GIS Database Development for South Florida's National Parks And
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PEER.REVIEWED ARIICTE GISDatabase Development forSouth Florida's NationalPafts and Preserves R. Welch, M. Remillard,and R.F. Doren Abstract Introduction The University of Georgia's Center for Remote Sensing and The Center for RemoteSensing and Mapping Science(cnvs) Mapping Science (CRMS)is working in conjunction with the at The University of Georgiais working with the U.S. Depart- U.S. Department of Interior's Nationol Park Service (NpS)to ment of Interior's National Park Service (Npslto utilize a construct a geographic information system (cts) database combination of satellite imaging, aerial photographic,Global and associated detailed vegetation maps for the Everglades Positioning System (cps), and geographicinformation system National Park, Biscayne National Park, Big Cypress National (cIs) technologies to develop a databasein GISformat for Preserve,and the Flofida Panther Refuge. Preservation of over one million hectares (ha) of ecologically unique Ever- these south Florida wetland areas, threatened by urban ex- glades wetlands in south Florida. Although the southern tip pansion, nutrient runoff from agricultural \ands, encroach- of Florida was the entry point for early explorers into the ment of exotic plant species,and increasedrecrcational use, New World, the Evergladesremain one of the last portions of is a topic of national concern, Development of the database the United Statesto be accuratelymapped at any level of de- and maps is made possible by the integration of Global Posi- tail. tioning System (cesJ, satellite remote sensing, air photo inter- This vast, flat terrain, wetland study area includes Ever- pretation, and helicopter-assistedfield verification gladesNational Park, BiscayneNationai Park, Big Cypress procedures. A digital satellite image mosaic prepared from National Preserve,and the Florida Panther Refuge(Figure 1). eight sror panchromatic images of tO-m resolution and geo- Collectively, this area will be referred to as the "Parks." It coded to ground control points in the urM (Nto as) coordi- extends roughly from Miami on the east to Naples on the nate system to an accuracy of t1 to 1-1.5 pixels forms the west, southward to Florida Bay, and representsthe remain- coordinate reference layer for the GIS database. Vegetation ing lands of the greater Big Cypress Swamp and Everglades patterns and, where appropriate, hydrographic and transpor- ecosystemsthat once covered approximately one-third of the tation features are digitized directly from 4x paper print en- Florida peninsula (Light and Dineen, 199a).The growth of largements of National Aerial Photogrophy Program (N,spp) the Miami urban area, the encroachment of exotic plaats color infrared aerial photographs recorded in L994 and lgg7. such as Melaleuca quinquenervio (cajeput)and Scftrnusfere- These digitized vector files are rectified to ground control binthifolius (Brazilian pepper), the expansion of agricultural transferred from the rectified SpoT satellite images. Planimet- Iand along the margins of the Parks,and increasedrecrea- ilc enors generclly are less than + 10 m. The vegetation lay- tional use combine to threaten the flora and fauna in this re- ers in the GtSdatabase are classified according to a prcto- gion (Dueveret al., L986;Doren ef o1.,tggo; Davis and type Everglades Vegetation Classification System being Ogden,1994). developed by NPS,CRMS, and South Florida Water Manage- Although portions of the Parks have been mapped for ment District (SFwMD)personnel. Ground truth collection and particular researchinterests, neither detailed maps nor a verification of the thematic accuracy of interpreted vegeta- comprehensivedatabase of Evergladesvegetation exists at tion polygons and boundaries is facilitated through the aid this time (e.g.,McPherson, 1973; Gunderson and Loope, of the SPor satellite image mosaic, and a laptop computer 1982;Olmstead et a1.,1983;Rose and Draughn,1991). The inte$aced to a GPSreceiver mounted in a helicopter. The South Florida Water ManagementDistrict (SFWMD)recently flight track of the helicopter is displayed in real time on the used satellite image data to develop a land-covermap of SPOTimage mosaic, and, as required, attribute information is SFWMDWater ConservationArea 2A. Iocated northeastof the entered into the computer. The digital GISdatabase and EvergladesNational Park (Rutcheyand Vilchek, 1994; fensen 1:24,000-scolevegetation maps will provide the NpSwith the et al., l,ssi). Rutchey and Vilchek (t99+) concluded, how- detailed, up-to-date spatial information needed to manage ever, that, due to the diverse nature of Evergladesvegetation, the Parks of south Fhorida. the accuracyof thematic classificationresults may be im- proved by using low altitude aircraft