Introduction
Habitat Monitoring Overview
Project Goals
-Determine locations of land cover change
-Detect land cover changes resulting from disturbances
-Identify spatial variations in habitat quality
-Detect changes in habitat quality
-Design prototype monitoring system

Habitat and Land Cover Change Detection Results
The radiometric, geometric, and change detection processing procedures enable efficient and effective detection of land cover changes within southern California habitat reserves. Land cover changes range in size from just a few square meters to many hectares. Detected features generally include localized changes in soil and vegetation condition and exposure, as well as natural variations in vegetation phenology.
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Recomendations
Research and development should continue along several fronts. The first is continued development of techniques for detection temporal changes and spatial differences in those variables that are key to determining habitat quality.
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This website describes remote sensing research conducted by the Department of Geography at San Diego State University in support of San Diego's Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP). The MSCP was developed by the City and County of San Diego in support of the Natural Community Conservation Plan (NCCP) for five southern California counties. The NCCP is a novel and prototypical habitat management effort. Wildlife agencies, landholders, city governments, developers, and environmentalists designed the habitat reserve system with designated developable

lands. San Diego's MSCP complies with all NCCP criteria and is designed to preserve natural habitat for threatened and endangered plants and animals in the county while still allowing for future urban development. The objective of this research was to develop and implement remote sensing technologies which enabled complete coverage and repetitive observations of habitat conditions within San Diego's MSCP reserve areas. The information on this website is intended to help local governments and private landholders to establish management policies to better manage habitat reserves.

This project was funded by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Food and Fiber Applications of Remote Sensing (FFARS). Additional partners in this effort include; the City of San Diego, the County of San Diego, Conservation Biology Institute, California Department of Fish and Game, Ed Almanza & Associates, and Mission Trails Regional Park Rangers.

Disturbance from a) mechanical clearing and b) Biking-Motocross (BMX) within Mission Trails Regional Park.