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GIS Data

FCE Maps

Complete accuracy of maps cannot be guaranteed. All maps are made available "as is". The Florida Coastal Everglades LTER shall not be liable for damages resulting from any use or misinterpretation of maps.

  • Maps of Height and Biomass of Mangrove Forests in Everglades National Park

    The maps of mean mangrove height and biomass in Everglades National Park (ENP) were produced using the elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). They represent the status of the mangrove forest in February of 2000.
    The SRTM data was calibrated using airborne LIDAR data and a high resolution USGS Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The mangrove height map has a mean tree height error of 2.0m (RMSE) over a single pixel of 30m. In addition, we used field data to derive a relationship between mean forest stand height and biomass in order to map the spatial distribution of standing biomass of mangroves for the entire National Park.
    The maps were produced as part of an Interdisciplinary Science project led by Marc Simard at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

    Reprinted with permission from The American Society for Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing.
    Simard, Marc; Keqi Zhang, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Michael S. Ross, Pablo S. Ruiz, Edward Castaneda-Moya, Robert R. Twilley, and Ernesto Rodriguez, 2006. "Mapping Height and Biomass of Mangrove Forests in Everglades National Park with SRTM Elevation Data" Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing. Vol.72, No.3, pp. 299-311.

  • Maps of Land Cover Change in Southern Miami-Dade County

    Southern Miami-Dade County serves as a critical buffer zone located between two national parks. In this project, we examine the process of rapid suburbanization as agricultural lands transition to residential development. Strategies to slow suburbanization at local and regional scales include growth management policies and zoning regulations. In particular, zoning ordinances serve the primary method for lessening and preventing the conversion of agricultural and forested lands-though zoning has also been implicated in increased landscape fragmentation. To understand the effectiveness of zoning in protecting rural lands, FCE researchers are using recently acquired high-resolution GeoEye imagery to quantify green vegetation, classify prevailing land use/covers (including lawns) and derive indices of landscape structure for the study site. These recent data capture present-day land cover (April 2009), and will be additionally linked to historical data for previous years (2004 CIR digital orthophotographs, 3-band digital orthophotographs, historical aerial photography). For broader area coverage we will investigate cross-platform data merging, dasymmetric mapping and change detection using Landsat TM imagery. To facilitate cross-LTER site comparisons, moreover, FCE researchers are collaborating with other LTER sites (BES, PIE and CAP) to employ common approaches to cover characterization. These initiatives employ object-oriented methodologies (within a Definiens software environment) linked with ancillary GIS data for image segmentation, rule development and classification in an iterative approach.

    The study area (with current and 2004 data coverage grid), a target land cover classification scheme and preliminary classification are exemplified in the maps above.

  • Political Ecology of Land Use Change

    Southern Miami-Dade County serves as a critical buffer zone located between two national parks. In this project, we examine the process of rapid suburbanization as agricultural lands transition to residential development. Strategies to slow suburbanization at local and regional scales include growth management policies and zoning regulations. In particular, zoning ordinances serve the primary method for lessening and preventing the conversion of agricultural and forested lands-though zoning has also been implicated in increased landscape fragmentation. To understand the role of zoning in shaping (or not) the conversion of agricultural lands into residential lands in southern Miami-Dade County, FCE researchers have been analyzing parcel-scale zoning data (supplied by Miami-Dade County, Dept. of Planning and Zoning) using GIS.

    2006 Developed Land and 2008 Requested Use Variances (with 2001 Zoning)

    Download a zip file (1.77MB) containing all of the images of 2002-2008 Developed Land.

    Pre-existing parcel land use data, Redlands

    Please click on the image to view a
    larger version of the image.