TITLE: HABITAT AND LANDCOVER

Geodataset Name:       GFCHAB_03
Geodataset Type:       GRID
Geodataset Feature:    POLYGON

This dataset contains plant community and landcover data for the state of Florida.

DATA SOURCE(S):                    Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
SCALE OF ORIGINAL SOURCE MAPS:     N/A
DATE OF AUTOMATION OF SOURCE:      March 2004
GEODATASET EXTENT:                 State of Florida

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES:

Datafile Name: GFCHAB_03.VAT

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES CODES AND VALUES:

Item	Item Description
ObjectID	Internal feature number.
Value	Internal feature number of GRID. Corresponds with Class attribute definitions 1 = Coastal Strand 2 = Sand/Beach 3 = Xeric Oak Scrub 4 = Sand Pine Scrub 5 = Sandhill 6 = Dry Prairies 7 = Mixed Hardwood-Pine Forests 8 = Hardwood Hammocks and Forests 9 = Pinelands 10 = Cabbage Palm-Live Oak Hammock 11 = Tropical Hardwood Hammock 12 = Freshwater Marsh and Wet Prairie 13 = Sawgrass Marsh 14 = Cattail Marsh 15 = Shrub Swamp 16 = Bay Swamp 17 = Cypress Swamp 18 = Cypress/Pine/Cabbage Palm 19 = Mixed Wetland Forest 20 = Hardwood Swamp 21 = Hydric Hammock 22 = Bottomland Hardwood Forest 23 = Salt Marsh 24 = Mangrove Swamp 25 = Scrub Mangrove 26 = Tidal Flats 27 = Open Water 28 = Shrub and Brushland 29 = Grassland 30 = Bare soil/Clearcut 31 = Improved Pasture 32 = Unimproved/Woodland Pasture 33 = Sugarcane 34 = Citrus 35 = Row/Field Crops 36 = Other Agriculture 37 = Exotic Plants 38 = Australian Pine 39 = Melaleuca 40 = Brazilian Pepper 41 = High Impact Urban 42 = Low Impact Urban 43 = Extractive
Count	Number of GRID cells of a VALUE
Class	Habitat class of individual grid. Coastal Strand = Coastal strand occurs on well-drained sandy soils and typically includes the zoned vegetation of the upper beach, nearby dunes, or on coastal rock formations. This community generally occurs in a long, narrow band parallel to the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico, and along the shores of some saline bays or sounds in both north and south Florida. This community occupies areas formed along high-energy shorelines, and is strongly affected by wind, waves, and salt spray. Vegetation within this community typically consists of low growing vines, grasses, and herbaceous plants with very few small trees or large shrubs. Pioneer or early successional herbaceous vegetation characterizes the foredune and upper beach, while a gradual change to woody plant species occurs in more protected areas landward. Typical plant species include beach morning glory, railroad vine, sea oats, saw palmetto, Spanish bayonet, yaupon holly, wax myrtle, along with sea grape, cocoplum, and other tropicals in southern Florida. The coastal strand community only includes the zone of early successional vegetation that lies between the upper beach, and more highly developed communities landward. Adjacent or contiguous community types such as xeric oak scrubs, pinelands, or hardwood forests would therefore be classified and mapped accordingly. Beach/Sand = This land cover class consists of barren land with little or no vegetation. Coastal areas that are constantly affected by wave and tidal action and areas of dune sands and other areas of bare sands along the coast, are included in this class. Xeric Oak Scrub = Xeric oak scrub is a xeric hardwood community typically consisting of clumped patches of low growing oaks interspersed with bare areas of white sand. This community occurs on areas of deep, well-washed, sterile sands, and it is the same understory complex of scrubby oaks and other ground cover species that occurs in the sand pine scrub community. This condition frequently occurs when the short time periods between severe fires results in the complete removal of sand pine as an overstory species. Also included in this category are sites within the Ocala National Forest which have been clear-cut, and are sometimes dominated during the first one to five years by the xeric oak scrub association. The xeric oak scrub community is dominated by myrtle oak, Chapman's oak, sand-live oak, scrub holly, scrub plum, scrub hickory, rosemary, and saw palmetto. Fire is important in setting back plant succession and maintaining viable oak scrubs. Sand Pine Scrub = Sand pine scrub occurs on extremely well drained, sorted, sterile sands deposited along former shorelines and islands of ancient seas. This xeric plant community is dominated by an overstory of sand pine and has an understory of myrtle oak, Chapman's oak, sand-live oak, and scrub holly. Ground cover is usually sparse to absent, especially in mature stands, and rosemary and lichens occur in some open areas. Sites within the Ocala National Forest that have an overstory of direct seeded sand pine, and an intact understory of characteristic xeric scrub oaks, are also included in this category. Fire is an important ecological management tool, and commonly results in even-aged stands within regenerated sites. The distribution of this community type is