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Mapping Ecological Systems in the East Gulf Coastal Plain

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Mapping Ecological Systems in the East Gulf Coastal Plain A SATELLITE DERIVED MAP OF ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS IN THE EAST GULF COASTAL PLAIN, USA Except where reference is made to the work of others, the work described in this thesis is my own or was done in collaboration with my advisory committee. This thesis does not include proprietary or classified information. ____________________ Kevin James Kleiner Certificate of Approval: _________________________ _________________________ Philip L. Chaney Mark D. MacKenzie, Chair Associate Professor Assistant Professor Geology and Geography Forestry and Wildlife Sciences _________________________ _________________________ Lawrence D. Teeter Joe F. Pittman Professor Interim Dean Forestry and Wildlife Sciences Graduate School A SATELLITE DERIVED MAP OF ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS IN THE EAST GULF COASTAL PLAIN, USA Kevin James Kleiner A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science Auburn, Alabama August 4, 2007 A SATELLITE DERIVED MAP OF ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS IN THE EAST GULF COASTAL PLAIN, USA Kevin James Kleiner Permission is granted to Auburn University to make copies of this thesis at its discretion, upon request of individuals or institutions and at their expense. The author reserves all publication rights. ____________________________ Signature of Author ____________________________ Date of Graduation iii VITA Kevin James Kleiner, son of Thomas and Lynette Kleiner, was born on December 1, 1969 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from Grayslake Community High School in 1987 and completed a bachelor of science degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May, 1993. He is currently employed by Auburn University as a Research Assistant in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences. On February 11, 1995 he married Carol Johnston, daughter of Merle and Robert Johnston. They have two daughters, Sipsey Grace and Abbott Lucile (Abbey). iv THESIS ABSTRACT A SATELLITE DERIVED MAP OF ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS IN THE EAST GULF COASTAL PLAIN, USA Kevin James Kleiner Master of Science, August 4, 2007 (B.S. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1993) 170 Typed Pages Directed by Mark D. MacKenzie Land cover mapping via remote sensing is an important tool for conservation and land management. A critical component to land cover mapping is defining the classification. A classification scheme must be sufficiently detailed to meet the goals to which the map will be applied yet simple enough to accurately map the classification units with the available data and classification methods. This thesis describes the methods and presents the results and accuracy assessment of a map of NatureServe’s Ecological Systems in the East Gulf Coastal Plain, USA derived using Landsat ETM+ imagery. A combination of remote sensing techniques and classification methods was used to generate a 50 class land cover map. v Of 43 Ecological Systems existing in the East Gulf Coastal Plain, 25 were mapped and an additional 8 modified system classes were mapped. The remaining 17 mapped land cover classes were composed of anthropogenic classes and land cover lacking vegetation. Additionally, an accuracy assessment of the land cover map was performed and interpreted by assessing the causes of error. In this land cover map, a majority of the errors are caused by either fuzzy boundaries between class definitions or a lack of spatial data that can reliably separate classes. This error analysis provides insight into the utility of the classification scheme when mapping with remotely sensed data. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would like to thank Dr. Mark MacKenzie for his assistance and patience throughout the graduate program and Dr. Phil Chaney and Dr. Larry Teeter for their helpful reviews. Additionally, the following people in alphabetical order have contributed to this project: Todd Earnhardt, Rob Evans, James Grand, John Hogland, Jason Lee, Alexa McKerrow, Milo Pyne, Matt Rubino, Kevin Samples, Al Schotz, Amy Silvano, and Ben Taylor. Thanks are also due to daughters Grace and Abbey for their love and, at times, much needed distraction. Finally, a special thanks to Carol, whom without, none of this would matter. vii Style manual or journal used: Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing Computer software used: ArcGIS® version 8.3 eCognition® Elements version 4.0 ERDAS IMAGINE® version 8.7 Garmin eTrex Legend® GPS Microsoft; Excel® Word® PowerPoint® Access® SAS® version 9.1 See5® release 1.18 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables .......................................................................................................................x List of Figures................................................................................................................... xii Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Methods..............................................................................................................................13 Results................................................................................................................................39 Discussion..........................................................................................................................41 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................47 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................76 Appendix 1. Initial CART Models....................................................................................91 Appendix 2. Discussion Of Classification Accuracy By Class ......................................104 Appendix 3. Source Code Used To Create The Final Ecological Systems Classification............................................................................................116 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Anderson Land Cover Classification System (from Anderson et al., 1976)............................................................................49 Table 2. List of Ecological Systems occurring within the East Gulf Coastal Plain (from Comer et al., 2003) ..........................................................50 Table 3. Map legend, class type and subzone................................................................51 Table 4. Sources of point data for training ....................................................................53 Table 5. National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) 2001 Legend in the East Gulf Coastal Plain (from Homer et al., 2004)..........................................54 Table 6. Ancillary data used ..........................................................................................55 Table 7. Landform classes of the landform model within the East Gulf Coastal Plain (modified from Anderson et al., 1998). .....................................56 Table 8. Area and percent area for each class (percent area rounded to 0.1%)............................................................................................................57 Table 9. Class name and classification method (corresponding to Figure 5) ................59 Table 10. Contingency Table (Error Matrix) from the accuracy assessment. Correct class listed vertically and predicted class listed horizontally………..61 Table 11. Percentage of Ecological System class area occurring within NLCD class......................................................................................................62 x Table 12. Final class descriptions. ...................................................................................63 Table 13. Error types and frequency by error type. .........................................................67 xi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. The East Gulf Coastal Plain (after Homer et al., 2004)....................................68 Figure 2. Schematic of classification methods and structure of methods discussion. .........................................................................................69 Figure 3. Scene boundaries and seasonal image mosaic boundaries with image dates.......................................................................................................70 Figure 4. Map of Matrix System Ranges in the East Gulf Coastal Plain.........................71 Figure 5. Diagram of the classification procedure for Ecological Systems.....................72 Figure 6. Map of subzone locations in the East Gulf Coastal Plain. Each of the six areas was mapped separately ..................................................73 Figure 7. Ecological Systems land cover map (Legend also shown in Table 3). ...........................................................................................................74 Figure 8. Percentage of Ecological System users’ accuracies by category.......................................................................................................75 xii INTRODUCTION The management and conservation of biodiversity is a topic of ever increasing concern. As the human population continues to grow, our encroachment into and modification of natural environments increases. The negative consequences of this trend include reductions in the population sizes and available habitats for other organisms (Primack, 2002). To better understand how our environment is changing and make decisions regarding how limited resources should be applied, accurate
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