Visual delineation of Florida Park Service Districts

The Everglades National Park vegetation mapping project is part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). It is a cooperative effort between the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and the National Park Service Vegetation Mapping Inventory Program (NPS VMI). The goal of this project is to produce a spatially and thematically accurate vegetation map of Everglades National Park (EVER) prior to the completion of restoration efforts associated with CERP. This spatial product will serve as a record of baseline vegetation conditions for the purpose of: (1) documenting changes to the spatial extent, pattern, and proportion of plant communities within EVER as they respond to hydrologic modifications resulting from the implementation of the CERP; and (2) providing vegetation and land-cover information to NPS park managers and scientists for use in resource management, research, and monitoring.The vegetation map of EVER covers an area of 4,482.2square kilometers (1.108million acres [ac]) and consists of four mapping regions: Region 1 – Shark River Slough/Long Pine Key; Region 2 – The Southeast Saline Everglades; Region 3 – The Southwest Coastal Everglades; and Region 4 – The Northwest Coastal Everglades. Region 1 was mapped by the SFWMD and USACE while Regions 2-4 were mapped by the South Florida Caribbean Network (SFCN). Photo-interpretation on the map was performed by superimposing a 50 × 50-meter (164 × 164-feet [ft] or 0.25 hectare [0.61 ac]) grid cell vector matrix over stereoscopic, 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) spatial resolution, color-infrared aerial imagery, acquired by the SFWMD in 2009, on a digital photogrammetric workstation. Photo-interpreters identified the dominant community in each cell by applying majority-rule algorithms, recognizing community-specific spectral signatures, and referencing an extensive ground-truth database. The dominant vegetation community within each grid cell was classified using a hierarchical classification system developed for this project. Additionally, photo-interpreters categorized the absolute cover of invasive species and cattails (Typhasp.) detected as either: Sparse (10–49%), Dominant (50–89%), or Monotypic (90–100%).The map contains a total of 286 discreet thematic classes with Short Sawgrass Marsh (75,956 ha, [19.7%] ); Graminoid Freshwater Prairie (62,076 ha [12.3%]) and Mixed Mangrove Forest-Mixed (47,599 ha [5.3%] being the most common vegetation types mapped. Marsh vegetation classes are the most common community types found withing the vegetation map. They account for 186,551 ha (48.3%) of the terrestrial mapped area. Forest communities (18.0%), followed by Scrub (17.8%) and Shrublands (12.8%) are the next most common community types mapped. Map accuracy, based on 1,014 randomly selected accuracy assessment points, is estimated at 89.2% with a lower 90thPercentile Confidence Interval of 87.4%.The data was downloaded using this link.