almost entirely restricted to within the state of Florida. Sandhill = Sandhill communities occur in areas of rolling terrain on deep, well-drained, white to yellow, sterile sands. This xeric community is dominated by an overstory of scattered longleaf pine, along with an understory of turkey oak and bluejack oak. The park-like ground cover consists of various grasses and herbs, including wiregrass, partridge pea, beggars tick, milk pea, queen's delight, and others. Fire is an important factor in controlling hardwood competition and other aspects of sandhill ecology. Although many of these sites throughout the state have been modified through the selective or severe cutting of longleaf pine, these areas are still included in the sandhill category Dry Prairies = Dry prairies are large native grass and shrublands occurring on very flat terrain interspersed with scattered cypress domes and strands, bayheads, isolated freshwater marshes, and hardwood hammocks. This community is characterized by many species of grasses, sedges, herbs, and shrubs, including saw palmetto, fetterbush, staggerbush, tar flower, gallberry, blueberry, wiregrass, carpet grasses, and various bluestems. The largest areas of these treeless plains historically occurred just north of Lake Okeechobee, and they were subject to annual or frequent fires. Many of these areas have been converted to improved pasture. In central and south Florida, palmetto prairies, which consist of former pine flatwoods where the overstory trees have been thinned or removed, are also included in this category. These sites contain highly scattered pines that cover less than 10 to 15 percent of an area. Mixed Hardwood-Pine Forests = This community is the southern extension of the Piedmont southern mixed hardwoods, and occurs mainly on the clay soils on the northern Pandhandle. Younger stands may be predominantly pines, while a complex of various hardwoods become co-dominants as the system matures over time through plant succession. The overstory consists of shortleaf and loblolly pine, American beech, mockernut hickory, southern red oak, water oak, American holly, and dogwood. Also included in this category are other upland forests that occur statewide and contain a mixture of conifers and hardwoods as the co-dominant overstory component. These communities contain longleaf pine, slash pine, and loblolly pine in mixed association with live oak, laurel oak, and water oak, together with other hardwood species characteristic of the upland hardwood hammocks and forests class. Hardwood Hammocks and Forests = This class includes the major upland hardwood associations that occur statewide on fairly rich sandy soils. Variations in species composition, and the local or spatial distributions of these communities are due in part to differences in soil moisture regimes, soil type, and geographic location within the state. Mesic and xeric variations are included within this association. The mesic hammock community represents the climax vegetation type within many areas of northern and central Florida. Characteristic species in the extreme north include American beech, southern magnolia, Shumard oak, white oak, mockernut hickory, pignut hickory, sourgum, basswood, white ash, mulberry, and spruce pine. Mesic hammocks of the peninsula are less diverse due to the absence of hardwood species that are adapted to more northerly climates, and are characterized by laurel oak, hop hornbeam, blue beech, sweetgum, cabbage palm, American holly, and southern magnolia. Xeric hammocks occur on deep, well-drained, sandy soils where fire has been absent for long periods of time. These open, dry hammocks contain live oak, sand-live oak, bluejack oak, blackjack oak, southern red oak, sand-post oak, and pignut hickory. Pinelands = The pinelands category includes north and south Florida pine flatwoods, south Florida Pine rocklands, and commercial pine plantations. Pine flatwoods occur on flat sandy terrain where the overstory is characterized by longleaf pine, slash pine, or pond pine. Generally, flatwoods dominated by longleaf pine occur on well-drained sites, while pond pine is found in poorly drained areas, and slash pine occupies intermediate or moderately moist areas. The understory and ground cover within these three communities are somewhat similar and include several common species such as saw palmetto, gallberry, wax myrtle, and a wide variety of grasses and herbs. Generally wiregrass and runner oak dominate longleaf pine sites, fetterbush and bay trees are found in pond pine areas, while saw palmetto, gallberry, and rusty lyonia occupy slash pine flatwoods sites. Cypress domes, bayheads, titi swamps, and freshwater marshes are commonly interspersed in isolated depressions throughout this community type, and fire is a major disturbance factor. An additional pine flatwoods forest type occurs in extreme south Florida on rocklands where the overstory is the south Florida variety of slash pine, and tropical hardwood species occur in the understory. Scrubby flatwoods is another pineland type