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David Goodwin
Department of Natural Resources Conservation
University of Massachusetts
301 Holdsworth Natural Resources Center
Box 34210
Amherst, MA 01003
Fax: (413) 545-4358
Phone: (413) 545-3589
Email: dgoodwin@nrc.umass.edu

David Goodwin is the project manager of the Resource Mapping - Land Information Systems Lab in the Department of Natural Resources Conservation at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The Resource Mapping Lab has been in existence since the 1950's when Forestry Professor William P. MacConnell set out to map land cover for the entire state of Massachusetts in order to identify wildlife habitat using aerial photography. This was eventually expanded to include the mapping of all land uses for the state and has been modified for use in present day projects. The Lab continues to use aerial photography and other remotely sensed images to update land use - land cover maps in Massachusetts and Rhode Island as well as other geographic areas. In Massachusetts, the Lab has produced statewide land use - land cover data for the time periods 1951/52, 1971/72, 1984/85, and are currently working on a 1999 update.

In addition to land use mapping, the Lab has been involved with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) since 1986 and has been able to develop an extensive computer network to support our research activities. The Lab has a number of networked UNIX workstations and PC's, peripheral equipment (e.g., digitizer boards, plotters, scanners, and tape drives), and several Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. The Lab uses ESRI GIS software.

The Lab's expertise is in the creation of digital data for use within a GIS for spatial analysis and modeling. These data can be extracted from remotely sensed sources (such as aerial photography, satellite images or aerial videography), or converted from existing analog sources (such as parcel maps, floodplain maps, or vegetation maps), or from original field collected data (such as GPS data to locate streetside trees, vegetation boundaries, trails, or stone walls).

The Lab's research work is completely grant funded. Most of the grants involve some sort of natural resource mapping application. A summary of funded research follows with the funding agency listed:

  • 1999 Land Use - Land Cover Mapping for 351 towns in Massachusetts (Executive Office of Environmental Affairs)

  • Soil Map Conversion - Farmington River Watershed - Berkshire County, Massachusetts (Berkshire County Regional Planning Commission)

  • Geographic Information System Analysis of Biodiversity in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, Romania (The World Bank)

  • 1992 Land Use - Land Cover Mapping for 124 Digital Orthophotoquads (Metropolitan District Commission, Division of Watershed Management)

  • Gap Analysis Project - New England (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

  • Floodplain mapping - coastal Massachusetts (Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, Coastal Zone Management)

  • Urban Forest Inventory - Massachusetts (U.S. Forest Service and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management)

  • Parcel mapping - Wareham, Massachusetts (Board of Assessors, Wareham, Massachusetts)

  • Forest stand mapping - Vermont (U.S. Forest Service, Green Mountain National Forest)

  • Wetland mapping - Massachusetts (Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Wetlands Conservancy Program)

  • Digital database development - Southampton, Massachusetts (U.S. Forest Service and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management)

  • 1985 to 1991 land use change analysis - Massachusetts (Executive Office of Transportation and Construction, Massachusetts Highway Commission, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority)

  • 1988 land use, floodplain, and water and sewer line mapping - Rhode Island (Rhode Island Department of Administration, Division of Planning)

  • 1971 to 1985 land use change analysis (Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, Regional Planning Commissions)

  • Forest Stress mapping - Massachusetts (Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Management)

  • Prime Timberland mapping - Massachusetts (Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management)

  • 1971 land use mapping - Rhode Island (USDA Soil Conservation Service and Economic Research Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, USDI Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Rhode Island Statewide Planning Program, Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station)

  • 1971/72 land use mapping - Massachusetts (USDA Forest Service and Soil Conservation Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station, Water Resources Commission, Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Department of Public Works, Fund for the Preservation of Wildlife and Rural Areas, Blanchard Foundation, Franklin County Department of Planning)

  • 1951/52 land use mapping - Massachusetts (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Game and Department of Natural Resources, and the Wildlife Management Institute)