Riparian Condition Assessment Tool Data
RCAT Data
This page documents and explains the new datasets created by the Anthropogenic Context tool.
Existing Riparian Vegetation Cover
This dataset is a binary reclassification of the LandFire EVT raster. Cells in the EVT raster that are
classified as "Riparian" in the EVT Physiognomy EVT_PHYS field are assigned a value of 1, and all
other cells are assigned a value of 0.
Historic Riparain Vegetation Cover
This dataset is a binary reclassification of the LandFire BPS raster. Cells in the BPS raster that are
classified as "Riparian" in the GROUPVEG field, a coarse categorization of vegetation types, are
assigned a value of 1, and all other cells are assigned a value of 0.
Existing Vegetation Cover
This dataset is a binary reclassification of the LandFire EVT raster. Cells in the EVT raster that are classified as any sort of vegetation (grass, shrub, woody, etc.) are assigned a value of 1, and all other cells (e.g., developed, barren rock, ice, open water, etc.) are assigned a value of 0.
Historic Vegetation Cover
This dataset is a binary reclassification of the LandFire BPS raster. Cells in the BPS raster that are classified as any type of vegetation (grass, shrub, woody, etc.) are assigned a value of 1, and all other cells (e.g., barren rock, ice, open water, etc.) are assigned a value of 0.
Vegetation Conversion
This is a raster dataset that represents conversion from one vegetation type to another between the BPS and EVT LandFire rasters (i.e., from historic conditions to the present). Broad vegetation types, such as conifer, shrub, riparian, etc. are given a conversion ID in both the EVT and BPS rasters. The codes from the EVT raster are substracted from the codes in the BPS raster, resulting in unique conversion ID values.
Floodplain Accessibility
This is a raster dataset that attempts to estimate floodplain accessibility using an automated algorithm. A D-8 flow direction raster is first generated from a pit-filled DEM. Then, for each cell that begins within the valley bottom, flow directions are traced downstream. If that tracing reaches the drainage network, all of the associated cells are coded as 1 for connected. If instead, the tracing reaches some sort of infrastructure first, all associated cells are coded as 0 for disconnected.