that occurs on drier ridges, and on or near old coastal dunes. Longleaf pine or slash pine dominates the overstory, while the ground cover is similar to the xeric oak scrub community. Commercial pine plantations are also reluctantly included in the pinelands association. This class includes sites predominately planted to slash pine, although longleaf pine and loblolly pine tracts also occur. Sand pine plantations, which have been planted on severely site-prepared sandhill sites in the north Florida pandhandle, are also included in this category. An acceptable accurate separation of areas of densely stocked native flatwoods and older planted pine stands with a closed canopy was not consistently possible. Cabbage Palm-Live Oak Hammock = This plant community is characterized by cabbage palms and live oaks occurring in small clumps within prairie communities. These hammocks typically have an open understory which may include such species as wax myrtle, water oak, and saw palmetto. Cabbage palm-live oak hammocks are often found bordering large lakes and rivers, and are distributed throughout the prairie region of south central Florida and extend northward in the St. John's River basin. Cabbage palms often form a fringe around hardwood “islands” located within improved pastures. Tropical Hardwood Hammock = These upland hardwood forests occur in extreme south Florida and are characterized by tree and shrub species on the northern edge of a range that extends southward into the Caribbean. These communities are sparsely distributed along coastal uplands south of a line from about Vero Beach on the Atlantic coast to Sarasota on the Gulf coast. They occur on many tree islands in the Everglades and on uplands throughout the Florida Keys. This cold-intolerant tropical community has very high plant species diversity, sometimes containing over 35 species of trees and about 65 species of shrubs. Characteristic tropical plants include strangler fig, gumbo-limbo, mastic, bustic, lancewood, ironwoods, poisonwood, pigeon plum, Jamaica dogwood, and Bahama lysiloma. Live oak and cabbage palm are also sometimes found within this community. Tropical hammocks in the Florida Keys may also contain several plants, including lignum vitae, mahogany, thatch palms, and manchineel, which are extremely rare within the United States. Freshwater Marsh and Wet Prairie = These wetland communities are dominated by a wide assortment of herbaceous plant species growing on sand, clay, marl, and organic soils in areas of variable water depths and inundation regimes. Generally, freshwater marshes occur in deeper, more strongly inundated situations and are characterized by tall emergents and floating-leaved species. Freshwater marshes occur within flatwoods depressions, along broad, shallow lake and river shorelines, and scattered in open areas within hardwood and cypress swamps. Also, other portions of freshwater lakes, rivers, and canals that are dominated by floating-leaved plants such as lotus, spatterdock, duck weed, and water hyancinths are included in this category. Wet prairies commonly occur in shallow, periodically inundated areas and are usually dominated by aquatic grasses, sedges, and their associates. Wet prairies occur as scattered, shallow depressions within dry prairie areas and on marl prairie areas in south Florida. Also included in this category are areas in Southwest Florida with scattered dwarf cypress having less than 20 percent canopy coverage, and a dense ground cover of freshwater marsh plants. Various combinations of pickerel weed, sawgrass, maidencane, arrowhead, fire flag, cattail, spike rush, bulrush, white water lily, water shield, and various sedges dominate freshwater marshes and wet prairies. Many marsh or wet prairie types, such as sawgrass marsh or maidencane prairie, have been described and so-named based on their dominant plant species. Sawgrass Marsh = Freshwater marshes dominated by sawgrass. Cattail Marsh = Freshwater marsh areas dominated by cattails. Shrub Swamp = Shrub swamps are wetland communities dominated by dense, low-growing, woody shrubs or small trees. Shrub swamps are usually characteristic of wetland areas that are experiencing environmental change, and are early to mid-successional in species complement and structure. These changes are a result of natural or man-induced perturbations due to increased or decreased hydroperiod, fire, clear cutting or land clearing, and siltation. Shrub swamps statewide may be dominated by one species, such as willow, or an array of opportunistic plants may form a dense, low canopy. Common species include willow, wax myrtle, primrose willow, buttonbush, and saplings of red maple, sweetbay, black gum, and other hydric tree species indicative of wooded wetlands. In northern Florida, some shrub swamps are a fire-maintained subclimax of bay swamps. These dense shrubby areas are dominated by black titi, swamp cyrilla, fetterbush, sweet pepperbush, doghobble, large gallberry, and myrtle-leaf holly. Bay Swamp = These hardwood swamps contain broadleaf evergreen trees