The NERRS Habitat Classification project is part of a NERRS–wide initiative to classify existing polygonal habitat data from multiple reserves into a common classification system. Having all of the reserves use a common classification system is essential for comparative data collection and analysis. The adopted classification system that NERRS staff (Kutcher et al. (2005))designed integrates aspects of three prominately accepted classification schemas: Cowardin et al. (1979), Anderson et al. (1976), and NOAA’s Coastal Services Center Coastal Change Analysis Program (Dobson et al. 1995).

For our part of the project, we combined and clipped three data layers to our watershed and then created the attribution table for the final product, a comprehensive habitat-landcover layer, to meet the standards of the NERRS designated classification system. The three data layers consist of the Salt Marsh Emergent Vegetation data WBNERR collected in 2004, a forest-types data layer that identifies forest stands on state lands and MassGIS’s Land Use data layer.

A heirarchial list of the adopted NERRS classification is available here.
For more detailed information, you can view the final product’s metadata.

GIS PROJECTS
MAL and SAV Surveys
Salt Marsh Bio-Mapping
NERRS Habitat Classification