A Demonstration of Cartographic Modeling for Evaluating Natural Resources
Abstract
Cartographic modeling was used to evaluate the natural resources of the Angelina National Forest in East Texas. With the aid of the Map Analysis Package, three models were developed to evaluate historic changes, project future trends and to determine the proximity of resource to a specific location. Accuracies of results were determined at two different scales. MAP estimates at the smaller scales were about 92% and about 98% at the larger scale. Boundary cells were found to be important in improving accuracies of MAP estimates at the smaller scale. The performance of a representative low-cost grid-based system in building cartographic models is evaluated based on their utility in developing countries where there are scarcity of data, budget limitations and inadequate personnel.
