Field data for the Vegetation Mapping Inventory Project of Ozark National Scenic Riverways

This reference is an assemblage of field data collected as part the baseline vegetation inventory for the park unit. Typical files here are vegetation plot data, accuracy assessment data, field photos, PDF showing locations of vegetation plots and accuracy assessment data, and other data for this type. Vegetation communities were mapped at two levels in Ozark National Scenic Riverways (ONSR) using a hybrid combination of statistical methods and photointerpretation. The primary map includes 49 cover classes, including 24 classes that relate to vegetation associations currently described by the United States National Vegetation Classification Standard (USNVC; The Nature Conservancy, 1994a). The remaining types include cultural features, ruderal communities on abandoned agricultural lands, and non-vegetated classes. To develop a USNVC association-level vegetation community map to the required accuracy standards, it was necessary to predict landscape scale vegetation community patterns based on the combined influence of landform-mediated resource gradients as well as the influence of past and present land use patterns and anthropogenic disturbance regimes. This challenge was met by acquiring numerous remote sensing, topographic and field-collected vegetation datasets from which we derived a large set of variables to train a statistical classification. We supplemented this method with photointerpretation and digitization from current and historical aerial photographic sources. We used a hybrid approach to produce the final vegetation community map; we combined a unique data mining statistical approach with a photointerpretative mapping approach using a spatial overlay. The logic behind the overlay order was based on the manner in which anthropogenic land cover modification is superimposed over relatively natural vegetation communities.