Land Cover Map of the ANWR North Slope

ABR Inc.—Environmental Research and Services (ABR) produced a land cover map of the North Slope of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge using a classification of satellite imagery that was refined by new field data collected in July-August 2019 and other relevant GIS and tabular data. In addition, we prepared a final map accuracy assessment using a subset of the 2019 field data that was withheld from the land cover map development phase. The map provides land cover and vegetation information useful for making resource management decisions, including the identification of habitat types and their distribution and abundance. The classification and mapping products conform to U.S. National Vegetation Classification and Alaska Geospatial Council Vegetation Technical Working Group standards, and the land cover classes were developed so that they dovetail with classes used on other maps produced recently for the North Slope and Brooks Range regions.