Hi Jacob,

One way to determine the landcover change is analyzing satelite images over time. You can do the same with aerial photos. If raster images are available for your site over time that would be good data source. Both these techniques need skill on GIS or photometry. Hope this helps you.

Vaskar is correct. This is probably one of the most common applications of remote sensing data. I have a lesson that introduces the concept to students but it is fairly useless unless you have access to the ERDAS software package.

I recommend looking over the NASA Land Cover/Land Use Change Program website. There are links to people involved in the research and to sources of funding.

http://lcluc.umd.edu/