Central Mojave Desert Vegetation Mapping Project, California, 1997-1999

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Data at Risk (DaR) team partnered with the USGS Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC) to preserve and release tabular data, shapefiles and field photographs of the Central Mojave Desert from 1997-1999. The data were originally collected as part of an effort through the Desert Managers Group (DMG) to develop scientific information on the distribution and characteristics of vegetation in the eastern Mojave Desert of California. This data preservation effort recovers information from obsolete geospatial files, database files, and field photographs and releases it all in open-source formats. The data made available in this release provide historic context on the species composition and distributions of various plant communities in the Central Mojave Desert which can be used to contextualize changes in vegetation composition of the Mojave Desert ecosystem. Aside from this project level summary, the pieces of this data release are as follows: -A Field Data ScienceBase item including a metadata record (Mojave-Vegetation-Mapping_Field-Data-Metadata.xml) and tabular field data (5 CSV files, Field_Data.zip) -A Plots Points and Repeat Photographs ScienceBase item including a metadata record (Mojave-Vegetation-Mapping_Plots-Points-and-Repeat-Photographs-Metadata.xml), a plots points locations shapefile (zipped shapefile, plots_points.zip), repeat photographs (12 zip folders of TIFF files, Mojave_Images_Plots-##-##.zip) and a crosswalk resource to relate the images to plots points (Mojave_Images_Crosswalk.csv) -A Special Features ScienceBase item including a metadata record (Mojave-Vegetation-Mapping_Spec-Feat-Points-Metadata.xml) and a special features points shapefile (zipped shapefile, spec_feat_points.zip) -A Mojave Vegetation Polygons ScienceBase item including a metadata record (Mojave-Vegetation-Mapping_Mojave-Veg-Polygons-Metadata.xml), a Mojave vegetation polygons shapefile (zipped shapefile, mojave_veg_polygons.zip) and a label codes sheet that provides context for the vegetation classifications (LabelCodes.csv)

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
bureauCode {010:12}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
identifier USGS:5a5f6eb7e4b06e28e9bfc2b5
metadata_type geospatial
modified 20200827
old-spatial -118.01, 33.77, -114.69, 37.33
publisher U.S. Geological Survey
publisher_hierarchy Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash c663bacd1cdd26bad291023f4f0518961d29dcea
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-118.01, 33.77], [-118.01, 37.33], [ -114.69, 37.33], [ -114.69, 33.77], [-118.01, 33.77]]]}
theme {geospatial}
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • arid-lands
  • biota
  • california
  • california-plants
  • california-vegetation
  • china-lake-naval-weapons-center
  • ckan
  • death-valley-national-park
  • desert-southwest
  • ft-irwin-military-reservation
  • geo
  • geoss
  • marine-corps-air-ground-combat-center
  • mojave-desert
  • mojave-national-preserve
  • mojave-plants
  • mojave-vegetation
  • national
  • national-vegetation-classification
  • north-america
  • southern-california
  • special-features
  • united-states
  • usgs-5a5f6eb7e4b06e28e9bfc2b5
  • vegetation
  • vegetation-alliances
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer Kathryn A. Thomas
maintainer_email kathryn_a_thomas@usgs.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-22T13:58:42.708175
metadata_modified 2025-11-22T13:58:42.708182
notes The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Data at Risk (DaR) team partnered with the USGS Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC) to preserve and release tabular data, shapefiles and field photographs of the Central Mojave Desert from 1997-1999. The data were originally collected as part of an effort through the Desert Managers Group (DMG) to develop scientific information on the distribution and characteristics of vegetation in the eastern Mojave Desert of California. This data preservation effort recovers information from obsolete geospatial files, database files, and field photographs and releases it all in open-source formats. The data made available in this release provide historic context on the species composition and distributions of various plant communities in the Central Mojave Desert which can be used to contextualize changes in vegetation composition of the Mojave Desert ecosystem. Aside from this project level summary, the pieces of this data release are as follows: -A Field Data ScienceBase item including a metadata record (Mojave-Vegetation-Mapping_Field-Data-Metadata.xml) and tabular field data (5 CSV files, Field_Data.zip) -A Plots Points and Repeat Photographs ScienceBase item including a metadata record (Mojave-Vegetation-Mapping_Plots-Points-and-Repeat-Photographs-Metadata.xml), a plots points locations shapefile (zipped shapefile, plots_points.zip), repeat photographs (12 zip folders of TIFF files, Mojave_Images_Plots-##-##.zip) and a crosswalk resource to relate the images to plots points (Mojave_Images_Crosswalk.csv) -A Special Features ScienceBase item including a metadata record (Mojave-Vegetation-Mapping_Spec-Feat-Points-Metadata.xml) and a special features points shapefile (zipped shapefile, spec_feat_points.zip) -A Mojave Vegetation Polygons ScienceBase item including a metadata record (Mojave-Vegetation-Mapping_Mojave-Veg-Polygons-Metadata.xml), a Mojave vegetation polygons shapefile (zipped shapefile, mojave_veg_polygons.zip) and a label codes sheet that provides context for the vegetation classifications (LabelCodes.csv)
num_resources 2
num_tags 28
title Central Mojave Desert Vegetation Mapping Project, California, 1997-1999