|
Data Products ›› Updated Products ››
Rapid Refresh Existing Vegetation Cover
Vegetation cover represents the average percent cover of existing vegetation for a 30-m grid cell. The Existing Vegetation Cover layer was generated using a predictive modeling approach that related Landsat imagery and spatially explicit biophysical gradients to calculated values of average canopy cover from field training sites and digital orthophoto quadrangles.
The LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Cover layer has been updated based upon the burn severity of recent (1999 to 2007) wildland fires. (Obtain Rapid Refresh Fire Perimeter Data.) In general, it was assumed that cover would decrease as burn severity increased. However, the reduction coefficient also depends upon whether the existing vegetation type and life form changed as a consequence of burn severity. Furthermore, the original LANDFIRE fuel layers incorporated additional areas classified as barren and water that were not incorporated into the vegetation layers. In the Rapid Refresh process, these areas of barren and water were added to the existing vegetation layers to better reflect what is on the ground and to ensure that the vegetation and fuel layers are logically consistent.
Link to Ecological Systems descriptions for LANDFIRE vegetation map product legends.
Click here for complete metadata.
|
|
Click here for