The Cooperative Land Cover Map is a project to develop an improved statewide land cover map from existing sources and expert review of aerial photography. The project is directly tied to a goal of Florida's State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) to represent Florida's diverse habitats in a spatially-explicit manner. The Cooperative Land Cover Map integrates 3 primary data types: 1) 6 million acres are derived from local or site-specific data sources, primarily on existing conservation lands. Most of these sources have a ground-truth or local knowledge component. We collected land cover and vegetation data from 37 existing sources. Each dataset was evaluated for consistency and quality and assigned a confidence category that determined how it was integrated into the final land cover map. 2) 1.4 million acres are derived from areas that FNAI ecologists reviewed with high resolution aerial photography. These areas were reviewed because other data indicated some potential for the presence of a focal community: scrub, scrubby flatwoods, sandhill, dry prairie, pine rockland, rockland hammock, upland pine or mesic flatwoods. 3) 3.2 million acres are represented by Florida Land Use Land Cover data from the FL Department of Environmental Protection and Water Management Districts (FLUCCS). The Cooperative Land Cover Map integrates data from the following years: NWFWMD: 2006 - 07 SRWMD: 2005 - 08 SJRWMD: 2004 SFWMD: 2004 SWFWMD: 2008 All data were crosswalked into the Florida Land Cover Classification System. This project was funded by a grant from FWC/Florida's Wildlife Legacy Initiative (Project 08009) to Florida Natural Areas Inventory. The current dataset is provided in 10m raster grid format.Changes from Version 1.1 to Version 2.3:CLC v2.3 includes updated Florida Land Use Land Cover for four water management districts as described above: NWFWMD, SJRWMD, SFWMD, SWFWMDCLC v2.3 incorporates major revisions to natural coastal land cover and natural communities potentially affected by sea level rise. These revisions were undertaken by FNAI as part of two projects: Re-evaluating Florida's Ecological Conservation Priorities in the Face of Sea Level Rise (funded by the Yale Mapping Framework for Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Adaptation) and Predicting and Mitigating the Effects of Sea-Level Rise and Land Use Changes on Imperiled Species and Natural communities in Florida (funded by an FWC State Wildlife Grant and The Kresge Foundation). FNAI also opportunistically revised natural communities as needed in the course of species habitat mapping work funded by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. CLC v2.3 also includes several new site specific data sources: New or revised FNAI natural community maps for 13 conservation lands and 9 Florida Forever proposals; new Florida Park Service maps for 10 parks; Sarasota County Preserves Habitat Maps (with FNAI review); Sarasota County HCP Florida Scrub-Jay Habitat (with FNAI Review); Southwest Florida Scrub Working Group scrub polygons. Several corrections to the crosswalk of FLUCCS to FLCS were made, including review and reclassification of interior sand beaches that were originally crosswalked to beach dune, and reclassification of upland hardwood forest south of Lake Okeechobee to mesic hammock. Representation of state waters was expanded to include the NOAA Submerged Lands Act data for Florida.Changes from Version 2.3 to 3.0: All land classes underwent revisions to correct boundaries, mislabeled classes, and hard edges between classes. Vector data was compared against high resolution Digital Ortho Quarter Quads (DOQQ) and Google Earth imagery. Individual land cover classes were converted to .KML format for use in Google Earth. Errors identified through visual review were manually corrected. Statewide medium resolution (spatial resolution of 10 m) SPOT 5 images were available for remote sensing classification with the following spectral bands: near infrared, red, green and short wave infrared. The acquisition dates of SPOT images ranged between October, 2005 and October, 2010. Remote sensing classification was performed in Idrisi Taiga and ERDAS Imagine. Supervised and unsupervised classifications of each SPOT image were performed with the corrected polygon data as a guide. Further visual inspections of classified areas were conducted for consistency, errors, and edge matching between image footprints. CLC v3.0 now includes state wide Florida NAVTEQ transportation data. CLC v3.0 incorporates extensive revisions to scrub, scrubby flatwoods, mesic flatwoods, and upland pine classes. An additional class, scrub mangrove – 5252, was added to the crosswalk. Mangrove swamp was reviewed and reclassified to include areas of scrub mangrove. CLC v3.0 also includes additional revisions to sand beach, riverine sand bar, and beach dune previously misclassified as high intensity urban or extractive. CLC v3.0 excludes the Dry Tortugas and does not include some of the small keys between Key West and Marquesas.Changes from Version 3.0 to Version 3.1: CLC v3.1 includes several new site specific data sources: Revised FNAI natural community maps for 31 WMAs, and 6 Florida Forever areas or proposals. This data was either extracted from v2.3, or from more recent mapping efforts. Domains have been removed from the attribute table, and a class name field has been added for SITE and STATE level classes. The Dry Tortugas have been reincorporated. The geographic extent has been revised for the Coastal Upland and Dry Prairie classes. Rural Open and the Extractive classes underwent a more thorough reviewChanges from Version 3.1 to Version 3.2:CLC v3.2 includes several new site specific data sources: Revised FNAI natural community maps for 43 Florida Park Service lands, and 9 Florida Forever areas or proposals. This data is from 2014 - 2016 mapping efforts. SITE level class review: Wet Coniferous plantation (2450) from v2.3 has been included in v3.2. Non-Vegetated Wetland (2300), Urban Open Land (18211), Cropland/Pasture (18331), and High Pine and Scrub (1200) have undergone thorough review and reclassification where appropriate. Other classification errors were opportunistically corrected as found or as reported by users to landcovermap@myfwc.com. Changes from Version 3.2.5 to Version 3.3: The CLC v3.3 includes several new site specific data sources: Revised FNAI natural community maps for 14 FWC managed or co-managed lands, including 7 WMA and 7 WEA, 1 State Forest, 3 Hillsboro County managed areas, and 1 Florida Forever proposal. This data is from the 2017 – 2018 mapping efforts. Select sites and classes were included from the 2016 – 2017 NWFWMD (FLUCCS) dataset. M.C. Davis Conservation areas, 18331x agricultural classes underwent a thorough review and reclassification where appropriate. Prairie Mesic Hammock (1122) was reclassified to Prairie Hydric Hammock (22322) in the Everglades. All SITE level Tree Plantations (18333) were reclassified to Coniferous Plantations (183332). The addition of FWC Oyster Bar (5230) features. Other classification errors were opportunistically corrected as found or as reported by users to landcovermap@myfwc.com, including classification corrections to sites in T.M. Goodwin and Ocala National Forest. CLC v3.3 utilizes the updated The Florida Land Cover Classification System (2018), altering the following class names and numbers: Irrigated Row Crops (1833111), Wet Coniferous Plantations (1833321) (formerly 2450), Major Springs (4131) (formerly 3118). Mixed Hardwood-Coniferous Swamps (2240) (formerly Other Wetland Forested Mixed).Changes from Version 3.4 to Version 3.5: The CLC v3.5 includes several new site specific data sources: Revised FNAI natural community maps for 16 managed areas, and 10 Florida Forever Board of Trustees Projects (FFBOT) sites. This data is from the 2019 – 2020 mapping efforts. Other classification errors were opportunistically corrected as found or as reported by users to landcovermap@myfwc.com. This version of the CLC is also the first to include land identified as Salt Flats (5241).Changes from Version 3.5 to 3.6: The CLC v3.6 includes several new site specific data sources: Revised FNAI natural community maps for 11 managed areas, and 24 Florida Forever Board of Trustees Projects (FFBOT) sites. This data is from the 2018 – 2022 mapping efforts. Other classification errors were opportunistically corrected as found or as reported by users to landcovermap@myfwc.com. Changes from Version 3.6 to 3.7: The CLC 3.7 includes several new site specific data sources: Revised FNAI natural community maps for 5 managed areas (2022-2023). Revised Palm Beach County Natural Areas data for Pine Glades Natural Area (2023). Other classification errors were opportunistically corrected as found or as reported by users to landcovermap@myfwc.com. In this version a few SITE level classifications are reclassified for the STATE level classification system. Mesic Flatwoods and Scrubby Flatwoods are classified as Dry Flatwoods at the STATE level. Upland Glade is classified as Barren, Sinkhole, and Outcrop Communities at the STATE level. Lastly Upland Pine is classified as High Pine and Scrub at the STATE level.Changes from Version 3.7 to 4.0: CLC 4.0 represents a major update to CLC performed cooperatively by FWC and FNAI via a State Wildlife Grant to address changes on the landscape such as conversion to development and to integrate other recent high quality land cover sources. CLC v4.0 includes FWC's comprehensive delineation of solar farms, FLUCCS updates based on aerial photos from 2017-2022, ground-truthed mapping from FNAI and Florida Park Service, a statewide update of Intensive Development from Google Dynamic World land cover as of 2024, and additional FNAI review and revisions of target classes including sand beach and beach dune. A complete description of updates is available in the Cooperative Land Cover version 4.0 report, available from FNAI