that occur in shallow, stagnant drainages or depressions often found within pine flatwoods, or at the base of sandy ridges where seepage maintains constantly wet soils. The soils, which are usually covered by an abundant layer of leaf litter, are mostly acidic peat or muck that remains saturated for long periods but over which little water level fluctuation occurs. Overstory trees within bayheads are dominated by sweetbay, swamp bay, and loblolly bay. Depending on the location within the state, other species including pond pine, slash pine, blackgum, cypress, and Atlantic white cedar can occur as scattered individuals, but bay trees dominate the canopy and characterize the community. Understory and gound cover species may include dahoon holly, wax myrtle, fetterbush, greenbriar, royal fern, cinnamon fern, and sphagnum moss. Cypress Swamp = These regularly inundated wetlands form a forested border along large rivers, creeks, and lakes, or occur in depressions as circular domes or linear strands. These communities are strongly dominated by either bald cypress or pond cypress, with very low numbers of scattered black gum, red maple, and sweetbay. Understory and ground cover are usually sparse due to frequent flooding but sometimes include such species as buttonbush, lizard's-tail, and various ferns. Cypress/Pine/Cabbage Palm = This community includes cypress, pine and/or cabbage palm in combinations in which none of the species achieves dominance. This assemblage forms a transition between moist upland and hydric sites. Mixed Wetland Forest = This category includes mixed wetland forest communities in which neither hardwoods nor conifers achieve dominance. The mix can include hardwoods with pine or cypress and can represent a mixed hydric site or a transition between hardwoods and conifers on hydric/mesic sites. Hardwood Swamp = These wooded wetland communities are composed of either pure stands of hardwoods, or occur as a mixture of hardwoods and cypress where hardwoods achieve dominance. This association of wetland-adapted trees occurs throughout the state on organic soils and forms the forested floodplains of non-alluvial rivers, creeks, and broad lake basins. Tree species include a mixed overstory containing black gum, water tupelo, bald cypress, dahoon holly, red maple, swamp ash, cabbage palm, and sweetbay. Hydric Hammock = Hydric hammocks occur on soils that are poorly drained or have high water tables. This association is a still-water wetland, flooded less frequently and for shorter periods of time than mixed hardwood and cypress swamps. Outcrops of limestone are common in the gulf coastal area. Typical plant species include laurel oak, live oak, cabbage palm, southern red cedar, and sweetgum. Canopy closure is typically 75-90%. The sub-canopy layer and ground layer vegetation is highly variable between sites. Wax myrtle is the most frequent shrub in hydric hammock. Other shrubs include yaupon, dahoon, and swamp dogwood. Ground cover may be absent or consist of a dense growth of ferns, sedges, grasses, and greenbriars. Sites are usually between mesic hammocks or pine flatwoods and river swamp, wet prairie, or marsh. This hammock type is found in a narrow band along parts of the Gulf coast and along the St. Johns river where they often extend to the edge of coastal salt marshes. Bottomland Hardwood Forest = These wetland forests are composed of a diverse assortment of hydric hardwoods which occur on the rich alluvial soils of silt and clay deposited along several Pandhandle rivers including the Apalachicola, Choctawhatchee, and Escambia. These communities are characterized by an overstory that includes water hickory, overcup oak, swamp chestnut oak, river birch, American sycamore, red maple, Florida elm, bald cypress, blue beech, and swamp ash. Salt Marsh = These herbaceous and shrubby wetland communities occur statewide in brackish waters along protected low energy estuarine shorelines of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The largest continuous areas of salt marsh occur north of the range of mangroves, and border tidal creeks, bays and sounds. Salt marshes are sometimes interspersed within mangrove areas, and also occur as a transition zone between freshwater marshes and mangrove forests such as in the Ten Thousand Islands area along the southwest Florida coast. Plant distribution within salt marshes is largely dependent on the degree of tidal inundation, and many large areas are completely dominated by one species. Generally, smooth cordgrass typically occupies the lowest elevations immediately adjacent to tidal creeks and pools, while black needlerush dominates less frequently inundated zones. The highest elevations form transitional areas characterized by glasswort, saltwort, saltgrass, sea oxeye daisy, marsh elder, and saltbush. For the purposes of this project, cordgrass, needlerush, and transitional or high salt marshes are collectively mapped as this single category. Mangrove Swamp = These dense, brackish water swamps occur along low-energy shorelines and in protected, tidally