Vegetation Information for the Shenandoah National Park Vegetation Inventory Project
Young J, Fleming G, Townsend P, Foster J. 2006. Vegetation Information for the Shenandoah National Park Vegetation Inventory Project. Shenandoah National Park, VA
This report documents the results of a four year research project to assess and map vegetation communities of Shenandoah National Park. The project was a collaborative effort between Shenandoah National Park, the US Geological Survey-Leetown Science Center, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation-Division of Natural Heritage, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science-Appalachian Laboratory, and Nature Serve. While set up as a research project rather than strictly a mapping effort, the result of the project is a new map of vegetation distribution in Shenandoah National Park based on U.S. National Vegetation Classification System standards. Additional products include a classification scheme of vegetation communities in the Park based on field sampling of 311 vegetation plots, maps of land forms, ecological land units,and environmental gradients, and an assessment of the relationship between vegetation community distribution and environmental gradients. Additionally we tested the capability of mapping vegetation communities using hyper spectral remote sensing, environmental gradient maps, and statistical modeling. We classified 34 vegetation communities at the association level of the National Vegetation Classification System within Shenandoah National Park. Three community types were newly classified and described. We mapped vegetation communities to the association level using AVIRIS spring 2000 and summer 2001 imagery, and we filled in missing areas with Landsat TM imagery. We validated the results using internal cross validation and through an accuracy assessment conducted at 224 field plots in the summer of 2004, and at 68 field plots in 2005. Results of accuracy assessment range from 88% overall accuracy from internal validation to 67% overall accuracy from field validation. As a whole, statistical analysis indicated that bedrock parent material, soil fertility,elevation, and topographic position are the most important, interrelated environmental factors influencing major vegetation patterns in Shenandoah National Park. In addition, vegetation communities occurred across a number of environmental types as categorized into ecological land unit types.The results of this project demonstrate innovative application of the latest techniques in vegetation mapping using hyper spectral imaging and landscape modeling. Mapping results are generally consistent with previous mapping efforts (by area) and show that the USNVC can be reliably mapped with techniques other than manual interpretation of aerial photography. In fact, by exploiting the fine spectral specificity of hyper spectral imaging and the spatial heterogeneity of environmental gradient models, much more information can potentially be extracted on growing environments than can be visually interpreted. The fact that association-level classes can be mapped using these techniques is an important finding.
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- Young, John; Fleming, Gary; Townsend, Phil; Foster, Jane
- Date of Issue
- 2006
- Units
- SHEN , VMI
- Keywords
- Accuracy Assessment, Aerial Photography, alliances, Associations, community association, Digital Orthophoto, Digital Spatial Database, DOQ, DOQQ, Field Data, flight line, GIS, GPS, habitat mapping, Inventory Projects, Landcover, Landscape, National Park, National Park Service Inventory, National Vegetation Classification Standard, National Vegetation Classification System, NVCS, Orthophoto, Plots, U.S. National Vegetation Classification, USNVC, USNVCS, Vegetation Inventory, Vegetation Inventory Report, Vegetation Map Report, Vegetation Mapping, Vegetation Plots