LANDFIRE 2024 Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) HI

LANDFIRE's 2024 update (LF 2024) Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) in Alaska (AK) and Hawaii (HI) is unchanged from LF 2023 EVT. EVT represents the current distribution of the terrestrial ecological systems classification developed by NatureServe for the western hemisphere. In this context, a terrestrial ecological system is defined as a group of plant community types that tend to co-occur within landscapes with similar ecological processes, substrates, and/or environmental gradients. See the EVT product page (https://landfire.gov/vegetation/evt) for more information about ecological systems and NVC classifications.
EVT is mapped using decision tree models, field data, Landsat imagery, topography, and biophysical gradient data. Decision tree models are developed separately for tree, shrub, and herbaceous lifeforms which are then used to produce a lifeform specific EVT product. These models are generated for each Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Level III Ecoregion (https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoregions). Riparian, alpine, sparse, and other site-specific EVTs are constrained by predetermined masks.
LF 2024 AK, HI, and PRVI retains circa 2016 EVT labels except where shifts in urban, agriculture, and developed classes occur. While Existing Vegetation Cover (EVC) and Height (EVH) are updated using transition rulesets with ST-Sim to account for disturbances, EVT remains unchanged, therefore EVT lifeform is not synchronized to the EVC/EVH lifeform as in some previous versions.