Coastal Services Center

Land Cover Data for Hurricane Katrina Impacted Areas

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Katrina was an extraordinarily powerful and deadly hurricane that caused catastrophic damage over a wide region and inflicted large loss of life. It was the costliest—and one of the five deadliest—hurricanes to ever strike the U.S. Hurricane Katrina first caused fatalities and damage in southern Florida as a Category 1 hurricane. After reaching Category 5 intensity over the central Gulf of Mexico , Katrina weakened to Category 3 before making landfall on the northern Gulf coast. Even so, the damage and loss of life in Louisiana and Mississippi were staggering, with significant effects extending into the Florida panhandle, Georgia , and Alabama . The scope of Katrina’s impacts make it one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history.

In response to Hurricane Katrina, the NOAA Coastal Services Center created land cover and change data for the areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico region according to Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) standards. This C-CAP land cover data product complements the Gulf of Mexico C-CAP land cover products for 1996, 2001, and 2005.

Note: Only areas heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina were mapped for the 2006 post–Hurricane Katrina C-CAP data set; therefore, the total area mapped is smaller than that covered in the Gulf of Mexico C-CAP land cover products. On that note, for ease of comparison, the 2005 C-CAP land cover for the Gulf of Mexico region was reduced in size to create the pre-Katrina 2005 C-CAP land cover data set to match the same area represented by the 2006 post-Hurricane Katrina C-CAP data. Because all the C-CAP data sets (1996, 2001, 2005, and 2006) were created using the same criteria and standards, they can be compared against one another to document changes over multiple years, including the immense land cover changes caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Project Data (areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina)

Period

All states: 2005-2006

Description

Land cover and land cover change data were produced for the areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico region using 30-meter-resolution Landsat Thematic Mapper and Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper satellite imagery. Three image formats are available for download. The .img and .tif files are full-resolution images suitable for analysis in a geographic information system. The .png file (similar to a .jpeg file) represents a land cover graphic that is suitable for use in slide presentations and documents.

Download Data

Pre-Katrina 2005 Land Cover Data	.img (~34 megabytes)	.tif (~34 megabytes)	.png (1.5 megabytes)
Post-Katrina 2006 Land Cover Data	.img (~34 megabytes)	.tif (~34 megabytes)	.png (1.5 megabytes)
Katrina Land Cover Change Data 2005-2006	.img (~40 megabytes)

Other Available Regional Data

• Gulf of Mexico C-CAP land cover products
• Coastal Louisiana Land Cover Change Project Data

Complete information about the data processing procedures can be found in the metadata file that accompanies the downloaded data.

The post-Katrina data were produced by MDA Federal.

Go to the Regional Data Page