Vegetation mapping at Canaveral National Seashore: Photointerpretation key and final vegetation map

Cotten, David; Adams, Brandon; O'Hare, Nancy; Bernardes, Sergio; Jordan, Thomas; Madden, Marguerite

The University of Georgia Department of Geography’s Center for Geospatial Research (CGR), with the support of the National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Mapping Inventory (VMI) Program, described and mapped vegetation at Canaveral National Seashore (CANA). This mapping effort was accomplished through collaboration with the NPS Southeast Coast Network (SECN), the North Carolina office of NatureServe (Durham, N.C.), and Amec-Foster-Wheeler Environmental & Infrastructure, Inc. The area included in Canaveral National Seashore has been used by humans for over 4,000 years (Parker 2008). The seashore’s existence and preservation today can be attributed to the United States aerospace program because it originated out of lands acquired by the Federal government to support the facilities designated for the nation’s aerospace program. The lands surrounding the aerospace facilities at Cape Canaveral were acquired to provide safety and security to both the public and the government facilities. Currently the seashore covers an area roughly 58,807 acres (23,799 hectares [ha]) in size. Through the use of NatureServe vegetation plots, aerial photos, and data collected in the field, vegetation communities were delineated and assigned attributes. Using dominant vegetation classes and secondary vegetation classes as well as modifiers to describe the diversity of species, detailed vegetation maps were created for Canaveral National Seashore, both inside the seashore and within a 500-meter (1,640-foot [ft]) buffer. The buffer polygons and attributes were created on a broader scale using a system based on the Anderson Level II classification scheme, which includes anthropogenic and land use/land cover (LULC) classes. Within the seashore, the more detailed community element global (CEGL) codes were used. A final vegetation map for Canaveral NS was created to represent the vegetation occurring within the park during 2012. This product represents the final of four steps necessary to produce an accurate vegetation map based upon aerial photographs. This includes the determination of the community element global (CEGL) codes (2008) and acquisition of aerial imagery (2012), using the aerial imagery, with five ground truthing points (2014), to create a draft vegetation map, performing an accuracy assessment (2016), and then using all the available information to create a final vegetation map. Because of the extensive coverage of the park and the wide range of vegetation classes from saltwater marshes to upland forests to freshwater wetlands including fire managed areas, using the National Vegetation Classification System (NVCS) to the association level was challenging. Determining community element global (CEGL) codes was particularly difficult because NVCS was designed for ground based classification. Some classes were indistinguishable from each other when using aerial photos and other areas contained classes that changed from the time NatureServe did their vegetation surveys to the time aerial images were acquired and some locations had changed classes again by the time we were able to perform our ground surveys. Because of these difficulties some classes were grouped together that were indistinguishable from aerial photos. Through the use of NatureServe vegetation plots, aerial photos, and data collected in the field, vegetation communities were delineated and assigned attributes. Using dominant vegetation classes and modifiers to describe the diversity of species, detailed vegetation maps were created for Canaveral NS, both inside the seashore and within a 500-meter (1,640-ft) buffer. The buffer polygons and attributes were created on a broader scale using a system based on.....

Vegetation mapping at Canaveral National Seashore: Photointerpretation key and final vegetation map

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