National Vegetation Classification: Implementation and Outreach for Oklahoma

Efficient stewardship of the nation’s biological resources requires a systematic inventory and classification of the systems which support these resources. In February 2008, the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) formally endorsed the National Vegetation Standard, version 2 (FGDC-STD-005-2008), the purpose thereof to support the development and use of consistent standards for vegetation data collected at local, regional, and national levels. The Standard will allow the production of uniform statistics about vegetation resources across the nation, enable the translation of data collected at various scales, and allow data sharing, aggregation, and comparisons across regions.

In 2008, Coordinate Solutions received a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Cooperative Aggreements Program grant (award number 08HQAG0032) to provide assistance and outreach in the implementation of the National Vegetation Classification, Version 2. As part of the grant agreement, Coordinate Solutions, with assistance from the Oklahoma Biological Survey and members of the FGDC Vegetation Subcommittee, has developed education materials related to the National Vegetation Standard, version 2. These materials are now available for download and distribution.