Historic Airboat Use and Change Assessment Using Remote Sensing
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HISTORIC AIRBOAT USE AND CHANGE ASSESSMENT USING REMOTE SENSING AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM TECHNIQUES IN EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK By LOUIS MANGLASS (Under the Direction of Marguerite Madden) ABSTRACT The National Park Service (NPS) has a mandate of restoration and preservation of the lands for which it is responsible. As part of this mandate, resource managers of Everglades National Park (ENP) must take stock of current commercial and private airboat activities in the East Everglades Expansion Area and assess the impact of airboat use on the Everglades wetlands. Remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) techniques were used to create digital databases of airboat trails from current and historical aerial photographs. These data were then used to derive statistics and produce trail maps which were used to assess airboat impact over time. Graph theory and GIS network analysis of the temporal trail database provide managers with a set of tools which, when combined with proposed scenarios for future airboat use, provide powerful analysis capabilities to minimize the potential impacts of that use. INDEX WORDS: Geographic information systems, GIS, Remote sensing, Everglades National Park, ENP, National Park Service, NPS, Airboat, Change assessment, Trail map, Aerial photography, ArcGIS HISTORIC AIRBOAT USE AND CHANGE ASSESSMENT USING REMOTE SENSING AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM TECHNIQUES IN EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK BY LOUIS MANGLASS B.S., The University of Georgia, 2002 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE ATHENS, GEORGIA 2006 © 2006 Louis Manglass All Rights Reserved HISTORIC AIRBOAT USE AND CHANGE ASSESSMENT USING REMOTE SENSING AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM TECHNIQUES IN EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK by LOUIS MANGLASS Major Professor: Marguerite Madden Committee: Thomas R. Jordan E. Lynn Usery Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2006 "Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank my family because they refused to let me quit my master’s degree program. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever finish this project. This document is proof that I lost that bet. I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Marguerite Madden, and my committee members Drs. Thomas Jordan and E. Lynn Usery for their support and comments throughout this project. I would also like to thank the Center for Remote Sensing and Mapping Science (CRMS) and the National Park Service (NPS) for all their help and funding. The scope of this research project would simply have been far too large without their support, especially the ability to perform ground truthing with knowledgeable Park Service personnel. Furthermore, I would like to thank the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) for providing the CRMS and myself with access to the 2003 true color photography used in this study. Their support made it much easier to bring the study up to date. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES.....................................................................................................................................viii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 Study Area .................................................................................................................. 3 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................... 9 Graph Theory.............................................................................................................. 9 Motorized Recreational Activities in National Parks ............................................... 12 3 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 18 Datasets..................................................................................................................... 18 Trail Mapping and Ground Truth Methodology....................................................... 18 Network Analysis ..................................................................................................... 27 4 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS........................................................................................... 30 East Everglades Trail Summary Statistics -- 1994 ................................................... 30 East Everglades Trail Summary Statistics -- 1999 ................................................... 31 East Everglades Trail Summary Statistics -- 2003 ................................................... 31 Accuracy Assessment ............................................................................................... 32 Trends and Impacts from 1994 -- 2003 .................................................................... 37 Network Analyses..................................................................................................... 39 Scenarios and Additional Network Analyses ........................................................... 43 5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................... 52 vi BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................................................... 55 APPENDIX................................................................................................................................................. 59 vii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1 Aerial Photograph Information......................................................................................... 18 Table 2 Summary Statistics for East Everglades Airboat Trails: 1994.......................................... 31 Table 3 Summary Statistics for East Everglades Airboat Trails: 1999.......................................... 31 Table 4 Summary Statistics for East Everglades Airboat Trails: 2003.......................................... 32 Table 5 Class Types and Descriptions ........................................................................................... 33 Table 6 Classification Matrix......................................................................................................... 34 Table 7 Heads-up Accuracy Summary .......................................................................................... 34 Table 8 Classification Matrix with Margins Subsumed................................................................. 36 Table 9 Heads-up Accuracy Summary with Margins Subsumed .................................................. 36 Table 10 Trail Statistics Summary, 1994 - 2003 ............................................................................. 37 Table 11 Summary Statistics for Length Between Terminal Vertices Along the Network ............ 43 Table 12 Summary Statistics for Network Cost Between Terminal Vertices Along the Network.. 43 Table 13 Average Width Class Accounting for Traversing Low-cost Areas Along the Network... 43 Table 14 Summary Statistics for Length Between Terminal Vertices Along the Spanning Tree.... 43 Table 15 Summary Statistics for Network Cost Between Terminal Vertices Along the Spanning Tree........................................................................................................... 43 Table 16 Average Width Class Accounting for Traversing Low-cost Areas Along the Spanning Tree........................................................................................................... 43 Table 17 Summary Statistics for Length Between Terminal Vertices Along the Proposed Network .................................................................................................... 51 Table 18 Summary Statistics for Network Cost Between Terminal Vertices Along the Proposed Network .................................................................................................... 51 Table 19 Average Width Class Accounting for Traversing Low-cost Areas Along the Proposed Network .................................................................................................... 51 viii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1 Location of the East Everglades Expansion Area............................................................... 4 Figure 2 Airboats............................................................................................................................... 5 Figure 3 Airboat trail......................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 4 Graph example.................................................................................................................. 10 Figure 5 A spanning tree ................................................................................................................. 10 Figure 6 A cut and a cutpoint.......................................................................................................... 11 Figure 7 1994, 1999 and 2003 photos of a portion of the East Everglades Expansion Area .......... 19 Figure