Peer Reviewed Articles
155 The Everglades: A Perspective on the Requirements and
Applications for Vegetation Map and Database Products
Robert F. Doren, Ken Rutchey, and Roy Welch
Abstract
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A collaborative effort by the National Park Service South
Florida Natural Resources Center at Everglades National
Park, the Center for Remote Sensing and Mapping Science at
The University of Georgia, and the South Florida Water Management
District has resulted in a seamless and complete GIS
vegetation database of the southern Everglades using colorinfrared
(CIR) aerial photographs and a single vegetation
classification system. This database contains spatial data for
the vegetation communities within approximately 1.2 million
hectares (ha) of South Florida's wetlands. The area covered
includes Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve,
Biscayne National Park, the Florida Panther National
Wildlife Refuge, and the south Florida Wafer Management
District Water Conservation Area 3. This detailed delineation
of vegetation in the preserved lands of south Florida allows
for the first time a quantitative analysis of Everglades vegetation
data at the plant community level. In addition to this
spatial database, several subset study areas have been identified
in areas of special environmental interest for interpretation
of large-scale aerial photographs and the development
of high-resolution vegetation data sets. Together,these Everglades
vegetation mapping efforts provide a baseline for establishing
trends and monitoring changes related to the
restoration and preservation of the Everglades.
163 Mapping the Everglades
Roy Welch, Marguerite Madden, and Robert F. Doren
Abstract
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The Center for Remote Sensing and Mapping Science at The
University of Georgia and the South Florida Natural Resources
Center, Everglades National Park, have developed a
detailed vegetation database in geographic information system
(GIS) format and 1:15,000-scale vegetation maps keyed to
80 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 7.5-minute topographic
quadrangles covering Everglades National Park, Big Cypress
National Preserve, Biscayne National Park, and the Florida
Panther National Wildlife Refuge in south Florida, an area of
over 10,000 km².National Aerie1 Photography Program
(NAPP) color-infrared (CIR) aerial photographs recorded in
1994/95 were the primary source material, supplemented by
extensive GPS-assisted data collections from helicopter reconnaissance
missions and field work. The ground control necessary
to rectify the vegetation polygons and linear features
extracted from the CIR photographs was obtained from geocoded
SPOT panchromatic images of 10-m resolution and
from USGS 1:24,000-scale topographic line maps. A detailed
three-tiered, hierarchical vegetation classification system, the
Everglades Vegetation Classification System, was developed
specifically for the project In addition to the vegetation database,
a digital database and map products were constructed
for off-road vehicle (ORV) trails in Big Cypress National Preserve.
The length of trails in the 2,950-km² Preserve totaled
over 47,900 km. The databases and maps, constructed
through a combination of remote sensing, GIS, GPS, and field
studies, provide Park and Preserve managers with detailed
baseline information on the status of vegetation and ORV
trials in 1995. It is anticipated that, with increased concern
over environmental preservation, water demand and expansion
of urban development, agricultural land utilization, and
ORV use, the databases will prove valuable far a range of
management and modeling tasks.
171 Photointerpretation Key for the Everglades Vegetation
Classification System.
Marguerite Madden, David Jones, and Les Vilchek
Abstract
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The University of Georgia's Center for Remote Sensing and
Mapping Science, the National Park Service's South Florida
Natural Resources Center at Everglades National Park, and
the South Florida Water Management District have cooperated
in the development of a new Everglades Vegetation
Classification System and associated photointerpretation key
for mapping south Florida vegetation. The hierarchical classification
system was required for a detailed geographic information
system (GIS) vegetation database and 1:15,000-scale
maps produced by the above agencies for over 12,000 km² of
preserved federal and state lands. Vegetation for this extensive
area was mapped from color-infrared (CIR) aerial photographs using ground truth information collected by helicopter
and airboat to verify the identification of plant communities.
A total of 89 classes are included in the Everglades Vegetation
Classification System and can be used in combination
with 13 additional numeric modifiers indicating factors affecting
vegetation growth such as hurricane damage, abandoned
agriculture, intensive off-rood vehicle (ORV) use, and
altered drainage. A digital photointerpretation key was developed
that documents photo signatures of the vegetation classes.
This key includes (1) scanned sections of aerial photographs
that are representative of major plant communities;
(2) associated ground and helicopter oblique photographs illustrating
vegetation conditions in the Field; and (3) text descriptions
of photo signatures such as color, tone, texture,
pattern, relative height, shape, and context. The key is used
to train new phatointerpreters, as well as to provide users of
the vegetation data base with further information on photo
details and field characteristics associated with Everglades
vegetation classes.
179 Mapping Exotic Vegetation in the Everglades from Large-Scale
Aerial Photographs
Cheryl M. McCormick
Abstract
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A detailed vegetation study was conducted at a site in the
East Everglades to map the distribution of Melaleuca quinquenervia,
an aggressive exotic species targeted for eradication.
This high-resolution mapping effort involved the use of
1:7,000-scale color-infrared (CIR) aerial photographs and
integrated geographic information system (GIS) and Global
Positioning System (GIS) technologies to create a digital database
of native and exotic vegetation within a 1.5- by 11-km
study area. Hardcopy maps were produced at 1:5,000 scale
depicting plant species distributions and information on
Melaleuca height and density classes interpreted from she CIR
air photos. An accuracy assessment conducted using a helicopter
yielded an overall map accuracy of 94 percent. It is
anticipated that these products will allow Park managers to
assess the effectiveness of exotic vegetation management
practices and help to insure the preservation of native plant
communities in this section of the Everglades.
185 Air Photointerpretation and Satellite Imagery Analysis
Techniques for Mapping Cattail Coverage in a Northern Everglades
Impoundment
Ken Rutchey and Les Vilchek
Abstract
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Color-infrared aerial photography taken in 1991 and 1995,
and SPOT satellite imagery taken in 1991, were utilized to
create cattail coverage maps for Water Conservation Area 2A
(WCA2A),an impounded portion of the remnant Everglades.
Cattail stands were delineated and classified using conventional
air photointerpretation and digital image processing
techniques, respectively. Four interacting confounding factors
(i.e., water depth/color, impacts from fire, periphyton species
composition, and growth morphology within a single species)
are implicated as possible elements that complicated vegetation
classification. Photointerpretation techniques showed an
increasing trend in cattail encroachment from 421.6 hectares
of monotypic cattail in 1991 to 1646.3 hectares in 1995. A
1991 SPOT classified image appears to have overestimated
cattail coverage due to the interacting confounding mechanisms.
Overall accuracies for 1995 air photointerpreted map
and 1991 SPOT classified image were 95.2 and 83.4 percent,
respectively.
193 Integrated Multimedia Approach to the Utilization of an
Everglades Vegetation Database
Shunfu Hu
Abstract
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An approach for integrating multimedia data with a geographic
information system (GIS) database was developed for
an area corresponding to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Long Pine Key and Pa-Hay-Okee Lookout Tower 1:24,000-
scale topographic quadrangles in Everglades National Park.
The multimedia database contains descriptive text. ground
photographs, digital video clips, and audio segments highlighting
lighting the characteristics of Everglades plant communities,
individual species, and invasive exotics, as well as plant-animal
interactions, hurricane damage, and post-fire vegetation
succession. It is linked to a GIS database that includes detailed
vegetation maps, SPOT panchromatic imagery, and
scanned National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP)
1:4O,OOO-scale color-infrared (CIR) aerial photographs. The integrated
multimedia approach was implemented in two
steps: (1) an interactive multimedia system designed to
manipulate multimedia information such as hypertext, hyperlinks,
scanned photographs, digital video, and sound was
developed in a Microsoft Visual Basic programming environment;
and (2) a GIS application program to manipulate spatial
data was constructed using VisuaI Basic and Environmental
Systems Research Institute (ESRI) MapObjects software.
The interactive multimedia approach provides a unique way
to represent geographic features and associated information
on interrelationships between flora ,fauna ,and human activities
in Everglades National Park.
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