Ratings are given on a 1–5 scale.
Difficulty: a measure of the time and complexity required to implement the method. A score of 1 indicates a simple method, while a 5 indicates a complex and/or time-consuming method.
Technical Level: a measure of the level of GIS and remote sensing experience required to implement a method. A score of 1 indicates that the method does not require a great deal of experience, while a score of 5 indicates the method requires a great deal of knowledge and experience.
Expense: the costs involved in acquiring imagery, data, special software, and other materials required to implement a method. It is assumed that the user has access to ESRI’s ArcDesktop and ERDAS Imagine. Note: labor costs are included in the difficulty rating above. A score of 1 indicates an inexpensive method, while a method with a score of 5 will require a substantial investment. This category is can be variable due to the abundance of free medium-resolution imagery and the differing costs of special acquisitions.
Scale: all of the methods presented here can be implemented using imagery of any resolution. Valley bottom mapping methods use DEMs that are typically 10 m or 30 m; however, higher-resolution DEMs can be created from sources such as lidar. Typical riparian vegetation mapping investigations will use imagery with a 30 m or finer resolution.
Accuracy: These ratings assume ideal conditions. Real world accuracies will depend on many factors including analyst skill, training data accuracy, and image quality. A rating of 1 indicates a low accuracy, while a rating of 5 indicates a high level of accuracy.