This dataset provides information on the current status and various other habitat and descriptive attributes of the native coastal vegetation for seven of the main Hawaiian Islands (i.e., does not include Ni`ihau).

While there have been many maps produced that depict vegetation for the state of Hawai‘i only a few of these display land cover for all of the main Hawaiian Islands, and most of those that were created before the year 2000 have very generalized units or are somewhat inaccurate as a result of more recent land use changes or due to poor resolution (both spatial and spectral) in the imagery that was used to produce the map. Some of the more detailed and accurate maps include the Hawai‘i GAP Analysis (HI-GAP) Land Cover map (Gon et al. 2006), the NOAA C-CAP Land Cover map (NOAA National Ocean Service Coastal Services Center 2012), and the more recently released Hawai‘i LANDFIRE EVT Land Cover map (U.S. Geological Survey 2009). However, all of these maps as originally produced were not considered to be detailed enough, current enough, or had other classification issues that would not allow them to be used as the primary base for the Hawai‘i Carbon Assessment. For the Hawai‘i Carbon Assessment we integrated components from several of these previously mentioned land cover and land use mapping efforts and combined them into a single new land cover map (CAH Land Cover) that was further updated using very-high-resolution imagery. The hierarchical classification system of the CAH Land Cover map allows for grouping the mapped units into different configurations, ranging from very detailed plant communities reflecting current conditions to very generalized major land cover units and biomes that represent land use and potential vegetation zones, respectively. The CAH Land Cover classification is hierarchical with forty-eight CAH Detailed Land Cover units which can be grouped into twenty-seven CAH General Land Cover units, thirteen CAH Biome units, and seven CAH Major Land Cover units (Appendix 1). The CAH Detailed Land Cover units generally correspond to the rUSNVC Association level, the CAH General Land Cover units are related to the rUSNVC Group level, and the CAH Biome units connect to the rUSNVC Subclass level.

While there have been many maps produced that depict vegetation for the state of Hawai‘i only a few of these display land cover for all of the main Hawaiian Islands, and most of those that were created before the year 2000 have very generalized units or are somewhat inaccurate as a result of more recent land use changes or due to poor resolution (both spatial and spectral) in the imagery that was used to produce the map. Some of the more detailed and accurate maps include the Hawai‘i GAP Analysis (HI-GAP) Land Cover map (Gon et al. 2006), the NOAA C-CAP Land Cover map (NOAA National Ocean Service Coastal Services Center 2012), and the more recently released Hawai‘i LANDFIRE EVT Land Cover map (U.S. Geological Survey 2009). However, all of these maps as originally produced were not considered to be detailed enough, current enough, or had other classification issues that would not allow them to be used as the primary base for the Hawai‘i Carbon Assessment. For the Hawai‘i Carbon Assessment we integrated components from several of these previously mentioned land cover and land use mapping efforts and combined them into a single new land cover map (CAH Land Cover) that was further updated using very-high-resolution imagery. The hierarchical classification system of the CAH Land Cover map allows for grouping the mapped units into different configurations, ranging from very detailed plant communities reflecting current conditions to very generalized major land cover units and biomes that represent land use and potential vegetation zones, respectively. The CAH Land Cover classification is hierarchical with forty-eight CAH Detailed Land Cover units which can be grouped into twenty-seven CAH General Land Cover units, thirteen CAH Biome units, and seven CAH Major Land Cover units (Appendix 1). The CAH Detailed Land Cover units generally correspond to the rUSNVC Association level, the CAH General Land Cover units are related to the rUSNVC Group level, and the CAH Biome units connect to the rUSNVC Subclass level.

These two raster data layers depict the land cover and degree of human disturbance to plant communities on the seven main Hawaiian Islands, and were developed as part of a comprehensive assessment of carbon sequestration potential by natural ecosystems in the State of Hawaii

These two raster data layers depict the land cover and degree of human disturbance to plant communities on the seven main Hawaiian Islands, and were developed as part of a comprehensive assessment of carbon sequestration potential by natural ecosystems in the State of Hawaii

