Vegetation Classification and Mapping at Richmond National Battlefield Park, Virginia

Patterson, Karen; Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation

Final report from the RICH vegetation inventory project. Accurate and up-to-date vegetation maps are recognized by the National Park Service (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring Program as one of twelve basic data sets for every national park with significant natural resources. The National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have put forth standards and protocols for classification and mapping of vegetation communities on NPS lands. The USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program recognizes the United States National Vegetation Classification (USNVC) as the standard vegetation classification to be used in these mapping projects.Vegetation data collected from seven national parks in Virginia were combined with over 2,000 existing plot samples from throughout the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont and Coastal Plain and used to refine the USNVC for the mid-Atlantic region. This classification was used to map and describe the vegetation at the seven national parks in Virginia.This report documents the classification and mapping of vegetation at Richmond National Battlefield Park. Twenty-one map classes representing 13 USNVC associations, five nonstandard, park-specific vegetation classes, and three Anderson Level II land-use categories were used to map the 570 ha (1407 ac) park. Vegetation map classes were determined through extensive field reconnaissance, data collection, and analysis. Aerial photography from 2001 served as the base map, and field sampling was conducted from 2002–2006. Spatial data were digitized onscreen over digital orthophoto mosaics created from scanned color infrared, stereo pair 1:6,000 scale aerial photography using a 0.5 hectare minimum mapping unit.Early successional or transitional vegetation covers 32% of the land in the park (180 ha; 444 ac). Cultural map classes cover 25% (144 ha; 355 ac) of the park and include the Anderson land-use categories and other man-made or maintained areas in the park. Seven map classes representing later successional vegetation cover 43% of the land in the park (243 ha; 600 ac). The seven map classes can be broadly characterized based on different environmental settings as upland forests (3 map classes) and forested wetlands (4 map classes).A vegetation map of Richmond National Battlefield Park was created following the USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program protocols. Vegetation map classes were crosswalked to the natural communities of Virginia and to the USNVC in order to provide a regional and global context for the park’s vegetation. Seventy-one randomly selected accuracy assessment sampling points were collected throughout the park and used to assess the thematic accuracy of the map. The Kappa Index for the final vegetation map was 84.4 ± 10.2%, with an overall accuracy of 85.9%.A field key to the map classes, and detailed descriptions for map classes, or associations within a map class, were developed to assist with field recognition and classification. Additional products associated with this project include leaf-on and leaf-off orthophoto mosaics, a database of vegetation plot data and accuracy assessment data, digital photos of vegetation associations, and spatial data files for the vegetation map, plot sample points, and accuracy assessment sample points with associated Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)-compliant metadata.

Vegetation Classification and Mapping at Richmond National Battlefield Park, Virginia

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