Using normal color, six inch resolution digital ortho-photographs in mapping Pomacea paludosa habitat in Grassy Waters Preserve as a natural resource management tool for the endangered Florida raptor, Rostrhamus sociabilis plumbeus

Normal color digital ortho-photos with six inch resolution were used to test the feasibility of mapping the habitat of the Florida apple snail, the exclusive food source of the Endangered Florida snail kite. Several remote sensing techniques such as unsupervised and supervised classifications are evaluated and accuracy assessed. While the overall ability to classify apple snail habitat is significant, sparse areas of emergent vegetation which are preferred foraging areas for the kite were excluded by the classification and needed to be re-introduced for further analysis. The methodology can be repeated to measure change over time since the NC imagery of Grassy Waters Preserve is acquired frequently. Additionally, three spectral levels of density abundance of wetland graminoid species that denote apple snail habitat were examined for mapping potential on the imagery. A site suitability analysis using a weighed overlay tool in ArcGIS is suggested as a means to include numerous other key factors influencing habitat selection by the snail kite in a mapping project.