Vegetation mapping at Fort Sumter National Monument
McManamay R, Curtis AC, Corbett SL. 2012. Vegetation mapping at Fort Sumter National Monument. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/SECN/NRDS—2012/320. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
The Southeast Coast Network worked with the support of the National Park Service Vegetation Mapping Inventory Program to describe and map vegetation at Fort Sumter National Monument (FOSU). This mapping effort was accomplished through collaboration with the Southeast regional office of NatureServe (Raleigh/Durham, NC). The mapping area is 137.6 hectares (~340 ac), encompassing the entire boundary of FOSU and an additional area of adjacent private lands. NatureServe ecologists identified plant associations for FOSU. Due to a relatively small sample size at FOSU, cluster analysis techniques that have been traditionally used in other vegetation mapping projects to generate vegetation classifications were not used for FOSU. The Vegetation Classification combined the vegetation at Fort Sumter National Monument with that at Fort Pulaski National Monument (FOPU) based on similar vegetation communities occurring at these two parks. A remote sensing specialist from the Southeast Coast Network completed the vegetation mapping using 1:12,000-scale, color infrared aerial photography and digital orthophotography. NatureServe collected vegetation and environmental data from three vegetation classification plots, and the remote sensing specialist assessed 25 observation points. Assessment of map accuracy entailed sampling 20 additional points. Fieldwork and mapping were completed between 2006 and 2011. A total of 14 map classes were developed to map the vegetation and general land cover of FOSU and environs, including the following: five map classes representing natural/semi-natural vegetation at the association level in the National Vegetation Classification System (NVCS), one map class representing cultural vegetation (e.g., developed) in the NVCS, and eight map classes representing non-vegetated units (e.g., open water bodies, buildings, roads, etc.). Features were interpreted using 1:12,000 scale digital color-infrared aerial photography dated 31 May 2009 through heads-up-digitizing in ArcGIS (Version 9.3, © 2008 Environmental Systems Research Institute, Redlands, California). Polygons were mapped to a 0.5-ha minimum mapping unit.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- McManamay, Rachel; Curtis, Anthony; Corbett, Sarah
- Date of Issue
- 2012-05
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- FOSU , NRSS
- Keywords
- Accuracy Assessment, Digital Orthophotos, Fort Sumter National Monument, Land Cover, Map, Mapping, National Vegetation Classification System, PLOTS database, Remote Sensing, Southeast Coast Network, Vegetation, Vegetation Mapping