Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Forest File Format Information
The detailed information in these sections provides data users with information about file name significance and a description of the data. The file naming convention explanation section describes the type of data, field station that collected the data, year of collection, and data batch number; whereas the data description includes field column positions, historical summary, and field descriptions. The detailed data descriptions section described below is available in a downloadable ASCII form.
File Naming Convention Explanation
| f0494a.dat = Pool 4 | f0894a.dat = Pool 8 | f1394a.dat = Pool 13 |
| f1794a.dat = Pool 17 | f2294a.dat = Pool 22 | f2694a.dat = Pool 26 |
| fcg94a.dat = Cape Girardeau |
flg94a.dat = La Grange Pool (Havana) |
forest94.dat = data for all eight pools |
Data Descriptions
Each variable is written in a fixed field in ASCII character format. The "Format" column adapts SAS format specifiers.
| Field Name | Field Position | Format |
|---|---|---|
| River | 1-2 |
$2 |
| River Mile | 5-9 |
5.1 |
| Reach | 12-17 |
$aaccccc |
| Transect | 20-22 |
2.0 |
| Sampling Point | 25-26 |
2.0 |
| Group | 29-29 |
$1 |
| Quad | 33-34 |
$2 |
| Species | 37-66 |
$30 |
69-73 |
5.1 |
|
| Vigor | 76-76 |
$1 |
| 1993 Flooding | 79-79 |
$1 |
| PTT | 82-87 |
6.1 |
| Site Geomorphology | 90-91 |
$2 |
| Top Soil Change | 94-94 |
$1 |
| Top Soil Type | 97-98 |
$2 |
| Dist | 101-103 |
4.0 |
| Date | 106-113 |
MM/DD/YYYY |
| Crew | 115-135 |
$20 |
Field Descriptions
Special Attention
In the LTRMP procedures manual, trees are defined as woody stems (excluding vines) 10 cm or greater in diameter at breast height (DBH) and saplings are defined as woody stems (excluding vines) 2.5 to 9.9 cm DBH. These definitions were adapted when data were collected in Pools 4, 8, 13, 17, 22, and 26, and the open river along the UMR. Because of an error made by the field crew, these definitions were altered when data were collected in the Havana reach of the Illinois River. At Havana, trees were defined as woody stems (excluding vines) that were at least 10 cm in diameter and whose crown were in the canopy layer; saplings were defined as woody stems (excluding vines) that were in the understory but were 2.5 cm or greater DBH.
Disclaimer
These data have been generated by State agencies under contract with the Department of the Interior and the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC). Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the UMESC, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made regarding the accuracy or utility of the data on any other system or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. However, error correction is a continuing process, and the UMESC routinely makes changes to data as errors are discovered. The file date is referred to as the release date and should be mentioned in all references to data. These data have been provided as a unit package to ensure that you receive a valid dataset collected in a consistent manner. Methods, purposes, and conditions can vary dramatically among data-collecting efforts and these data should not be combined with other datasets from the UMESC or other sources unless the user fully understands the procedures and purposes used to create each set of data and can verify that data are comparable across sources.
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/data_library/floodplain_forest/forest_fmt.html
Page Contact Information: Contacting the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Page Last Modified:
March 13, 2014
