SDE Feature Class
Tags
MARIN, Marin County, Marin Countywide Vegetation and and Landscape Database Project, Marin Veg Map, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, National Vegetation Classification Standard, NVCS, Manual of California Vegetation, Tamalpais Land Collaborative, One Tam, Golden Gate Parks Conservancy, Tukman Geospatial, Aerial Information Systems, AIS, Kass and Green Associates
The Tamalpais Land Collaborative (One Tam) and Golden Gate Park Conservancy built a consortium in 2018 to initiate, develop, and implemented a fine-scale countywide vegetation map of 366,329 acres within Marin County, CA. The project, which concluded in 2021, is known as the Marin Countywide Vegetation Map and Landscape Database Project (the Marin Veg Map). Under separate contract and in collaboration with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) VegCAMP Program, California Native Plant Society (CNPS) developed this floristic vegetation classification based on the Marin Veg Map. The floristic classification follows protocols compliant with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) and National Vegetation Classification Standards (NVCS).
The Tamalpais Lands Collaborative (One Tam; https://www.onetam.org/ ), the network of organizations that manage lands on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, initiated the countywide mapping project with their interest in creating a seamless, comprehensive map depicting vegetation communities across the landscape. With support from their non-profit partner the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (https://www.parksconservancy.org/) One Tam was able to build a consortium to fund and implement the countywide fine scale vegetation map.
Development of the Marin fine-scale vegetation map was managed by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and staffed by personnel from Tukman Geospatial (https://tukmangeospatial.com/) Aerial Information Systems (AIS; http://www.aisgis.com/ ), and Kass Green and Associates. The fine-scale vegetation map effort included field surveys by a team of trained botanists. Data from these surveys, combined with older surveys from previous efforts, were analyzed by the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) Vegetation Program ( https://www.cnps.org/vegetation ) with support from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Vegetation Classification and Mapping Program (VegCAMP; https://wildlife.ca.gov/Data/VegCAMP ) to develop a Marin County-specific vegetation classification.
High density lidar data was obtained countywide in the early winter of 2019 to support the project. The lidar point cloud, and many of its derivatives, were used extensively during the process of developing the fine-scale vegetation and habitat map. The lidar data was used in conjunction with optical data. Optical data used throughout the project included 6-inch resolution airborne 4-band imagery collected in the summer of 2018, as well as 6-inch imagery from 2014 and various dates of National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) imagery.
In 2019, a 26-class lifeform map was produced which serves as the foundation for the much more floristically detailed fine-scale vegetation and habitat map. The lifeform map was developed using expert systems rulesets in Trimble Ecognition, followed by manual editing.
In 2019, Tukman Geospatial staff and partners conducted countywide reconnaissance fieldwork to support fine-scale mapping. Field-collected data were used to train automated machine learning algorithms, which produced a fully automated countywide fine-scale vegetation and habitat map. Throughout 2020, AIS manually edited the fine-scale maps, and Tukman Geospatial and AIS went to the field for validation trips to inform and improve the manual editing process. In the spring of 2021, draft maps were distributed and reviewed by Marin County's community of land managers and by the funders of the project. Input from these groups was used to further refine the map. The countywide fine-scale vegetation map and related data products were made public in June 2021. In total, 107 vegetation classes were mapped with a minimum mapping size of one fifth to one acre, varying by class.
Accuracy assessment plot data were collected in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Accuracy assessment results were compiled and analyzed in the summer of 2021. Overall accuracy of the lifeform map is 95%. Overall accuracy of the fine-scale vegetation map is 77%, with an overall 'fuzzy' accuracy of 81%.
The Marin County fine-scale vegetation map was designed for a broad audience for use at many floristic and spatial scales. At its most floristically resolute scale, the fine-scale vegetation map depicts the landscape at the National Vegetation Classification alliance level - which characterizes stands of vegetation generally by the dominant species present. This product is useful to managers interested in specific information about vegetation composition. For those interested in general land use and land cover, the lifeform map may be more appropriate. To make the information contained in the map accessible to the most users, the vegetation map is published as a suite of GIS deliverables available in a number of formats. Map products are being made available wherever possible by the project stakeholders, including the regional data portal Pacific Veg Map ( http://pacificvegmap.org/data-downloads ).
This map was created by Tukman Geospatial and Aerial Information Systems (AIS). It was prepared for Tamalpais Lands Collaborative (One Tam; https://www.onetam.org/ ).
<DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><DIV><DIV STYLE="font-size:12pt"><P><SPAN>CDFW's VegCAMP appreciates learning how these vegetation datasets are being used so that we can leverage support for classifying and mapping new areas and let users know of any updates. Please contact us at </SPAN><A href="mailto:VegCAMP@wildlife.ca.gov" STYLE="text-decoration:underline;"><SPAN><SPAN>VegCAMP@wildlife.ca.gov</SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN><SPAN>or call any of the staff listed here: </SPAN></SPAN><A href="https://wildlife.ca.gov/Data/VegCAMP" STYLE="text-decoration:underline;"><SPAN><SPAN>https://wildlife.ca.gov/Data/VegCAMP</SPAN></SPAN></A></P><P><SPAN STYLE="font-weight:bold;">License: </SPAN><SPAN>This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( </SPAN><A href="https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcreativecommons.org%2Flicenses%2Fby%2F4.0%2F&data=04%7C01%7CRosalie.Yacoub%40wildlife.ca.gov%7C8349c480b9464ebeb99e08d8fa192995%7C4b633c25efbf40069f1507442ba7aa0b%7C0%7C0%7C637534333271702709%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=0WvkCxLaRGRe0p9XMB49f7HXYbi6r6AZi1ASs6dmow8%3D&reserved=0" STYLE="text-decoration:underline;"><SPAN><SPAN>https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN><SPAN>). Using the citation standards recommended for BIOS datasets ( </SPAN></SPAN><A href="https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/BIOS/Citing-BIOS" STYLE="text-decoration:underline;"><SPAN><SPAN>https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/BIOS/Citing-BIOS</SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN>) satisfies the attribution requirements of this license.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN STYLE="font-weight:bold;">Disclaimer:</SPAN><SPAN> The State makes no claims, promises, or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, reliability, or adequacy of these data and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in these data. No warranty of any kind, implied, expressed, or statutory, including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third party rights, title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and freedom from computer virus, is given with respect to these data.</SPAN></P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
Extent
| West | -123.041183 | East | -122.414198 |
| North | 38.333861 | South | 37.801535 |
| Maximum (zoomed in) | 1:5,000 |
| Minimum (zoomed out) | 1:20,000,000 |
Study area boundary:
The mapping study area, consists of approximately 366,329 acres, of 1 county.
Minimum Mapping Unit (MMU):
The MMU for each polygon is dependent on which feature type it is ascribed to.
Agricultural classes: 1/4 acre
Woodland Upland Classes: 1/2 acre for contrasting lifeform; 1 acre for different alliances in the same lifeform
Woody Riparian Classes: 1/4 acre for contrasting lifeforms; 1 acre for different alliances in the same lifeform
Upland Herbaceous Classes: 1/2 acre for contrasting lifeforms; 1 acre for different alliances in the same lifeform
Wetland Herbaceous Classes: 1/4 acre for contrasting lifeforms; 1 acre for different alliances in the same lifeform
Bare Land: 1/2 acre
Impervious Features: 1000 square feet; 200 square feet for buildings
Developed: 1/5 acre
Water: 400 square feet