Elizabeth, There is an entire world of vegetation mapping out there. One place that might help you get started is the National Park Service, which has mapped nearly all NPS properties throughout the US. If I recall correctly, they typically follow this procedure:
- using aerial imagery, produce a preliminary vegetation map - collected detailed field plot data to assist with the mapping and classification of types - produce a final vegetation map using info gained from plot data collection - complete an accuracy assessment of the map by collecting data at points randomly placed within specific mapped polygons. This link should get you to some very detailed instructions on each of those steps: http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/inventory/veg/index.cfm Cheers, Tim Howard NY Natural Heritage Program >>> Elizabeth Mitchell <[email protected]> 6/23/2010 7:13 PM >>> Hello Everyone, I am writing to find out if anyone has any experience with vegetation assemblage mapping. This is a side project I am working on for my summer employment in graduate school. Our current ideas are to use aerial photographs to distinguish specific patches of salt marsh vegetation (in a sense creating topographical lines that dictate vegetation coverage), and then to go and ground truth our maps and adjust with GPS polygons/waypoints. As well as ideas/suggestions from experience, I am looking for literature that may cover this topic (sort of an odd topic for the databases). Thank you all for your help. Enjoy your field seasons! Cheers, Elizabeth Mitchell M.S. Student in Biology University of Southern Maine [email protected]
