Assessing eastern redcedar encroachment and environmental factors in Oklahoma by remote sensing and GIS

The study area in this project covers 16 contiguous counties, most of which are located in central and western Oklahoma. The maps and the shapefiles of eastern redcedar are from remote sensing imagery. I use ArcGIS and ERDAS to analyze the shapfiles and the imagery of the redcedar, land cover and the elevation. To examine the relationships between eastern redcedar and environmental factors and the land use, I build three regression models in SPSS. This research evaluates the relationships between eastern redcedar and environmental factors as well as the land use. The analysis of this research suggests that the herbaceous land cover and the variations in topography are important factors associated with eastern redcedar encroachment in Oklahoma. The type of herbaceous cover is the most easily encroached by eastern redcedar. The deciduous forest is another type that is also easily encroached by the cedars. The climate conditions (including average temperature and precipitation), open water, and the land use (cultivated crops) are not affected by eastern redcedar.