Salt River Bay National Historical Park & Ecological Preserve, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vegetation Mapping Project, 2009

Moser, Jonathan; Whelan, Kevin; Shamblin, Robert; Atkinson, Andrea; Patterson, Judd

The National Park Service Vegetation Mapping Inventory Program (NPS-VMP) funded the NPS South Florida / Caribbean Network (SFCN) to map the terrestrial portions of Salt River Bay National Historical Park & Ecological Preserve in 2007. The mapping project was completed in 2009. SFCN established a cooperative agreement with Florida International University for the Resource Management Intern Program with one of the deliverables being development of a vegetation map of Salt River Bay National Historical Park & Ecological Preserve. The Salt River vegetation map was made in UTM, NAD 83, zone 20N coordinates with a minimum mapping unit of 400 m2. Photo-interpretation was based on aerial imagery of a single U.S. Army Corps of Engineers natural color GeoTIFF orthophoto acquired as part of a larger collection in 2006-2007. SFCN field tests indicate that the horizontal accuracy (RMSE) of the aerial image to be 3.5 m. The final vegetation map has a total of 58 mapping classes and 247 polygons. A vegetation classification was generated as part of the project which included 32 proposed new Alliances, and two new Associations. A total of 482 terrestrial acres (195 hectares) were mapped in this project including some areas outside of the park boundaries as boundaries were not well established at the time of this project. Four hundred and nine acres (166 hectares) were mapped within the park and include 100% of the terrestrial acreage within the park boundaries. The vegetation classification system was created based on vegetation physiognomic class, Caribbean Formations from Areces-Mallea et al. (1999), U.S. Virgin Islands Sub-formations from Gibney et al. (2000), and Alliances/Associations defined by the SFCN based on data from vegetation plots and field notes. All proposed new classifications are intended for use within Salt River Bay National Historical Park & Ecological Preserve and are not meant to represent the greater geographic region of Saint Croix or the Virgin Islands. Also included are photos of map classes, a list of vegetation species observed in the field during this project, and field data sheets. Eighty percent of the polygons either had vegetation data collection or were directly visited and confirmed; consequently SFCN concluded the map meets the NPS-VMP requirement of 80% accuracy with 90% confidence. The final product meets the FGDC (Federal Geographic Data Committee) metadata standard.

Salt River Bay National Historical Park & Ecological Preserve, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vegetation Mapping Project, 2009

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