This layer depicts the status, or degree of disturbance, to plant communities on the main Hawaiian Islands. Several layers were uset to create this version (v 3.4). The original HabQual layer was developed by Jon Price and Jim Jacobi based on the mapped land cover units from the Hawaii GAP analysis program (Gon et al. 2006). This map was revised by combining data on land use and the “Bare” category from the NOAA C-CAP 2005 map (NOAA National Ocean Service Coastal Services Center 2012), and adding road corridors to the heavily disturbed category based on the Tiger Roads layer (United States Census Bureau 2014). Additionally, corrections were made to this version of the map by visually inspecting previously mapped units and comparing them to recent high-resolution imagery including WorldView 2 multi-spectral imagery and to very-high resolution RGB imagery obtained from Pictometry Online (Pictometery International 2014). Changes were made to the map using the program GRID Editor developed by ARIS B.V. (2014) by Jim Jacobi. Latest edits made in September 2014.The starting raster "Habqual" was developed by Jim Jacobi, USGS PIERC. The bare earth category came from NOAA's CCAP dataset and was used to overwrite the original Habqual dataset for categories 2 & 3 (native and mixed). If Habqual was already distrubed (category = 1), then it was NEVER overwritten as bare earth; instead it remained classified as disturbed. Lastly, the TIGER roads layer was buffered and converted into a raster of category 1 (distrubed). The roads raster was then mosaic'ed on top of Habqual to expand the distrubed class to include roads & adjacent disturbed areas.This layer has four mapped values: 1 = heavily disturbed areas including agriculture and urban developments; 2 = mixed native-alien dominated plant communities; 3 = native dominated vegetation; and 4 = bare lands or <5% plant cover.ReferencesARIS B.V. 2014, GRID Editor for ArcMap. ARIS B.V., Netherlands. http://www.aris.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68&Itemid=211Gon, S. M., III, A. Allison, R. J. Cannarella, J. D. Jacobi, K. Y. Kaneshiro, M. H. Kido, M. Lane-Kamahele, and S. E. Miller. 2006. The Hawai‘i GAP Analysis Final Report. Report, U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey. 162 p plus tables, figures, maps, and appendices.NOAA National Ocean Service Coastal Services Center. 2012. C-CAP Hawaii 2005 Land Cover Map. NOAA's Ocean Service, Coastal Services Center, Charleston, SC USA. http://www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/ccapregional. Pictometery International. 2014, Pictometry Online. Pictometry International Corp., Rochester NY. http://www.pictometry.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=84&Itemid=93United States Census Bureau. 2014, TIGER/Line Shapefiles and TIGER/Line Files. U.S. Department of Commerce. https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/tiger-line.html

This layer depicts the status, or degree of disturbance, to plant communities on the main Hawaiian Islands. Several layers were uset to create this version (v 3.4). The original HabQual layer was developed by Jon Price and Jim Jacobi based on the mapped land cover units from the Hawaii GAP analysis program (Gon et al. 2006). This map was revised by combining data on land use and the “Bare” category from the NOAA C-CAP 2005 map (NOAA National Ocean Service Coastal Services Center 2012), and adding road corridors to the heavily disturbed category based on the Tiger Roads layer (United States Census Bureau 2014). Additionally, corrections were made to this version of the map by visually inspecting previously mapped units and comparing them to recent high-resolution imagery including WorldView 2 multi-spectral imagery and to very-high resolution RGB imagery obtained from Pictometry Online (Pictometery International 2014). Changes were made to the map using the program GRID Editor developed by ARIS B.V. (2014) by Jim Jacobi. Latest edits made in September 2014.The starting raster "Habqual" was developed by Jim Jacobi, USGS PIERC. The bare earth category came from NOAA's CCAP dataset and was used to overwrite the original Habqual dataset for categories 2 & 3 (native and mixed). If Habqual was already distrubed (category = 1), then it was NEVER overwritten as bare earth; instead it remained classified as disturbed. Lastly, the TIGER roads layer was buffered and converted into a raster of category 1 (distrubed). The roads raster was then mosaic'ed on top of Habqual to expand the distrubed class to include roads & adjacent disturbed areas.This layer has four mapped values: 1 = heavily disturbed areas including agriculture and urban developments; 2 = mixed native-alien dominated plant communities; 3 = native dominated vegetation; and 4 = bare lands or <5% plant cover.ReferencesARIS B.V. 2014, GRID Editor for ArcMap. ARIS B.V., Netherlands. http://www.aris.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68&Itemid=211Gon, S. M., III, A. Allison, R. J. Cannarella, J. D. Jacobi, K. Y. Kaneshiro, M. H. Kido, M. Lane-Kamahele, and S. E. Miller. 2006. The Hawai‘i GAP Analysis Final Report. Report, U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey. 162 p plus tables, figures, maps, and appendices.NOAA National Ocean Service Coastal Services Center. 2012. C-CAP Hawaii 2005 Land Cover Map. NOAA's Ocean Service, Coastal Services Center, Charleston, SC USA. http://www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/ccapregional. Pictometery International. 2014, Pictometry Online. Pictometry International Corp., Rochester NY. http://www.pictometry.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=84&Itemid=93United States Census Bureau. 2014, TIGER/Line Shapefiles and TIGER/Line Files. U.S. Department of Commerce. https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/tiger-line.html

This project is a cooperative effort between the National Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment, the University of Hawaii, BAE Systems Spectral Solutions and Analytical Laboratories of Hawaii, LLC. The goal of the work was to map the coral reef habitats of the Main Eight Hawaiian Islands by visual interpretation and manual delineation of IKONOS and Quick Bird satellite imagery. A two tiered habitat classification system was tested and implemented in this work. It integrates geomorphologic reef structure and biological cover into a single scheme and subsets each into detail. It also includes fourteen zones. This shapefile was created from the shoreline digitized during this process.

This data release includes data and metadata on plant species cover, for plots that were established to monitor the efficacy of post-fire seed addition in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Island of Hawaiʻi. All plots were located in the burn scar of the 2018 Keauhou Fire in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, in the area known as the "Mauna Loa strip", located on the south flank of Mauna Loa.

This data release includes data and metadata on plant species cover, for plots that were established to monitor the efficacy of post-fire seed addition in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Island of Hawaiʻi. All plots were located in the burn scar of the 2018 Keauhou Fire in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, in the area known as the "Mauna Loa strip", located on the south flank of Mauna Loa.