Identification_Information: Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: North Carolina State University, Center for Earth Observation Publication_Date: 200803 Title: Accuracy Assessment Points Modified for Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Vegetation Mapping Project Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data Online_Linkage: http://biology.usgs.gov/npsveg/ftp/vegmapping/dewa/dewaaa.zip Larger_Work_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program Publication_Date: 20060831 Title: Vegetation Classification and Mapping of Vegetation and Fire Fuel Models at Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: report Description: Abstract: Location of thematic accuracy assessment sampling points used in the vegetation and fire fuel model mapping in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. In this data set, the X, Y coordinates for five plots have been altered to protect a rare species that could be vulnerable to collection. Purpose: To identify the locations of sampling points used to assess the thematic accuracy of the vegetation association, fire behavior fuel model, and canopy cover class maps in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 20060831 Currentness_Reference: 20060831 Status: Progress: Complete Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: None planned Spatial_Domain: Description_of_Geographic_Extent: Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and environs Bounding_Coordinates: West_Bounding_Coordinate: -77.280351 East_Bounding_Coordinate: -77.155395 North_Bounding_Coordinate: 39.855883 South_Bounding_Coordinate: 39.774649 Keywords: Theme: Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: none Theme_Keyword: thematic accuracy assessment Theme_Keyword: vegetation community classifcation Theme_Keyword: vegetation association map Theme_Keyword: National Park Service Theme_Keyword: fire fuel model map Theme_Keyword: canopy cover class map Place: Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: none Place_Keyword: Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Place_Keyword: Pennsylvania Place_Keyword: New Jersey Taxonomy: Keywords/Taxon: Taxonomic_Keyword_Thesaurus: None Taxonomic_Keywords: Standardized National Vegetation Classification System Taxonomic_Keywords: vegetation classification Taxonomic_Keywords: alliance Taxonomic_Keywords: community association Taxonomic_Classification: Taxon_Rank_Name: Kingdom Taxon_Rank_Value: Plantae Access_Constraints: none Use_Constraints: none Point_of_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program Contact_Position: Ecologist Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: 208 Airport Drive City: Middletown State_or_Province: Pennsylvania Postal_Code: 17055 Country: USA Contact_Voice_Telephone: (717) 948-3962 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: (717) 948-3957 Data_Set_Credit: Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy Native_Data_Set_Environment: Microsoft Windows 2000 Version 5.0 (Build 2195) Service Pack 4; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.1.0.722 Data_Quality_Information: Logical_Consistency_Report: ESRI point geometry. Completeness_Report: Each accuracy assessment point is representaed by one point in the shapefile. All points fall within vegetation association polygons. Lineage: Process_Step: Process_Description: The number and distribution of sampling points was determined according to the USGS/NPS Vegetation Mapping protocols. A stratified random sampling approach was used, distributing the sampling effort across the preliminary vegetation association map. Since the vegetation association map contained many more types to be assessed than the fire fuel model or the canopy cover class map, one set of random sampling points could be used to assess the accuracy of all three maps. This combined sampling strategy was inherently more efficient and resulted in adequate sampling of the vegetation map and over sampling of the fire fuel model and canopy cover class map. In this stratified random sampling design, the sampling effort was distributed across the preliminary vegetation associations. For the thematic accuracy assessment sampling strategy, polygons labeled as a mosaic of two vegetation associations were lumped with the least abundant of the component associations. Since mosaics are not unique associations themselves, they should not be sampled separately in the accuracy assessment. Lumping the mosaics with the least abundant association favored additional sampling in less abundant associations, thus increasing the sampling power. In the stratified random sampling approach, the number of samples per association varied according to the rarity of the vegetation association, both in terms of number of polygons and polygon size. The following rules were used to determine the number of points assigned to each association: Scenario A: The class is abundant. It covers more than 50 hectares in total area and consists of at least 30 polygons. In this case, it is recommended that 30 polygons be selected at random from the set of the association's polygons. One