influenced bays of southern Florida. This community is composed of freeze-intolerant tree species that are distributed south of a line from Cedar Key on the Gulf coast to St. Augustine on the Atlantic coast. These swamp communities are usually dominated by red, black, and white mangroves that progress in a sere from seaward to landward areas, respectively, while buttonwood trees occur in areas above high tide. Openings and transitional areas in mangrove swamps sometimes contain glasswort, saltwort, and other salt marsh species. All three major species of mangroves are mapped as a single class with no effort made to differentiate these species into separate zones. Scrub Mangrove = Areas sparsely vegetated with small, stunted mangroves (Keys only). Tidal Flats = Areas composed of that portion of the shore environment protected from wave action and primarily composed of muds transported by tidal channels. Open Water = This class is comprised of the open water areas of inland freshwater lakes, ponds, rivers and creeks, and the brackish and saline waters of estuaries, bays, tidal creeks, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean. Shrub and Brushland = This association includes a variety of situations where natural upland community types have been recently disturbed through clear-cutting commercial pinelands, land clearing, or fire, and are recovering through natural successional processes. This type could be characterized as an early condition of old-field succession, and various shrubs, tree saplings, and lesser amounts of grasses and herbs dominate the community. Common species include wax myrtle, saltbush, sumac, elderberry, saw palmetto, blackberry, gallberry, fetterbush, staggerbush, broomsedge, dog fennel, together with oak, pine and other tree seedlings or saplings. Grassland = These are upland communities where the predominant vegetative cover is very low growing grasses and forbs. This very early successional category includes all sites with herbaceous vegetation during the time period between bare ground, and the shrub and brush stage. It also includes areas that may be maintained in this stage through periodic mowing, such as along dikes or levees. Bare soil/Clearcut = Areas of bare soil representing recent timber cutting operations, areas devoid of vegetation as a consequence of recent fires, natural areas of exposed bare soil (e.g., sandy areas within xeric communities), or bare soil exposed due to vegetation removal for unknown reasons. Improved Pasture = Land that has been cleared, tilled, reseeded with specific grass types, and periodically improved with brush control and fertilizer application. Unimproved/Woodland Pasture = Cleared land with major stands of trees and brush where native grasses have been allowed to develop. Normally, unimproved pastures are not managed with brush control or fertilizer application. Sugarcane = Agricultural lands planted to sugar cane Citrus = Agricultural lands planted to groves of citrus (e.g., oranges, grapefruit,lemons) Row/Field Crops = Row crops are agricultural fields in which rows remain well defined even after crops have been harvested. Typical row crops in Florida include corn, tomatoes, potatoes, cotton, and beans. Field crops are agricultural croplands not planted in rows. Typical field crops in Florida include hay and grasses. Other Agriculture = Agricultural lands other than pasture land, sugar cane fields, citrus groves, and croplands. Types of agricultural lands included in this category are peach orchards, pecan and avocado groves, nurseries and vineyards, specialty farms, aquaculture, fallow cropland, and unidentified agricultural uses. Exotic Plants = Upland and wetland areas dominated by non-native trees that were planted or have escaped and invaded native plant communities. These exotics include melaleuca, Australian pine, Brazilian pepper, and eucalyptus. This class includes sites known to be vegetated by non-native but for which the actual species composition could not be determined. Australian Pine = Sites known to be dominated by Australian pine through field inspection. Melaleuca = Sites known to be dominated by melaleuca through field inspection Brazilian Pepper = Sites known to be dominated by Brazilian pepper through field inspection. High Impact Urban = Unvegetated areas such as roads, residential and commercial buildings, parking lots, etc. Low Impact Urban = Disturbed areas within urbanized areas that may or may not be vegetated. Examples of land uses included in this category are lawns, golf courses, road shoulders, grassy areas surrounding places such as airports, park facilities, etc. Many secondary roads, such as forest roads, are included in this category. Extractive = These areas encompass surface and subsurface mining operations. Areas included are sand, gravel and clay pits, phosphate mines, and limestone quarries. Industrial complexes were the extracted material is refined, packaged or further processed may also be included in this category
Red	No description
Green	No description
Blue	No description

