Opinions of Experts Drive Baseline Mapping of Noxious Weed Habitat in National Parks
Peter
Ma, NASA GSFC / Innovim, pete.ma@nasa.gov
(Presenting)
Jeffrey
T.
Morisette, NASA GSFC, jeffrey.t.morisette@nasa.gov
(Presenting)
Joel
Silverman, CSU, jfsilver@warnercnr.colostate.edu
Monique
Rocca, CSU, rocca@warnercnr.colostate.edu
Jeffrey
E.
Pedelty, NASA GSFC, jeff.pedelty@nasa.gov
Neal
Most, NASA GSFC / Innovim, nmost@innovim.com
Nate
Benson, NPS, nate_benson@nps.gov
Kara
Paintner, NPS, kara_paintner@nps.gov
John
L.
Schnase, NASA GSFC, john.l.schnase@nasa.gov
Invasive plant species disrupt, change, and destroy ecologically sensitive environments. Across the United States, the sacred monuments to the vast wonders of the American wilderness, our National Parks, have been invaded by hundreds of aggressive invasive species. CSU, USGS and NASA, working closely with the NPS, introduced an automated system called the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) to aid in invasive habitat mapping.
NASA’s Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) habitat suitability maps provide an automated and repeatable method of modeling habitat that combines field observations with unique environmental variables such as MODIS vegetation phenology summaries, digital elevation models, and climate variables. During park visits it was discovered that a separate “expert opinion” map would provide a valuable baseline to which we could compare the automated maps created by ISFS. Thus, this poster presents a systematic GIS method to aggregate hundreds of years in combined experience of park personnel into a qualitative “expert” map to assist in our validation as well as our initial comparison with habitat maps from ISFS.
NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Active Awards Represented by this Poster: