Southeast Regional GAP

Land cover:

Four of the seven mapping zones for which we are developing the National Land Cover Dataset (2001) have been submitted to EROS Data Center (EDC) for a second review (Figure 1).  Those include the East Gulf Coastal Plain (46), the Southern (54) and Northern Piedmont (59) and the Coastal Plain of North and South Carolina (58).  The remaining three mapping zones are currently underway with the BaSIC lab taking the lead on the Southern Coastal Plain (55) and Interior Highlands of Tennessee (48) and NaRSAL taking the lead in the Blue Ridge and Ridge and Valley (57). 

Figure 1.  Mapping Zones of the Southeast.

Impervious surface estimates have been completed for all but one (55) of the seven zones and that is expected to be approved and released through the NLCD website within weeks.

Canopy closure estimates for the Coastal Plain of North and South Carolina (58) is near completion, with the East Gulf Coast (46) and Southern Coastal Plain (55) scheduled for completion by April 2005.  The remaining four zones (57, 54, 59, and 48) will be completed in a staggered fashion through the end of the project period.

We are shifting to the GAP level detailed vegetation mapping phase of the project.  The Alabama Gap Project has the majority of their field data gathered and compiled with respect to the target map units (see McKerrow and Pyne this edition for additional description of the classification system).  For the Northern Coastal Plain, the system level reference data collection is near completion.  We are currently reviewing the point data from the North Carolina Gap State Project to remove points where the land cover has shifted.  For the Piedmont zones the Georgia Gap and North Carolina Gap Data and additional field data and photo-interpreted reference points are starting to be compiled now.  For the remaining 5 mapping zones, reference data collection based on the digital photos, field visits, and existing datasets will begin in earnest after June of 2005 when the first Gap level maps will be complete.  In the meantime, we have been working with NatureServe to compile a variety of existing datasets and to get them cross-walked to Ecological Systems for all zones in the region.  In addition to the point data collection, NatureServe has been actively delineating spatial ranges for target map units in our region.  These maps are in draft format and ready for review.  The Alabama Gap Project and the Alabama Heritage Program have been active in the refinement of those maps for the systems occurring in the East Gulf Coast. 

 The digital photo system designed for this project has been used to gather transects of photos at approximately 20 cm resolution for the majority of the region.  This spring flights over the mapping zones 53 and 47 in Kentucky will be conducted to supplement the systems level reference data collection in that area. 

Ancillary data development primarily programming and quality control on the digital elevation modeling data has been a major focus this fall.  We have been actively working with a variety of data sources to make the best available data for each of the mapping zones in the Southeast.  That effort should be complete by the end of March.  The National Wetlands Inventory data has been vectorized for over 1,000 quads that were previously missing from our digital coverage.  These quads were scanned at Auburn University and vectorized to create binary coverages at the Information Technology Outreach Services office in collaboration with the Georgia lab.

Vertebrate modeling:

 Polygonal ranges are in draft form for all species being modeled by the Southeast Gap Project (Figure 2).   Those ranges are scheduled for review as a part of the final review of the habitat affinity and distributional models.  A total of 607 species will be modeled for Southeast Gap (133 amphibians, 253 birds, 97 mammals, and 124 reptiles).  For the full list of species being included see the Southeast Gap Website (www.segap.org).

Figure 2.  Examples of species range maps being developed for the Southeast Gap Analysis Project.

 The habitat affinity database has been designed and is being used by the three labs to develop the species models.  This April one third of all of the species will have their models described in the database and an internal review will have occurred.  Habitat affinity and ancillary parameter associations for all 607 species along with internal reviews are scheduled to be complete by June 2005.  The final year of the project will be incorporating the land cover project with the habitat models and conducting external reviews of the data.

Other accomplishments and innovations:

This year we have continued with the SEGAP and USFWS/Joint Ventures Pilot project (see McKerrow et al. this edition).   We have been represented at a long list of meetings from National to local in scope.  Some examples include the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, the Ecological Society Meetings, the Department of Interior’s Land Cover Summit, the Southeastern Partner’s In Flight, North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis Conference.  Two relevant workshops this year included the Rapid Assessment Project workshops led by the U.S. Forest Service Fire Lab and The Nature Conversancy and the Cactus Mapping and Modeling Workshop.