multispectral scanner data and aerial photographs. The SFWMDis now cooperating with the NPSto coordinate and develop joint mapping proce- R. Welch and M, Remillard are with the Center for Remote Sensingand Mapping Science(CRMS), Department of Geog- PhotogrammetricEngineering & RemoteSensing, raphy, The University of Georgia,Athens, GA 30602-2503. Vol. 0r, No. 11, November1995, pp. 1,371,-1.381.. R.F. Doren is with the South Florida Natural ResourceCenter 0099-11 1 2/95/61 11-1 3 71$3.00/0 (SFNRC),Everglades National Park, 40001 StateRoad 9336, 1995 American Society for Photogrammetry Homestead,FL 33034-6733, and Remote Sensing PE&RS PEER.REVIEWED ARIICLE time collection of ground truth information by helicopter surveys.The surveying,remote sensing, and bls procedures being used to build the databaseare describedin this paper. DataSources Data sourcesfor the proiect include maps produced by the U. S. GeologicalSurvey (uscs) and the Nps South Florida Natural ResourceCenter (SFNRC),satellite image data, and color infrared (cn) aerial photographs.The majority of the USGS1:24,000-scale quadrangles of the Parks were produced from aerial photographsin the 1960sand early 1970sas mul- ticolor orthophotomaps(Pumpelly, 1967).These orthophoto- maps have extensivecartographic treatment such as color patterns,lettering, and symbols placed on the photo image which tend to mask vegetationpatterns. Although statements on these orthophotomapsindicate that they comply with U.S. National Map Accuracy Standards(Nuas) (* z.z RMSE*' for well-defined features),many of the map sheetsfor the Ev- ergladesNational Park and Big CypressNitional Preserve show extensivewetland areaswith no "well-deffned" fea- tures. Thus, for the interior of the study area,the USGSortho- photomaps are dated, provide limited detail, and are of questionablegeometric reliability. By contrast,the standard 1:24,000-scaleUSGS topographic line maps for the developed R'i':J;*'"i:.*" jfl,?l'*' areassurrounding the Parks (revisedin the 1980s)are a valu- o 2s 50h 3 f,'3,5J'ffil*"iHri** able (Ccrs) D. 8iryne Natoml Pa* sourcefor ground control points on the perimeter SCle of the study area. Largescale vegetation maps (t:t+,000 to 1:43,000scale) Figure1. TheSouth Florida National Parks and Preserves produced by the SFNRCin the 1970sand early 1980sprovide studyarea is shownby a dashedline, and the sPoTim- detailed vegetationinformation for limited areasof the Ever- agesemployed to createa geccodedmosaic are indi- gladesNational Park and Big CypressNational Preserve.Al- catedbv solidlines. though these maps are useful for confirming the identifica- tion of vegetationin a few specific locations,they only cover a small fraction of the study area and do not conform to spe- cific geometricaccuracy standards. dures and vegetation classifications to create a vegetation da- Existing map coverageof the Parks,therefore, was inade- tabase for the Parks water conservation and areas. quate for deriving a cCPnetwork of sufficient density and ac- With limited road access to tracts of the study extensive curacy to createa GtSdatabase directly from available CtR area and overland travel made difficult by wetlands, exposed aerial photographs.Alternative sourcesof control, namely pinnacle rock, and entangled mangrove forest, it was deter- GPS,aerotriangulation, and satellite image data, were consid- mined that cPS surveys in conjunction with satellite image ered. Aerotriangulation was ruled out becauseof the charac- data would be required to bridge remote and pro- the areas teristics of the National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministra- vide an accurate control network for cIs database develoo- tion (Nasa) aerial photographs(described 6elow) available at ment (Welch et al.,'tgg2; Welch and Remillard, 199a). Aiso, the outset of the project and the difficulties in establishinga it was concluded that detailed mapping of vegetation, hy- control network for severalhundred photographs.Satellite drography, and transportation features should be undertaken images,however, in combination with a cps survey and with aerial photographs. Consequently, the objectives of this USGS1:24,Ooo-scale topographic line maps for the perimeter project were defined as follows: of the study area,offered a rapid and economical means of . Constructa geocodedsatellite image mosaic of the Parksthat establishinga densenetwork of ccps of sufficient planimetric will provide the referencelayer for a cts database; accuracyto control the aerial photographs.Although the use o Producea detailed cls databasein digital format that con- of satellite imagesto provide control for aerial photographs forms to an accuracystandard of approximately + 19 trt is contrary to traditional practice, past experiencehas shown (RMSE.") root-mean-squareerror for well-defined planimetric that, becauseof