Unique characteristics of ERTS imagery can be used to inventory natural vegetation. While satellite images can seldom be interpreted and identified directly in terms of vegetation types, such types can be inferred by interpretation of physical terrain features and through an understanding of the ecology of the vegetation

Schrumpf, B. J.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

Paper A 7 
NATURAL VEGETATION INVENTORY 
Barry J. Sc hru m pf, Rangreland Resources Program, Oregon State University, 
Corvallis, Orepn 
ABSTRACT 
Unique character ist ics o f  ERTS imagery can be used tc, 
inventory natural vegetation. While s a t e i l i t e  images can 
seldom be interpreted and iden t i f i ed  d i r e c t l y  i n  terms o f  
vegetation types, such types can be inferred by interpre- 
ta t ion  o f  physical t e r r a i n  features and through an under- 
standing o f  the ecology o f  the vegetation. 
The concept o f  u t i l i z i n g  recognit ion o f  natural vegeta+!on as 
indicators o f  environments having s imi lar  b io log ica l  potent ia l  i s  not 
new. This approach has teen extensively applied i n  Europe and somewhat 
i n  Austral ia. However, appl i ca t ion  i n  the United States has arnounted 
to  l i t t l e  more than some small percent o f  the potent ia l .  The indicator 
values o f  some plant species and vegetations are known and have enabled 
land managers t o  recognize environmental character ist ics which impact 
management schemes. For example, some species indicate so i l s  conditions 
which resu l t  i n  plant t o x i c i t y  t o  grazing animals, others arc suscep- 
t i b l e  t o  f ros ts  and, therefore, indicate areas that may have c l imat ic  
conditions sui table f o r  f r os t  in to lerant  crops, and some vegetation i s  
ind icat ive of so i l  sui table f o r  rangeland reseeding. 
Personnel o f  the Rangeland Resources Program, Oregon State Univer- 
s i t y ,  conducted studies o f  natural vegetation i n  southern Arizona 
u t i l i z i n g  SO65 ?to:ography from Apollo 9 and NASA high a l t i t u d e  a i r c ra f t  
photograpiiy. T:.at work conciuded w i th  a vegetation resource inventory 
f o r  the ,)hoenix v i c i n i t y .  This set the stage for demonstrating the 
u t i l i t y  o f  such an Inventory i n  an analysis showing the lands most 
l i kely t o  have potent ia l  f o r  agr lcul  tu ra l  and/or urban development. The 
s ign i f i can t  resu l t  was that  most of the land po ten t ia l l y  sui table for  
ag r i cu l tu ra l  development was also sui ted to  urbanization. The converso 
o f  t h i s  was not true. This work can be reviewed i n  Pett inger and 
Poulton, 1970; Poulton, Johnson, and k u a t ,  1970; and Poulton, e t  al., 
PttECD1NG PAGE BLANK NOT FILMED 
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19730019483 2020-03-17T09:05:13+00:00Z
1971. One so lu t ion  t o  the c o n f l i c t  i s  t o  seek out  new a g r i c u l t u r a l  
lands and delay the d i r e c t  con:lict between the two land uses by s h i f t -  
ing the locat ion  o f  one. Receipt o f  ERTS-I imagery provided the oppor- 
t u n i t y  t o  search f o r  other areas which appear t o  f u l f i  I 1  the c r i t e r i a  
o f  po ten t i a l  a g r i c u l t u r a l  lands. Extensive, broad, minimally dissected 
val  leys are present south-southwest o f  the Phoenix area and can be 
i d e n t i f i e d  on ERTS-I imagery by v isua l  i n te rp re ta t  ion. NASA ERTS 
E-1068- 17382 recorded on 29 September 1972 shows these areas as the 
l i g h t e r  toned va l l ey  f i l l  having a braided drainage network supporting 
enough v e g e t a t i o ~  t o  make the network darker toned and contrast ing w i t h  
the l l gh ter  tcn td  in ter f luves.  A check of iand ownership pat terns 
(u.s.D.I . ,  BLM, 1964) i n  the region reveals tha t  the lands which appear 
t o  have a g r i c u l t u r a l  po ten t i a l  a re  par ts  o f  m i l  i t a r y  ranges and wl ld-  
1 l f e  refuges, a s l  t ua t i on  which presumably precludes the possi b i  1 i t y  of 
a g r i c u l t u r a l  development. I n  ccnclusion, i t  would appear tha t  the land 
use c o n f l i c t  between a g r i c u l t u r a l  development and urbanizat ion that  i s  
cu r ren t l y  e x i s t i n g  i n  t h i s  region w i l l  have t o  be s e t t l e d  p r imar i l y  on 
those lands which a re  cu r ren t l y  i n  a g r i c u l t u r a l  use or  a v s l  l ab le  f o r  
development. 
