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Vegetation Mapping |
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Vegetation Mapping
Mapping vegetation consists of drawing maps of plant communities in a given area, usually a small area. Vegetation mapping is usually performed as part of the impact assessment of a specific project to determine what plant communities are present and how much of each would be affected by a specific project. Plant communities are identifiable aggregations of dominant or predominant plant species, usually shrubs or trees, or most common grass or herb in herbaceous communities. Some plant communities are considered rare, and impacts to them must be quantified. Plant communities are also habitat to wildlife species, sometimes to special-status plant and/or wildlife species. Often, a regulatory agency, such as a county planning commission or department, will require compensation in some form for the loss of acreage of a sensitive plant community. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately delineation what plant communities, and their exact boundaries are on a project site. DMEC is highly experienced with mapping and classifying natural plant communities on both small project sites and for large areas. DMEC follows the International Vegetation Classification system (IVC), which has been adopted by the European Union, federal government, State of California, California Native Plant Society (CNPS), and local agencies such as the Ventura County Planning Division. The IVC is the system used in the collaborative project between the California Department of Fish and Game and CNPS that resulted in the publication of The Manual of California Vegetation, authored by Sawyer and Keeler-Wolf in 1993. That manual is currently being revised. DMEC has been both trained, and has provided training in the use of the IVC. DMEC is a leader in California in vegetation mapping using this system. DMEC uses a combination of techniques and tools to produce a vegetation map. Aerial photographic interpretation is a key element to any vegetation mapping, and DMEC has access to high-resolution color aerial photography that is orthorectified (true to ground conditions). Vegetation boundaries delineated by aerial photo interpretation are best when ground-truthed (checked on the ground), and DMEC routinely ground-truths its vegetation maps for accuracy. DMEC uses Geographic Information System (GIS) software to create a georeferenced digital database. Such GIS databases are used to produce the final vegetation maps and conduct impact assessments. GIS allows the mapping effort to be highly versatile in that each mapped polygon can contain many attributes, such as dominant species, soil type, slope aspect, date mapped, plant association, special-status species present, and similar information. DMEC has mapped many large and small areas using both satellite imagery or aerial photography. DMEC has mapped and classified land cover and plant communities in the following locations: all of Ventura County, portions of the Santa Monica Mountains, eastern Contra Costa and Alameda Counties, the Calleguas Creek Watershed (in Ventura County), all of Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base (in San Diego County), the Lyon Canyon/Towsley Canyon area near Newhall, the San Marcos Foothills project area in southern Santa Barbara County. Mr. Magney has also classified and mapped vegetation in coastal Ecuador, Ecuadorian Amazon area, a portion of Alabama and Mississippi, all of Nevada and northern Arizona, southern Sacramento County. These areas were mapped using a variety of remote imagery (color aerial photography, false color Infrared aerial photography, multispectral satellite imagery) both directly and with a variety of software, including Imagine, GRASS, and IBIS. Below links to vegetation maps created for various DMEC projects: |
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Mission Statement:
To provide quality environmental consulting
services with integrity that protect and enhance
the human and natural environment.
