Western Big Cypress National Preserve Vegetation Map

Prats, Michelle; Whelan, Kevin; Atkinson, Andrea

doi:10.36967/nrr-2278240

This vegetation mapping project is a collaborative effort between Avineon, Inc., the South Florida/Caribbean Network (SFCN) of the National Park Service, and the Institute for Regional Conservation (IRC). Avineon, Inc. contracted the image acquisition and photo interpreted the imagery. The IRC collected the accuracy assessment field data. The South Florida/Caribbean Network provided direction, training, point field data, intra-product quality assurance, final accuracy assessment of completed draft map, and final map production. The original project area encompasses a total mapping area of 124,607 hectares (ha; 307,910 acres [ac]) and includes all of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, the western portion of Big Cypress National Preserve, and the extreme northwestern portion of Everglades National Park on the southeastern shore of the Gulf of Mexico. This report concentrates on the western region of Big Cypress National Preserve. This region is known for its high plant and animal diversity and is home to several threatened and endangered species such as the Florida Panther, the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker, and the Ghost Orchid. Map annotation of the 88,735 hectares (219,269 ac) that comprise the western region of Big Cypress National Preserve was comprised of 354,940, one quarter-hectare (.62-acre) grid cells. The grid cells adhered to a majority rule; the vegetation community which occupied the majority of the grid cell was the classification given to the whole grid cell. The vegetation classification of each grid cell was accomplished by superimposing a digital quarter hectare, 50 × 50-meter (164 × 164-feet [ft]) grid cell matrix over film-based color-infrared aerial photography on an analytical stereoplotter and then determining the dominant community present. For each grid cell the dominant community type observed was annotated in ArcGIS© (ESRI ArcGIS program) using the six-level hierarchical Vegetation Classification System for South Florida Natural Areas (Rutchey et al. 2006). Polygons (grids) were classified to the highest feasible level of resolution. There were 169 unique classes used in the production of this map and the map was made in UTM, NAD 83, Zone 17N coordinates. The most frequent classes being freshwater prairies, cypress strands, and cypress-hardwood forest. An accuracy assessment of the draft map was conducted by the South Florida/Caribbean Network. We projected 615 accuracy assessment (AA) points on to the Avineon, Inc. draft vegetation map of the western Big Cypress Regional Vegetation map. The overall map accuracy was 85% (521 points of the 615 points) with a standard error of 1.5% with a 90% lower confidence interval of 82% and meets the National Park Services map accuracy requirement. The draft Big Cypress National Preserve vegetation map was updated to include corrections to polygons based on findings from the 615 accuracy assessment locations. Additionally, the map was updated to show the dominant species within the hydrological designation (level 2) vegetation class at a more detailed level of vegetation classification. The final product for this project is this updated map and the map is referred to as the western Big Cypress National Preserve vegetation map. The western Big Cypress National Preserve vegetation map provides a spatial inventory of the plant communities within the preserve’s western region with a level of accuracy suitable for planning, implementing, and quantifying management decisions and restoration efforts for the next several decades.

Western Big Cypress National Preserve Vegetation Map

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