Coupling past management practice and historic landscape change on John F.Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Historic landcover dynamics in a scrubby flatwoods (Tel-4) and scrub landsc ape (Happy Creek) on John F. Kennedy Space Center were measured using aeria l images from 1943, 1951, 1958, 1969, 1979, and 1989. Landcover categories were mapped, digitized, geometrically registered, and overlaid in ARC/INFO. Both study sites have been influenced by various land use histories, inclu ding periods of range management, fire suppression, and fire management. Se veral analyses were performed to help understand the effects of past land m anagement on the amount and spatial distribution of landcover within the st udy sites. A chi-squared analysis showed a significant difference between t he frequency of landcover occurrence and management period. Markov chain mo dels were used to project observed changes over a 100-year period; these sh owed current management practices being effective at Tel-4 (restoring histo ric landscape structure) and much less effective at Happy Creek. Documentin g impacts of past management regimes on landcover has provided important in sight into current landscape composition and will provide the basis for imp roving land management on Kennedy Space Center and elsewhere.