LANDFIRE 2010 Existing Vegetation Type for South Carolina, USA

The LANDFIRE existing vegetation layers describe the following elements of existing vegetation for each LANDFIRE mapping zone: existing vegetation type, existing vegetation canopy cover, and existing vegetation height. Vegetation is mapped using predictive landscape models based on extensive field reference data, satellite imagery, biophysical gradient layers, and classification and regression trees. Abstract: The existing vegetation type (EVT) data layer represents the current distribution of the terrestrial ecological systems classification developed by NatureServe for the western Hemisphere (<http://www.natureserve.org/publications/usEcologicalsystems.jsp>). A terrestrial ecological system is defined as a group of plant community types (associations) that tend to co-occur within landscapes with similar ecological processes, substrates, and/or environmental gradients. EVTs are mapped in LANDFIRE using decision tree models, field reference data, Landsat imagery, digital elevation model data, and biophysical gradient data. Go to<http://www.landfire.gov/participate_acknowledgements.php> for more information regarding contributors of field plot data. Decision tree models are developed separately for each of the three life-forms -tree, shrub, and herbaceous - using C5 software. Life-form specific cross validation error matrices are generated during this process to assess levels of accuracy of the models. Decision tree relationships are then used to generate life-form specific EVT spatial data layers. The final EVT and Environemtanl Site Potential (ESP) layers are compared and rectified through a series of QA/QC measures. Values of one or more of these data layers are adjusted based on a hierarchical decision tree ruleset in order to align the respective life-forms and life-zone of each ESP and EVT category. The EVT layer is used in many subsequent LANDFIRE data layers. LANDFIRE 2010 (lf_1.2.0) used Refresh 2001 (lf_1.0.5) data as a launching point to incorporate disturbance and its severity, both managed and natural, which occurred on the landscape after 2001. Specific examples of disturbance are: fire, vegetation management, weather, and insect and disease. The final disturbance data used in LANDFIRE is the result of several efforts that include data derived in part from remotely sensed land change methods, Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS), and the LANDFIRE Events data call. Vegetation growth was modeled where both disturbance and non-disturbance occurs.Urban, agriculture, and wetlands were refined to reflect a 2010 landscape using the National Conservation Easement Database, National Wetlands Inventory (NWI), and Common Land Unit database (CLU) data.