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Landcover Classification and Historic Analysis Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park Landscape Classification and Historic Analysis Elijah Ramsey III1 ([email protected]), Gene Nelson1, and Yao Y. Yan2 1USGS, 2Johnson Controls World Services Inc., National Wetlands Research Center, 700 Cajundome Blvd., Lafayette, LA 70506 Acknowledgements. We would like to thank Ms. Linda Dansby of the National Park Service’s Southwest Support Office the Intermountain Region Minerals, Oil and Gas, and Geologic Resources Program Leader , Mr. Darrell Echols of the National Park Service, Padre Island National Seashore, and Mr. David Vela the Superintendent of the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park (PAAL) at the time of this study initiation, for the gracious help extended to us by allowing access to the PAAL and the opportunity to carryout this project and project guidance. We also thank PAAL personnel, Mr. Aaron Mahr (Historian), Mr. Luis Krug (Park Ranger), and Ms. Karen Weaver (Park Ranger) for accompanying us on our observation and data collection field trips and for adding the site expertise and knowledge that were indispensable in our effort to prepare accurate landscape maps of the PAAL. I would like to further extend our thanks to Ms. Karen Weaver for collecting and sending us collateral data of the PAAL landcovers and historic descriptions and maps related to the battle. Mr. James Everitt the Project Leader of Range Science and Remote Sensing Research of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service and Integrated Farming and Natural Resources Research Unit in Weslaco, Texas provided the color-infrared photography of PAAL, and Joel Wagner of the National Park Service, Wetlands Specialist and Chief, Water Resources Division contributed guidance throughout the project and critical review of an earlier draft of this report. Overview and general description. The Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park (PAAL) as part of the National Park Service (NPS) was established in 1978 by the U.S. Congress. The NPS plan for the PAAL was to restore the landscape appearance to that present at the time of the 1846 battle between the United States and Mexico. The PAAL includes about 1372 ha (3400 acres) (14,163,997 m2) of Spartina spartinae (gulf cordgrass) prairie, tamaulipan and mesquite forests, and resacas. Resacas are former channels of the Rio Grande found in the southern half of Cameron County (The Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/RR/rbrnp.html). Since 1846, alterations to the landscape have included road construction (unpaved), water control features such as the large drainage ditch just to the north of the battlefield and damming of the resacas for water storage (cattle tanks), intermittent cultivation and ranching activities, and predevelopment construction (Fig. 1). The NPS recreation of the 1846 PAAL landscape required multiple steps. First, the earliest photographic coverage of the PAAL portrays the landscape at some hopefully distant point in the past; hopefully before major landscape alterations. The NPS historians would then use this spatial portrayal and ancillary data to accurately recreate the 1846 PAAL landscape. Second, a key component of the NPS restoration plan included determining what alterations to the landscape had occurred; especially regarding the resaca’s and cordgrass prairie, pivotal components of the battle outcome. To detail landscape changes, the NPS restoration plan included documenting the current landscape status. Photographic coverages. Overall, the NPS requires mapping to be at a minimum mapping unit of 0.5 hectare and georeferenced to USGS 1:24,000 topographic maps. To be useful for resource management and for recreation of historic landscape features and conditions of the PAAL, these NPS mapping mandates were too coarse; a much finer spatial resolution was necessary. In response to this need for higher spatial resolution 2 maps, the NPS and U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Wetlands Research Center (NWRC) jointly organized a project to prepare a current landcover map and a historic comparison of the PAAL at a 1-m spatial resolution. To fulfill this request, current color infrared (CIR) photographic coverages of the PAAL were collected in 19 July 1999 and 2 February 2000 at an approximate 1:6,000 scale. These coverages were kindly provided by Mr. James Everitt the Project Leader of Range Science and Remote Sensing Research of the U.S.D.A. ARS IFNRRU at 2413 E. U.S. HWY 83, Weslaco, Texas 78596-8344. As part of the historic comparison and in addition to the 1999 and 2000 images, we collected historic photographic coverages of the PAAL from many sources. In our original proposal to NPS, we recommended historic photography in 1968, 