Having once recognized the appearance on ERTS-I imagery o f  the 
vegetat ion/l tndform u n i t  i n d i c a t i v e  o f  po ten t i a l  a g r i c u l t u r a l  land 
(MSS Band 5 was the most useful ) ,  a photo i n te rp re te r  can qu ick l y  
review hundreds o f  square mi les o f  the southern 4rizona t e r r a i n  i n  
search o f  s i m i l a r  images. ERTS not  only g rea t l y  f a c i l  l t a t e s  tha t  task, 
but a l so  provides f o r  a very quick review o f  current  and po ten t i a l  
a g r i c u l t u r a l  a c t i v i t i e s  I n  r e l a t i o n  t o  land ownership pat terns.  I n  
t h i s  manner, the land use c o n f l i c t  i n  the region i s  drawn i n t o  sharper 
focus and be t te r  perspect ivc.  Whi l e  the conclusion must be considered 
as ten ta t ive ,  It does provide a more complete background t o  cont r ibu te  
t o  the directing o f  regional planning. 
The analys is b r i e f l y  mentioned above began wi th,  and depended upon 
a classification and inventory o f  the natural  vegetation, Our strong 
be l i e f  i n  the value o f  vegetat ion c l a s s i f i c a t i o n  and lnventory as a 
s t a r t i n g  po in t  f o r  solv ing many natura l  resource management problems 
guided t,he formulat ion o f  our current  research w i t h  ERTS data. That 
data i s  being used i n  the development o f  inventory approaches which 
rnakp.usr, of mul t is tage sampling, p lan t  phenology pa t te rn  recognl t ion,  
. " c h u t e r  c l a s s t f i c a t i o n  o f  apparent radiance data, an1 re la t ionsh ips  
among physical features o f  the t e r r a i n  and vegetat ic-.  To date, our 
e f fo r t s  have produced resu l t s  prlmar l l y  wi t h  the l a s t  approach. 
A t e s t  s i t e ,  320C square mi les  i n  size, was selected w i t h  Tucson, 
Arizona i n  the northwest corner and h ' l l lzox Playa, Arizona i n  the 
northeast. The t e s t  area contains a great  d i v e r s i t y  and complexity o f  
vegetat Ion and therefore provides a good opportuni ty  t o  develop and 
apply the approaches l i sted I n  the preced t ng paragraph. The vegetat Ion 
o f  the area includes representat ives o f  the Sonoran and Chi huahuan 
Desert shrub, grassland, savannah, chaparral,  woodland, and fo res t .  
Images o f  t h i s  landscape obtained from a s a t e l l i t e  seldom contain 
cha rac te r i s t i cs  t ha t  can be in te rpre ted d i r e c t l y  i n  terms o f  the 
vegetat ion. However, thuse same images provide a  considerable amount 
o f  d e t a i l  per ta in ing  t o  the physical  t e r r a i n  features.  I n  fact ,  these 
features are some o f  the more s a l i e n t  cha rac te r i s t i cs  o f  the ERTS images. 