USER NOTES:

GeoPlan relied on the integrity of the attribute information within the original data.

This data set is an update of the old FGDL layer GFCHAB. In 1990, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) completed a project to map Florida vegetation and land cover using 1985-89 Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite imagery. The resulting digital database contained 17 natural and semi-natural land cover types, 4 land cover types indicative of human disturbance, and 1 water class. Over the last decade, this digital database has been put to many uses. For example, staff of many state and local programs who make decisions concerning the Florida environment often have used the FWC vegetation and land cover data as indicative of current conditions on the ground. In addition, FWC staff used the vegetation data to create potential habitat models for over 130 rare and imperiled species of wildlife. In turn, the potential habitat models of rare and imperiled wildlife formed the basic information set used to identify strategic habitats for biodiversity conservation in Florida (Cox et al. 1994, Kautz and Cox 2001). The results of the FWC strategic habitat modeling project have been widely used in Florida to help guide land acquisition, land use planning, development regulation, and land management programs. However, over time, the 1985-89 vegetation and land cover data set became increasingly out of date. Since completion of the earlier data set, Florida?s resident and tourist populations have continued to grow, converting both natural and disturbed areas of the Florida landscape to human uses. By 2003 (the year of the imagery used in this project), the earlier data set (comprised mostly of 1986-87 imagery) was about 16-17 years old, and could no longer be considered current. Not only was the earlier vegetation and land cover data set becoming out of date, but so were the wildlife and strategic habitat models that were based on that data. In order to keep our vegetation, land cover, and wildlife habitat models current, FWC staff realized the need to develop a new, updated vegetation and land cover map for Florida.

