SIR 2014-5076, Land-Cover Data for Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and Coyote Springs, Piute-Eldorado Valley, and Mormon Mesa Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, Clark County, Nevada

Four polygon vector data sets and one related table describe land-cover in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (RRC_NCA_p) and Coyote Springs (CS_ACEC_p), Piute-Eldorado Valley (PEV_ACEC_p), and Mormon Mesa (MM_ACEC_p) Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, Clark County, Nevada. One polygon vector data set per Area is attributed with land- cover at the vegetation stand level (abbreviated with a stand code) and the corresponding alliance level of the National Vegetation Classification Standard (NVC; Federal Geographic Data Committee, 2008). The table (tbl_NVC) is related to each of the four polygon data sets and contains the NVC classification from the group to class level. DigitalGlobe's QuickBird multispectral satellite imagery was classified with field vegetation data (Charlet and others, 2014) collected at the stand level using Visual Learning Systems' Feature Analyst feature extraction software. Non-vegetation data layers, such as roads and disturbed areas, were manually delineated from the QuickBird imagery. The process steps have been generalized to apply to all study areas. Details about processing, such as vegetation samples used for training input and major changes made during photo interpretation are detailed in the larger work. For simplicity, the process dates are listed as the final publication date. Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area was processed during 2008, Coyote Springs Area of Critical Environmental Concern during 2011, Piute-Eldorado Valley Area of Critical Environmental Concern during 2012, and Mormon Mesa Area of Critical Environmental Concern during 2013.

References Cited:

Federal Geographic Data Committee, 2008, National vegetation classification standard, version 2, FGDC-STD-005-2008, accessed December 6, 2012 at http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/projects/FGDC-standards-projects/vegetation/NVCS_V2_FINAL_2008-02.pdf.

Charlet, D.A., Damar, N.A., and Leary, P.J., 2014, Vegetation Database for Land-Cover Mapping, Clark and Lincoln Counties, Nevada, U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 827, 18 p., at https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/827.