A broad range o f  e levat ion ,  a l l  classes o f  macrorel ie f ,  drainage densi- 
t i es ,  s o i l  parent mater ia ls ,  aspects, slopes, etc.,  are present and 
depicted i n  the images. These var iab les  were sampled a t  250 locat ions  
i n  the tes t  s i t e  (Mouat, 1972). At each locat icn ,  data was co l lec ted  
pe r ta in ing  t o  the pbysical  i e r r e i n  features and the p lan t  species. The 
species present were recorded and assigned prominence ra t i ngs  (these 
ra t i ngs  are explained i n  Poulton, Faulkner, and Mart in, 1971). This 
in format ion was supplemented by ground photographs. The p lan t  species 
informat ion was a l so  co l l ec ted  a t  an add i t i ona l  250 locat ions.  A vege- 
t a t i o n  c lass i f ; ca t i on  r e s u l t i n g  i n  31 broad types was produced from 
ana lys is  o f  the f i e l d  dcta. The c l a s s i f i c a t i o n  i s  based p r i m a r i l y  upon 
the presence o r  absence o; the more comnon p lan t  species and, secondari ly,  
on the prominence o f  those species. 
A step-wise d iscr iminant  ana lys is  (sWDA) was used t o  detect  the 
re la t ionsh ips  e x i s t i n g  among vegetat ion types and the physical  t e r r a i n  
features sampled. This ana lys is  had already been conducted t o  r e l a t e  
p lan t  species and t e r r a i n  features ( k u a t ,  1972). A de ta i l ed  explana- 
t i o n  can be found there. 
Results from the vegetat ion t ype - te r ra in  fea ture  ana lys is  ind ica te  
tha t  the t e r r a i n  features which appear t o  be the b e t t e r  d iscr iminants o f  
vegetat ion are  e levat ion,  mgcrore l ie f  c lass,  so la r  r a d i a t i o n  c lass (a 
func t ion  o f  aspect and slope), drainage density, and parent mater ia l ,  i n  
tha t  order. No one fea ture  can be used t o  successfu l ly  d iscr iminate  a l l  
vegetat ion types. Tabie I includes the mans and the 95% confidence 
i n te rva l  f o r  e levat ion  data f o r  25 vegetat ion types used i n  the SWA. 
Elevat ion proved t o  be the best d iscr iminant  c f  vegetat ion types. This 
t ab le  shows tha t  the range f o r  each  reget eta ti on type, as def ined by the 
mean e leva t i on  p lus and m i  nus one standard deviat ion,  overlaps those o f  
other  vegetat ion types. These tendencies t o  over lap r e f l e c t  a degree 
o f  ecological  s i m i l a r i t y  among groaps. However, when several t e r r a i n  
features are considered, vegetat ion types tha t  showed s i m i l a r i t y  i n  one 
case may show d i s s i m i l a r i t y  i n  others.  
Fiqure 1 depicts such a cnnsidcrat lon.  The th ree  vegetat!sn typc; 
are  re fe r red  t o  as: Hilaria mutica and Prosopis j u l i f l o m  ( ~ l m u ) ,  
Prosopis ju l i f  Zow and Bouteloua wi thou t & e m s  and Juniperus (Pr j 1 1 1 ,  
and C e r c o ~ a , ~ r c  brcuifoZLiiti w i  r h  Juniperus deppeana and/or Pin:~.s 
cembroides and usua l ly  w i t h  Quercus (Cebr). I n  t h i s  case, the t e r r a i n  
feature,  macrorel i e f ,  i s  s u f f i c i e n t  fo r  d iscr iminat ing  t i le  three types. 
The three types are a l so  d iscr iminated by considering the t e r r a i n  
features: e leva t i on  and drainage densi ty .  This example ove rs imp l i f i es  
the rea l  *rid, however, the p o s s i b i l i t y  i s  suggested f o r  an ERTS image 
i n t e r p r e t a t i o n  key. It would make use o f  the i n t e r p r e t a b i l i t y  o f  t e r -  
r a i n  features and the a b i l i t y  t o  narrow down the l i k e l y  p o s s i b i l i t i e s  
f o r  vegetat ion types on the basis o f  the t e r r a i n  feature cha rac te r i s t i cs  
of a given p o r t i o n  o f  the landscape. 
