Wilderness Area 4 -- Cache la Poudre Wilderness Area Soil Types: 1 to 40 : based on the USFS Ecological Landtype Units for this study area. Forest Cover Types: 1 -- Spruce/Fir 2 -- Lodgepole Pine 3 -- Ponderosa Pine 4 -- Cottonwood/Willow 5 -- Aspen 6 -- Douglas-fir 7 -- Krummholz Class Distribution Number of records of Spruce-Fir: 211840 Number of records of Lodgepole Pine: 283301 Number of records of Ponderosa Pine: 35754 Number of records of Cottonwood/Willow: 2747 Number of records of Aspen: 9493 Number of records of Douglas-fir: 17367 Number of records of Krummholz: 20510 Number of records of other: 0 Total records: 581012 Past Usage Blackard, Jock A. 1998. "Comparison of Neural Networks and Discriminant Analysis in Predicting Forest Cover Types." Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Forest Sciences. Colorado State University. Fort Collins, Colorado. Acknowledgements, Copyright Information, and Availability NOTE: Reuse of this database is unlimited with retention of copyright notice for Jock A. Blackard and Colorado State University. Results: Blackard, Jock A. 1998. "Comparison of Neural Networks and Discriminant Analysis in Predicting Forest Cover Types." Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Forest Sciences. Colorado State University. Fort Collins, Colorado. Classification performance with first 11,340 records used for training data, next 3,780 records used for validation data, and last 565,892 records used for testing data subset: -- 70% backpropagation -- 58% Linear Discriminant Analysis