Integrating Remote Sensing and Field Data to Monitor Changes in Vegetative Cover on a Multipurpose Range Complex and Adjacent Training Lands at Camp Grayling, Michigan

摘要

Vegetative cover was inventoried on a Multi-Purpose Range Complex (MPRC) and adjacent training area to Camp Grayling, MI. Camp Grayling, MI, is a U.S. Army National Guard installation located in the north central area of Michigan's lower peninsula. Remote sensing and field surveys were used to determine vegetative cover. In the field, vegetative cover data were collected on systematically allocated plots during the peak of the growing season in 1997. A Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image of the study area was acquired on 8 August 1997 that coincided with field data collection. A Transformed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (TNDVI) image was derived from spectral information contained within the TM image. Analysis of correlation of vegetative cover measurements from field surveys and TNDVI values derived from satellite imagery were performed. Strong correlations between TNDVI values and several in situ vegetative cover measurements were identified, including Organic Cover (R(sup 2) =69.1), Visible Bare Ground (R(sup 2)=65.6), Total Cover (R(sup 2)=77.6), Total Vegetative and Organic Cover (R(sup 2)=79.2), and Total Vegetative Cover (R(sup 2)=70.4). Correlations were stronger within the MPRC than the adjacent training area (R(sup 2) for Total Vegetative Cover; MPRC = 70.4, Adjacent Training Area = 53.5). Based upon these correlations, spatially explicit vegetative cover estimates were extrapolated across the two training areas. The resulting estimates provided a baseline survey of vegetation cover from which spatial and temporal changes in vegetation cover can be monitored.