sampling point will be assigned to each of the 30 selected polygons. Scenario B: The association is relatively abundant. It covers more than 50 hectares in total area but consists of fewer than 30 polygons. In this case, it is recommended that 20 polygons be selected at random from the set of the association's polygons, and that one sampling point be assigned to each of the 20 selected polygons. If the association contains less than 20 polygons, some polygons will contain multiple sampling points. The number of sampling points assigned to each polygon is determined by the relative area of that polygon compared with the other polygon in that association. Scenario C: The association is relatively rare. It covers less than 50 hectares in total area but consists of more than 30 polygons. In this case, it is recommended that 20 polygons be selected at random from the set of the association's polygons. One sampling point will be assigned to each of the 20 selected polygons. Scenario D: The class is rare. It has 5 - 30 polygons and covers less than 50 hectares. In this case, it is recommended that five polygons be selected at random from the set of the association's polygons. One sampling point will be assigned to each of the five selected polygons. Scenario E: The association is very rare. It has fewer than five polygons and occupies less than 50 hectares of the total area. In this case, it is recommended that one sampling point be assigned to each polygon. In order to randomly select the polygons in Scenarios A, B, C, and D, the Create Random Selection tool in Hawth's Analysis Tools was used in ArcGIS. For all of the scenarios, the Generate Random Points tool in Hawth's Analysis Tools was used to randomly determine the location of the sampling points in the polygon. If the randomly selected polygon or point fell on inaccessible privately-owned lands, the point was reassigned to a randomly selected polygon of the same association that fell on publicly-owned land. This resulted in the creation of 1,130 thematic accuracy assessment sampling points. These sampling points were also used to assess the thematic accuracy of the fire behavior fuel model map and the canopy cover class map. Because the vegetation association map contained many more types than either the fuel model or the cover class maps, the sampling design for the vegetation association map was also sufficient for the fire behavior fuel model map and the canopy cover class map. Even though the sampling design was created for the vegetation association map, the design distributed the sampling points across the fuel model and cover class map units proportionally to the number of polygons and the total mapped hectares of the units. For the fire behavior fuel models, five of the 12 models were oversampled while seven of the 12 models were undersampled according to the USGS/NPS Vegetation Mapping Program protocol. For the canopy cover class map, all 4 classes were oversampled, yielding approximately 3 to 15 times the number of points recommended by the USGS/NPS Vegetation Mapping Program protocol. From July through September 2005 and April through July 2006, each accuracy assessment point was located in the field using one of the following GPS units: Trimble Pocket Pathfinder attached to a Beacon-on-a-Belt with a Compaq Ipaq Pocket PC interface, or Garmin GPS map 76 WAAS enabled. Process_Date: 20060831 Process_Step: Process_Description: The accuracy assessment plots shapefile was altered to create a shapefile suitable for public distribution. The X, Y coordinates for each plot that contains a rare plant species that could be vulnerable to collection were changed to the coordinates for the park centroid. Coordinates were altered in this manner for five plots. As a result, it is possible that some or all of the points now fall outside a vegetation polygon or outside the park boundary. A field named "crd_alt" was added to the shapefil attribute table; the value for this field is "no" if the plot coordinates have not been altered and "yes" if the plot coordinates were altered. Process_Date: 20080305 Spatial_Data_Organization_Information: Direct_Spatial_Reference_Method: Vector Point_and_Vector_Object_Information: SDTS_Terms_Description: SDTS_Point_and_Vector_Object_Type: Entity point Point_and_Vector_Object_Count: 1130 Spatial_Reference_Information: Horizontal_Coordinate_System_Definition: Planar: Grid_Coordinate_System: Grid_Coordinate_System_Name: Universal Transverse Mercator Universal_Transverse_Mercator: UTM_Zone_Number: 18 Transverse_Mercator: Scale_Factor_at_Central_Meridian: 0.999600 Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -75.000000 Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 0.000000 False_Easting: 500000.000000 False_Northing: 0.000000 Planar_Coordinate_Information: Planar_Coordinate_Encoding_Method: coordinate pair Coordinate_Representation: Abscissa_Resolution: 0.000016 Ordinate_Resolution: 0.000016 Planar_Distance_Units: meters Geodetic_Model: Horizontal_Datum_Name: North American Datum of 1983 Ellipsoid_Name: Geodetic Reference System 80 Semi-major_Axis: 6378137.000000 Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: 298.257222 Entity_and_Attribute_Information: Detailed_Description: Entity_Type: Entity_Type_Label: dewa_veg_aa_2006 Entity_Type_Definition: attributes of shapefile table Entity_Type_Definition_Source: Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program Attribute: Attribute_Label: FID Attribute_Definition: Internal feature number. Attribute_Definition_Source: ESRI Attribute_Domain_Values: Unrepresentable_Domain: Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. Attribute: Attribute_Label: Shape Attribute_Definition: Feature geometry. Attribute_Definition_Source: ESRI Attribute_Domain_Values: Unrepresentable_Domain: Coordinates defining the features. Attribute: Attribute_Label: AA_OBS_ID Attribute_Definition: accuracy assessment point number Attribute_Definition_Source: NPS four letter park code plus unique number Attribute_Domain_Values: Unrepresentable_Domain: NPS four letter park code plus unique number Attribute: Attribute_Label: crd_alt Attribute_Definition: Field used to indicate whether X, Y coordinates for the plot have been altered to protect a rare species that could be vulnerable to collection. Attribute_Definition_Source: North Carolina State University Attribute_Domain_Values: Enumerated_Domain: Enumerated_Domain_Value: No Enumerated_Domain_Value_Definition: The X, Y coordinates for the plot have not been altered. Enumerated_Domain_Value_Definition_Source: North Carolina State University Attribute_Domain_Values: Enumerated_Domain: Enumerated_Domain_Value: Yes Enumerated_Domain_Value_Definition: The X, Y coordinates for the plot have been altered. Enumerated_Domain_Value_Definition_Source: North Carolina State University Distribution_Information: Distributor: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: USGS BRD Center for Biological Informatics Contact_Person: USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program Coordinator Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: Denver Federal Center, Building 810, Room 8000, MS 302 City: Denver State_or_Province: Colorado Postal_Code: 80225 Contact_Voice_Telephone: (303) 202-4220 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 303-202-4219 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: gs-b-npsveg@usgs.gov Resource_Description: Downloadable Data Distribution_Liability: The U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. These data and related graphics (if available) are not legal documents and are not intended to be used as such. The information contained in these data is dynamic and may change over time. The data are not better than the original sources from which they were derived. It is the responsibility of the data user to use the data appropriately and consistent within the limitations of geospatial data in general and these data in particular. Any related graphics (if available) are intended to aid the data user in acquiring relevant data; it is not approriate to use the related graphics as data. The U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of these data. It is strongly recommended that these data are directly acquired from an U.S. Geological Survey and National Park Service servers and not indirectly through other sources which may have changed the data in some way. Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the U.S. Geological Survey, no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the utility of the data on another system or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. This disclaimer applies both to individual use of the data and aggregate use with other data. It is also strongly recommended that careful attention be paid to the contents of the metadata file associated with these data. Mention of trade names or commercial products in this metadata report does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the U. S. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey and National Park Service. Standard_Order_Process: Digital_Form: Digital_Transfer_Information: Format_Name: HTML Digital_Transfer_Option: Online_Option: Computer_Contact_Information: Network_Address: Network_Resource_Name: http://biology.usgs.gov/npsveg/dewa/index.html Access_Instructions: Internet Access Fees: None Metadata_Reference_Information: Metadata_Date: 20080321 Metadata_Review_Date: 20100519 Metadata_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: USGS BRD Center for Biological Informatics Contact_Person: USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program Coordinator Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: Denver Federal Center, Building 810, Room 8000, MS 302 City: Denver State_or_Province: Colorado Postal_Code: 80225 Contact_Voice_Telephone: (303) 202-4220 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 303-202-4219 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: gs-b-npsveg@usgs.gov Metadata_Standard_Name: FGDC Biological Data Profile of the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata Metadata_Standard_Version: FGDC-STD-001.1-1999 Metadata_Extensions: Online_Linkage: http://www.nbii.gov/portal/server.pt/community/fgdc_metadata/255