02070nas a2200193   4500008004100000245010900041210006900150260004300219490001400262520137700276653001601653653004701669653001401716653003201730653002201762653002301784100001701807856005201824       2016                        eng d00aCharacterizing woody encroachment in the konza prairie using object-based analysis of aerial photographs0 aCharacterizing woody encroachment in the konza prairie using obj  aLawrence, KansasbUniversity of Kansas0 vMS Thesis3 a<p>Woody encroachment is a threat to the ecological integrity of tallgrass prairie in Kansas.&nbsp; Encroachment data that covers a large spatial and temporal scale would be valuable to managers of tallgrass prairie, but no such dataset exists.&nbsp; The objective of this research is to develop a replicable technique for creating woody vegetation maps from aerial photographs.&nbsp; Rather than using a traditional pixel-by-pixel approach to classification, this project uses an object-based approach, wherein individual pixels are grouped into meaningful image objects according to user-defined parameters and then classified.&nbsp; I created woody vegetation maps of eight watersheds in the Konza Prairie using imagery from 1978, 1991, 2003, 2006, and 2010.&nbsp; I also determined the efficacy of LIDAR data in classifying the image from 2006.&nbsp; Ground-based vegetation survey data exist for two of the watersheds included in the remote sensing portion of this study.&nbsp; I analyzed the data from the available years nearest to the imagery dates (1983, 1992, 2003, and 2007) in order to provide a measure of validation for the woody vegetation maps.&nbsp; The results of this research were used to determine the applicability of this mapping technique and to draw preliminary conclusions about the landscape-level factors associated with woody encroachment.</p>10aFlint Hills10aGeographic information science and geodesy10aGeography10aObject-based image analysis10atallgrass prairie10awoody encroachment1 aShanko, A.R.  uhttps://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/24182