A note concerning data scale: Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale datasetsare not suitable for some project, analysis, or modelling purposes. Please be sure you are using the best available data. 1:24000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the county level. 1:24000 data should NOT be used for high accuracy base mapping such as property parcel boundaries. 1:100000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the multi-county or regional level. 1:250000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the regional or state level or larger. Vector datasets with no defined scale or accuracy should be considered suspect. Make sure you are familiar with your data before using it for projects or analyses. Every effort has been made to supply the user with data documentation. For additional information, see the References sectionand the Data Source Contact section of this documentation. For more information regarding scale and accuracy, see our web pages at: http://www.geoplan.ufl.edu/education.html

REFERENCES:

http://myfwc.com/

DATA LINEAGE SUMMARY:

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) ratio bands were created for each scene. The NDVI provided a measure of vegetation density that was used to aid in class discrimination. Image classification proceeded according to the following general steps: 1. Unsupervised classifications were performed on each entire Landsat scene. Initial classifications were performed on all six 30 m pixel spectral bands. The number of resultant spectral classes was typically set to 75-100. 2. The 75-100 spectral classes resulting from Step 1 were reviewed individually. Each spectral class was visually checked against the Landsat imagery as well as the ancillary data. If any of the spectral classes consistently identified a specific target land cover type (e.g., mangrove swamp, pine forest, coastal strand), those spectral classes were labeled according to the vegetation or land cover type they represented, and those classes were considered final and were excluded from further analyses. 3. All unlabeled pixels remaining after Step 2 were then subjected to additional unsupervised classifications. Differing band combinations (i.e., subsets) often were used to group similar areas to a distinct cover type. Resultant spectral classes varied from a few to over 50. At this point the process became iterative, and these steps were repeated until all pixels fell into a specific land cover type or into a larger, temporary grouping (e.g., disturbed). Additionally, areas with unique features or areas resulting in classification "confusion" would be clipped from the scene. Unsupervised classification would then be performed only on the clipped areas. 4. The data sets resulting from Step 3 that consistently represented a specific natural land cover type were assigned the appropriate label, were added to the final data set, and were excluded from further analyses. 5. Agricultural and urban land use classes from the 1995 digital data set of statewide land use/land cover were then used as an overlay. Spectral classes that had been identified as disturbed and that fell within the agricultural or urban land use class overlay were isolated. Unsupervised classification was performed on these areas to spectrally isolate agricultural areas from urban areas. 6. By comparing the spectral classes resulting from Step 5 with the ancillary data sets (i.e., 1995 land use/land cover, 1999 DOQQs), disturbed spectral classes were categorized into six agricultural land use classes (i.e., improved pasture, unimproved pasture, sugar cane, citrus, row and field crops, other agriculture), two urban classes (i.e., high density urban, low density urban), and extractive (i.e., mining). All pixels in these classes were added to the final data set and were excluded from further analyses. Visual interpretation of the spectral classes and the Landsat imagery was often required in areas where there was new urban growth and where agricultural lands were in a bare soil state, creating a false urban signature. Very often it was necessary to isolate these areas individually and assign the appropriate label. Areas that classified as disturbed but were not within the agricultural and urban lands overlay were checked visually against the Landsat imagery and other ancillary data layers. Often these disturbed areas were new areas of agriculture or urban lands, or they represented recent land clearings due to silvicultural practices or other unknown causes. 7. Once an entire scene had been analyzed in the above manner, the biologist then examined specific geographic areas of similar physiographic features (e.g., coastal wetlands, xeric ridges), and, if necessary, performed additional unsupervised classifications on any remaining classes of pixels that could not be separated based on spectral information developed at the level of the entire Landsat scene. Any classes that consistently represented a specific land cover type were assigned the appropriate land cover label, added to the final data set, and excluded from further analyses. 8. Any remaining areas that did not have a specific land cover label were visually reviewed in relationship to the Landsat imagery, land use/land cover data, and DOQQs. If possible, unlabeled groups of pixels were assigned to appropriate land cover types by hand, and were added to the final data set and excluded from further analyses. 9. Once all pixels within a Landsat scene had been classified, labeled, and added to the final data set comprising the updated vegetation and land cover map, specific areas of the map were visited in the field for ground-truthing. Any mistakes discovered in the ground-truthing process were then corrected to create a final draft vegetation map covering the entire Landsat scene. 10. The final draft vegetation and land cover map for each scene was then reviewed by the project manager. The project manager compared each draft map against ancillary data sets and identified specific problem areas that either needed checking for accuracy or correction. Project manager recommendations were then returned to staff to make corrections needed to produce a final vegetation and land cover data set for each Landsat scene. 11. Early in the project, a number of the Landsat scenes purchased from EROS Data Center were from 2000-2002, and final drafts of vegetation and land cover for these scenes were based on these earlier dates. However, as luck would have it, 2003 was a good year for cloud-free satellite imagery in Florida. Thus, not only were the later scenes in the project mapped using only 2003 imagery, but also new 2003 Landsat ETM+ imagery was purchased for the entire state, and the new imagery was used to update disturbed areas of all earlier scenes to 2003 according to the following procedure. a. Unsupervised classifications were conducted for an entire 2003 scene. b. Spectral classes representing sparsely vegetated areas (e.g., disturbed areas) were isolated. c. Disturbed areas from the 2003 imagery that were classified as natural vegetation in the earlier imagery (2000-2002) were isolated and further examined. d.The areas of new disturbance were then classified into appropriate categories. e. Additionally, other changes between the two scenes were examined and updated if necessary. f. All changes and updates between the two scene dates were then incorporated into the previously classified map to produce a new vegetation and land cover data set for each scene that reflected conditions in 2003. 12. Once a scene was complete and updated, if necessary it was edge-matched and merged with adjacent scenes that had previously been completed. Upon completion of last scene, all scenes were then merged, forming a single statewide map. Process Date: Unknown Dataset copied. Process Date: Dataset copied. Process Date: Dataset moved. Process Date:

