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Roadway & Roadside Maintenance

Beaver Island ferry travelling down the waterway.
Department of Transportation

Roadway & Roadside Maintenance

Identify Mapping Techniques of Invasive Plant Species Within the MDOT Right-of-Way 


Project Number: SPR-1759

Contract Number: 2023-0726 

Status: Complete

Start Date: 10/11/2023

End Date 9/30/2025

Summary:

Invasive species can be detrimental to our communities and environment as they can cause economic or environmental harm, including harm to human, animal, or plant health. These species thrive in transportation corridors which can be used to spread into new areas. This project focused on mapping four invasive plant species common reed (Phragmites australis), Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica), wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa), and leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula). The selection of these species was made based on the researchers’ previous experience with mapping invasive species and recommendations from MDOT. Mapping guidelines were developed for each species which includes, drone collection parameters, necessary data layers, classification methodologies, and accuracies of the mapping methods

Publications: