Acadia National Park Vegetation Mapping Project - Accuracy Assessment Points

ABSTRACT: The U.S. Geological Survey Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) has produced a vegetation spatial database coverage (vegetation map) for the Acadia National Park Vegetation Mapping Project, USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program (VMP). Thematic accuracy requirements of the VMP specify 80% accuracy for each map class (theme) that represents National Vegetation Classification System (NVCS) associations (vegetation communities). The UMESC selected 728 field sites, all within Acadia National Park fee and easement lands, for a thematic accuracy assessment (AA) to the vegetation map. The sites were randomly generated, stratified to map class themes that represent NVCS natural/semi-natural vegetation communities using VMP standards. Certain modifications to the process were necessary to accommodate logistical challenges. Local botanists collected field data for 724 of the sites during the 1999 field season. Thematic AA used 688 sites. Sites not used for the analysis were due to the elimination of an entire map class because of irreconcilable classification concepts (19 sites), or to other reasons including unmanageable error with GPS coordinate, duplicate site location, and incomplete field data (17 sites). Regardless of their use in the analysis, all 724 AA sites collected are represented in the Accuracy Assessment Site Spatial Database.