Wading birds in Everglades National Park and the Water Conservation Areas are monitored using aerial flights.

The AHF system has been deployed in a series of survey campaigns to collect over 60,000 points covering Everglades National Park, Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Water Conservation Areas 2 and 3, portions of Big Cypress National Preserve, as well as areas along the Lake Okeechobee littoral zone. Since the AHF System is able to penetrate Everglades vegetation and water cover, it has provided an unprecedented regional view of Everglades topographic gradients and sub-water surface structure. These data are now being used to simulate Everglades water flow with higher resolution and greater accuracy, to estimate water depths in real-time for field study planning, and as input for habitat models used to forecast the effects of water level changes on various important species. The elevation data collected through this project also formed the basic input to generate a regional topographic surface that is the basis for the Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN). These high accuracy elevation data are made available to anyone through the South Florida Information Access website (http://sofia.usgs.gov) data exchange pages.

MAP Activity Accomplishment The USGS Airborne Height Finder (AHF) System was used to perform topographic surveys in Water Conservation Area 3A within the extents of the Lone Palm Head and North of Lone Palm Head 7.5-minute topographic map quadrangles as specified in the MAP/COE Interagency Agreement. The AHF system has been used throughout South Florida for elevation data collection because traditional surveying methods are too difficult, too costly, or simply impossible to use in the harsh wetland environment and broadly inaccessible terrain of the Florida Everglades. This is especially true considering the shear size of the hydrodynamic and biological modeling domains. The AHF is a helicopter-based instrument that uses a GPS receiver, a computer, and a mechanized plumb bob to make measurements. These data were post processed to the reference stations that are part of the AHF geodetic control network. For reasons of accuracy, these reference stations are located no more then 15 kilometers from the helicopter during AHF operations. The GPS data were post processed using Ashtech’s PNAV On The Fly (OTF) software to obtain the trajectory of the AHF platform. These results are then processed through an in-house software package that separates the actual survey points and results from the trajectory. The points are manually checked to ensure data accuracy and completeness. Digital elevation models (DEMs) were then generated from the elevation point data. Existing elevation data derived from LiDAR data for this area were replaced with AHF derived DEMs for reasons of vertical accuracy. The DEMs have been posted on the South Florida Information Access (SOFIA) website: http://sofia.usgs.gov/exchange/desmond/desmondelev.html.