The fo l l ow ing  i s  g iven as an example. A l oca t i on  chosen from wi th -  
i n  the t e s t  s i t e  has these t e r r a i n  fea ture  values: e levat ion,  5320 
feet ;  macrore l ie f  c lass,  5; so la r  rad ia t i on  c lass,  1;  drainase density, 
71 m i  l edsquare  mi le ;  and parent mater ia l ,  2  (sandstone). By SWDA, the 
fo l lowing vegetat ion types a re  l i k e l y  t o  occur where each o f  the above 
t e r r a i n  features p r e v a i l .  
Elevation, 5320': vegetat ion types 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 30 
Macrorel ie f  class, 5: vegetat ion types 12, 17, 23, 25, 27, and 30 
Solar rad ia t i on  c lass,  1 :  vegetat ion types 14, 16, 17, 23, 24, 26, 
27, and 30 
Drainage densi ty ,  71: vegetat ion types 9, 10, 1 1 ,  12, 15, 16, 17, 
18, 19, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, and 31 
Parent mater ia l ,  2: vegetat ion types 3, 8, 9, 15, 16, 17, 19, 23, 
25, 26, 27, 29, 30, and 31 
From the above vegetat ion type possi b i  1 i t i es ,  i t i s  easy t o  determine by 
a process o f  e l im ina t i on  tha t  vegetat ion types 17 and 23 are  the types 
most l i k e l y  t o  occur a t  t h i s  s i t e  because they are  the on ly  types 
included as l i k e l y  p o s s i b i l i t i e s  i n  the case o f  the f i v e  t e r r a i n  
features considered. 
Step-wis? d iscr iminant  analys is  does appear t o  be ab le  t o  suggest a 
small number o f  v e g e t ~ t i o n  types which would most l i k e l y  be expected t o  
occur i n  a g iven area- However, SWDA may not  be able t o  provide a means 
f o r  100% accuracy o f  vegetat ion type i d e n t i f i c a t i o n  from i n t e r p r e t a t i o n  
o f  t e r r a i n  fea ture  var iab les  on ERTS imagery. 
Ut; 1 i z i n g  natura l  vegetat ion types f o r  recognizing analogous areas 
of the landscape having s i m i l a r  b io log i ca l  po ten t i a l s  has been an 
approach proven usefu l  t o  land managers. High 3!t!tudc and space 
imagery have been used i n  a c o r o l l a r y  approach t o  inventory areas 
appearing t o  have a g r i c u l t u r a l  and/or urban development po ten t i a l .  Wi th 
ERTS-1 imagery, a reconnaissance was r a p i d l y  conducted over a much more 
extensive region, A de ta i l ed  stud7 u t i l i z i n g  ERTS-I imagery i n  vegeta- 
t i o n  Inventor ies has been i n i t i a t e d .  Several approaches are being 
explored inc luding one which u t i l i z e s  the i n t e r p r e t a b i l i t y  o f  physical  
t e r r a i n  features on ERTS imagery as a basis f o r  i n f e r r l n g  vegetat ion 
types. A vegetat ion c l a s s i f i c a t i o n  and some re la t ionsh ips  among vege- 
t a t i o n  types and t e r r a i n  features have been establ ished. 
Contr ibut ions t o  the research reported i n  t h i b  paper have been 
made by James R. Johnson, David A.  Houat, and o ther  personnel o f  the  
Rangeland Resources Program, i n  add i t i on  t o  the author. The work e f f o r t  
i s  def ined as Task I (Inventory and Honi t o t i n g  o f  Natural Vegetation and 
Related Resources i n  an A r i d  Envi ranment by the Use o f  ERTS-A Imagery) 
o f  contract  NAS5-21831 between N3tional Aeronautics and Space Adminis- 
t r a t i on ,  Goddard Space F l i g h t  Center, and Oregon State Un ivers i ty .  
TABLE I. Elevat ion means and 95% confidence i nrerva ls  o f  e leva t i on  
data f o r  25 vegetat ion types used i n  the step-wise 
d iscr iminant  analys is .  Vegetation types are  i d e n t i f i e d  
by number only.  