MAP PROJECTION PARAMETERS:

Projection                          ALBERS
Datum                               HPGN
Units                               METERS
Spheroid                            GRS1980
1st Standard Parallel               24  0  0.000
2nd Standard Parallel               31 30  0.000
Central Meridian                   -84 00  0.000
Latitude of Projection's Origin     24  0  0.000
False Easting (meters)              400000.00000
False Northing (meters)             0.00000

DATA SOURCE CONTACT (S):

Name:
Abbr. Name:
Address:


Phone:

Web site:
E-mail:
Contact Person:
         Phone:
        E-mail:

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - Office of Environmental Services
FFWCC
2574 Seagate Drive, Suite 250
Tallahassee, FL
32301
850-488-6661


http://myfwc.com/
gisrequests@fwc.state.fl.us
Records Technician

Name:                   FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY
Abbr. Name:             FGDL
Address:                Florida Geographic Data Library
                        431 Architecture Building
                        PO Box 115706
                        Gainesville, FL  32611-5706
Web site:               http://www.fgdl.org

Contact FGDL: 

      Technical Support:	        http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfeed.html
      FGDL Frequently Asked Questions:  http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfaq.html
      FGDL Mailing Lists:		http://www.fgdl.org/fgdl-l.html
      For FGDL Software:                http://www.fgdl.org/software.html