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Terrestrial Habitat Mapping Project

 

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About: The intent of this project was to categorically map Terrestrial Habitats within Arkansas. Recent project work has focused on the Boston Mountains and northern Arkansas River Valley. To date, two Terrestrial Habitat map sets, at different scales have been produced. The first map set was based on 30-meter resolution datasets encompassing the Boston Mountain and northern Arkansas River Valley ecoregions.  The second map set, mapped at 5-meter resolution, depict Terrestrial Habitats for seven Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission "National Areas" within the Boston Mountain and northern Arkansas River Valley ecoregions.

Data and Ruleset Development: A variety of spatial datasets were employed in the mapping process including aerial photography and derived products, satellite imagery and derived products, datasets derived from elevation models, products derived from stream data, seasonal sun azimuth and altitude data, and EPA ecoregion delineation data. Additionally, field samples for each habitat category were collected in April 2008 and April 2009. The methodology included three main tasks: data preprocessing, model rule-set development, and accuracy assessment/ model revision.

Products: The final Terrestrial Habitat (TH) map, including categories not sampled such as urban, water, and agricultural lands, had an overall accuracy of 91%. The average accuracy for sampled terrestrial habitat categories was 76%. With some modifications in input data and input data rules criteria, the resulting "rules-based" model can be adapted to map other ecoregions. Discussion and revision of this model by the scientific community is encouraged. In 2010 the THM was updated to include information about Pine Plantations.

 Terrestrial Habitats of Kings River Natural Area

 Future Directions: It is hoped that the methodologies developed for this project will beemployed in future studies. Presently, plans are being made to extend the mapping of Terrestrial Habitats into other ecoregions, including the greater Ozark Plateaus ecoregion of Arkansas and Missouri.