1954, and 1938 be acquired and entered into the GIS for comparative landscape change analyses. Because of the availability of complementary photography, however, we were able to enhance the historic photographic analysis by encompassing the years from 1993 to 1934. In addition to the 1999 and 2000 photography, we acquired photographic scenes covering the PAAL in (1) 03-08-1993, (2) 03-05-1989, (3) 10-05-1977, (4) 09-22-1977, (5) 02-09-1962, (6) 11-04- 1950, (7) 12-10-1939, and (8) 11-04-1934. In total, 10 separate photographic coverages were acquired with photographic scales ranging from 1:40,000 to 1:6,000. The project area included the authorized site boundary extended to the nearest road or natural boundary. As part of the rectification and mosaicing procedures, all photographic coverages were standardized to a 0.5 m spatial resolution. Landscape classification protocol. As mandated by the NPS, the landcover and landuse classification protocols followed the National Vegetation Classification Standard (NVCS) 3 (e.g., VCS 1997, Ramsey et al. 2002)1. Methods used to classify and interpret the accuracy of the classified map are based on protocols we developed for the National Park Service following the National Vegetation Classification Standard (NVCS) established by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (http://www.fgdc.gov). NVCS landcover classes pertinent to the PAAL were based on a report by Mr. Normal Richard and Dr. Alfred 1The lack of a Federal standard for vegetation classification and reporting of vegetation statistics has hindered the ability to create timely and consistent synoptic views of all vegetation resources within the United States and worldwide. Natural resource and regulatory agencies document, map, analyze, and report vegetation data in different ways according to their mandates and jurisdictions. This has led to different classification and reporting definitions that are generally divided by broad vegetation and landuse types (e.g., forest, rangelands, wetlands, agricultural lands) or by mission and jurisdiction (e.g., National Forests, Public Lands, National Parks, National Refuges) (VCS 1997). In response to these differences and the need for national synoptic views of vegetation resources, in 1997, the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) developed the National Vegetation and Classification Standard (NVCS). The NVCS is based on work of United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO 1973) and Driscoll et al (1984), and it is being considered as a model for a global standard to characterize earth’s land covers (Young 1994, UNEP/FAO 1995, Di Gregoiro and Jansen 1995). The NVCS provides a basis for consistent national classification and statistics in vegetation resources. It facilitates the compilation of regional and national summaries, and in turn, provides a detailed, quantitative, and georeferenced data base for vegetation cover modeling, mapping, and analysis. The standard requires all vegetation classification efforts financed in whole or in part by Federal funds to include NVCS core components. In cases where the NVCS overlaps other classification standards (e.g., the Wetlands standard used in wetland and emergent aquatic regions), the standard should be used to complement alternate approaches in the overall analysis of a geographic area. The NVCS is hierarchical, the higher the level the less numerous and more generalized. The highest level is the Division followed by Order, five physiognomic levels that describe the structure and life form of the plant community, and two floristic levels that mainly describe the dominant species. The Division divides the earth into non-vegetated and vegetated levels, and the Order further divides the vegetated Division into tree, shrub, dwarf shrub, herbaceous, and non-vascular life forms. Physiognomic class defines the relative percent canopy cover of each Order at the peak of the growing season. Subclass describes the predominant leaf phenology of woody plants (evergreen, deciduous, mixed evergreen-deciduous) and the leaf type and periodicity of herbaceous plants. Group relates to a combination of climate, leaf morphology, and leaf phenologic factors. Subgroup divides the physiognomic group level into natural/semi-natural and planted/cultivated categories. The final physiognomic level, formation divides the physiognomic subgroup into common environmental and additional physiognomic factors (e.g., upland, seasonally flooded, pavement [sparsely vegetated]). The floristic levels, alliance and association, currently are not required as part of the NVCS, but they are a required part of all NPS classifications. Alliance represents an aggregation of associations. Association, as the finest floristic level in the NVCS, describes a diagnostic
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