Vege- Mean 
t a t  ion Elevat ion 95% Confidence l nterva l  
IYEL ( fee t )  ( fee t )  
2 
3 
9 
6 
22 
21 ( ~ i m u )  
8 
10 
15 (Pr ju)  
3 1 
14 
29 
11 
7 
12 
27 
16 
19 
I8 
2 5 
17 
24 
26 
3 0 
23 (Cebr) 
Elevatlon Hlmu I- 
Pr ju  
1-4 Cebr 
Macrorel l e f  
.-I Hlmu 
Y 1 A I P r ju  
r+I Cebr 
Solar 
Radlatlon 
Class 
- Hlmu 
I I PrJu 
-- Cebr 
Dra 1 nags 
Dens I t y  Hlmu 
+I P r j u  
Cebr -1 
1 2 3 4 5 
I 1 I I I 
Parent 
Hater1al Hlmu 
t \r I\ I Pr ju  
1-1 Cebr 
FIGURE 1 .  SELECTED VEGETATION TYPE-TERRAIN FEATURE RELATIONSHIPS 
(Wt t h  95% conf tdence In terva l  ; x = group m a n )  
B l BL l OGRAPHY 
Houat, D. A. 1972. Vegetat ion- terra in feature relationships i n  south- 
east Arizona. In: Proceedings, 3rd Annual ARETS Symposium, 
In ternat iona l  ~ z f e r e n c e  on Remote Sensing i n  A r i d  Lands, November 
8, 9, and 10, 1972, Un ivers i ty  o f  Arizona, Tucson. 19 pp. 
( ~ v a l l a b l e  from U.5.  Dept. of C m e r c e ,  Nztional Technical I n fo r -  
mat ion Service. m;::-;f iche i tem E72- 10228) 
Pet t inger,  L. R. and C.  E. Poulton. ,1970. The app l i ca t i on  o f  h igh 
a l t i t u d e  photography f o r  vegetat ion resource inventor ies i n  
southeastern Arizona. F ina l  Report on Contract NAS9:9577 f o r  
Earth Observations D iv is ion ,  MSC/NASA, by Forestry Rernote Sensing 
Laboratory, Un ive rs i t y  o f  Ca l i fo rn ia ,  Berkeley. 147 pp. 
Poul ton, C. E., J. R. Johnson, and D.  A. Mouat. 1970. lnventory of 
na t ive  vegetat Ion snd re la ted  resources from space photography. 
Annual Progress Report, Remote Sensing Appl i ca t i ons  i n  Forestry f o r  
Earth Resources Survey Program, OSSA/NASA by Range Management s t a f f ,  
Oregon State Un ivers i ty ,  Corval l  i s .  32 pp. 
Poulton, C. E., st. 1971. lnventory and ana lys is  o f  na tura l  vegeta- 
t i o n  and re la ted  resources from space and high a1 t i tude photography. 
Annual Progress Report, Remote Sensing Appl i c a t  ions i n  Forestry f o r  
Earth Resources Survey Program, OSSA/NASA by Range Management s t a f f ,  
Oregon State Un ivers i ty ,  Co rva l l i s .  59 pp. 
Poulton, C. E., D. P. Faulkner, and N. L.-Mart ln. 1971. A procedural 
manual f o r  resource ana lys is - -App l ica t ion  o f  ecology and remote 
sensing i n  the ana lys is  o f  range watersheds. F ina l  Pro jec t  Report 
t o  Bureau o f  Land Management, U.S.D. I .  Range Management Program, 
Ag r i cu l t u ra l  Exoeriment Stat ion,  Oregon State Un ivers i ty ,  Corva l l i s .  
133 pp. 
U. S. Department o f  I n t e r i o r ,  Bureau c f  L a d  Management. 1964. Areas 
o f  admin is t ra t ive  r e s p o n s i b i l i t y  o f  f e i e r a l  lands. Arizona. (Kap) 


Natural vegetation inventory

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