The files linked to this reference are the geospatial data created as part of the completion of the baseline vegetation inventory project for the NPS park unit. Current format is ArcGIS file geodatabase but older formats may exist as shapefiles.

The development of map units (map classes) and construction of a map legend is an iterative process that integrates the ecological vegetation classification units (plant associations, groups, etc.) described above with their spatial distribution as determined by the quality of the remote sensing imagery and on-the-ground reconnaissance work. Following NPS guidelines, the desired target is the development of map units that correspond to the plant-association level of the national classification, but this is contingent on being able to discern differences in the available imagery at that level using various remote techniques. Once a final supervised classification was completed, the resulting 45 classes were recoded into one of the 23 map units that best represented them. The image polygons developed from the object-oriented classification were imported as a feature dataset polygon layer in ESRI ArcGIS (v. 9.3), the file quality controlled, and topology built. The image polygons were then overlaid onto the recoded classification and the majority map unit was assigned as that polygon’s map unit.