Mapping Existing and Potential River Cane (Arundinaria gigantea) Habitat in Western North Carolina.

Understanding the extent and potential habitat of river cane (Arundinaria gigantea) is essential to a sustainable economy for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The goal of this project is to map existing and potential river cane habitat using a GIS database containing river cane biophysical landscape information within western North Carolina. Three remote sensing data sets were chosen for mapping existing river cane sites based on regional coverage, spectral resolution and spatial resolution. None of these data sets were successful at discriminating river cane from other evergreen vegetation. However, this study provided context for appropriate spatial and spectral resolutions for use in the future. Two datasets were used to map potential river cane habitat based on available data in 2006 and in 2008. Using hydrology, elevation and soil digital layers within a GIS, the LIDAR-based hydrology and elevation data produced the more accurate potential habitat estimates for river cane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]