<p>A method of rapid field assessment and predictive modeling was developed to characterize vegetation communities of the Gorges State Park and Gamelands and to create predictive community maps for the area. This method placed an emphasis on locating rare communities using expert information, existing databases, aerial photography, and random encounters in efforts to provide information to researchers and park personnel about community locations. Approaches for classifying these communities were examined to identify which would provide suitable units for modeling community types. I sampled 102 field locations and assigned their vegetation to 16 different community types. Predictive community maps were generated using discriminant functions incorporating digital terrain data, including elevation, slope, relative slope position, terrain shape index, and weighted landform index. Three sets of discriminant functions were created to meet the different needs of persons interested in using these maps. Photo-interpreted cover classes were also including in the modeling process as filters. Map accuracies ranged from 65% to 75%, with those using only discriminant functions (without filtering) yielding higher accuracies.<P>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-20001212-071609 |
| Date | 13 December 2000 |
| Creators | Phillips, Ross Johnson |
| Contributors | Thomas Wentworth, Heather Cheshire, John Fels, Michael Schafale |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-20001212-071609 |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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