# Phase 1 Park Acquisition Checklist

This is the first **download-oriented** collection pass for park-centric
SignalReach propagation work.

Phase 1 areas:
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- Acadia National Park
- Everglades National Park
- Bays Mountain Park (Kingsport, TN)

## Primary Goals

For each area, collect in this order:

1. **authoritative boundary**
2. **point cloud source** (`LAZ`, `LAS`, or `EPT`)
3. **structure layer** (building footprints if available)
4. **surface products** (`DSM`, canopy, or related derivatives)
5. **bare-earth DEM only** if higher-order data are unavailable

## Shared Official Sources

### Boundaries
- NPS boundary guidance and authoritative Lands note:
  [NPMap](https://www.nps.gov/subjects/gisandmapping/npmap.htm)
- NPS GIS program landing page:
  [NPS GIS](https://www.nps.gov/gis/index.html)

### Inland lidar
- USGS 3DEP program:
  [What is 3DEP?](https://www.usgs.gov/index.php/3d-elevation-program/what-3dep)
- USGS lidar search/download:
  [LidarExplorer](https://www.usgs.gov/tools/lidarexplorer)

### Coastal lidar
- NOAA Data Access Viewer:
  [NOAA Data Access Viewer](https://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/index.html)
- NOAA long-term archive:
  [Coastal Lidar Archive](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/coastal-lidar-archive)

### Calibration supplement
- NEON spatial layers, field boundaries, and AOP flight boundaries:
  [NEON Spatial Data Layers & Maps](https://www.neonscience.org/data-samples/data/spatial-data-maps)
- NEON lidar / AOP product overview:
  [NEON Lidar](https://www.neonscience.org/data-collection/lidar)

## Suggested Folder Layout

For consistency, stage data like this:

```text
<repo-root>\data\parks\
  grsm\
    boundary\
    lidar\
    structures\
    surface\
    notes\
  acad\
    boundary\
    lidar\
    structures\
    surface\
    notes\
  ever\
    boundary\
    lidar\
    structures\
    surface\
    notes\
  bays_mountain\
    boundary\
    lidar\
    structures\
    surface\
    notes\
```

## 1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Official park page:
- [Great Smoky Mountains National Park](https://www.nps.gov/grsm/)

Boundary:
- Use the **authoritative NPS Lands boundary** referenced from [NPMap](https://www.nps.gov/subjects/gisandmapping/npmap.htm)

Primary lidar source:
- [USGS LidarExplorer](https://www.usgs.gov/tools/lidarexplorer)

Fallback:
- Tennessee / North Carolina state lidar if it is newer than the USGS 3DEP collection covering the same footprint

Acquisition checklist:
- boundary polygon for the full park
- point cloud tiles intersecting the park plus a small buffer
- building footprints for developed areas if available
- any canopy / surface derivatives available in the same collection
- notes on acquisition year and nominal pulse density

Collection note:
- This is the best **mountainous inland baseline park** for validating terrain +
  vegetation interactions.

NEON supplement:
- Great Smoky has the strongest current NEON value in this Phase 1 set because
  it has direct relevance as a calibration park.
- If time is limited, this is the first park where NEON overlap is worth
  explicitly collecting alongside USGS.

## 2. Acadia National Park

Official park page:
- [Acadia National Park](https://www.nps.gov/acad/)

Boundary:
- Use the **authoritative NPS Lands boundary** referenced from [NPMap](https://www.nps.gov/subjects/gisandmapping/npmap.htm)

Primary lidar source:
- [NOAA Data Access Viewer](https://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/index.html)

Secondary source:
- [USGS LidarExplorer](https://www.usgs.gov/tools/lidarexplorer)

Fallback:
- Maine state lidar if NOAA/USGS coverage is patchy or stale

Acquisition checklist:
- boundary polygon for the full park
- coastal lidar collection(s) overlapping Mount Desert Island and key park units
- point cloud or highest-fidelity elevation product available
- building footprints or developed-area vectors if present
- notes on whether the source is topographic only or includes coastal/bathy context

Collection note:
- This is the best **coastal rocky terrain** pilot and a good stress test for
  shoreline-adjacent park collection workflows.

## 3. Everglades National Park

Official park page:
- [Everglades National Park](https://www.nps.gov/ever/)

Boundary:
- Use the **authoritative NPS Lands boundary** referenced from [NPMap](https://www.nps.gov/subjects/gisandmapping/npmap.htm)

Primary lidar source:
- [NOAA Data Access Viewer](https://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/index.html)

Secondary source:
- [USGS LidarExplorer](https://www.usgs.gov/tools/lidarexplorer)

Fallback:
- South Florida regional/state sources only if NOAA/USGS availability is weak for a target subarea

Acquisition checklist:
- boundary polygon for the full park
- NOAA lidar collections intersecting the park
- note whether the available products are best for upland, wetland-edge, or coastal transition analysis
- structure vectors only where developed facilities or edge communities matter
- detailed source-year notes because wetland/coastal conditions can change interpretation

Collection note:
- This is the best **wetland / coastal transition** pilot and should be treated
  as a special-case environment, not a normal inland benchmark.

NEON supplement:
- Treat NEON here as a **regional ecosystem analog**, not as a replacement for
  Everglades National Park boundary-specific collection.
- Use NOAA/USGS for the park itself first, then use NEON only to inform
  vegetation/clutter calibration if the nearby AOP products are useful.

## 4. Bays Mountain Park

Official park pages:
- [Bays Mountain Park](https://www.baysmountain.com/park/)
- [Park Maps & Resources](https://www.baysmountain.com/park/maps-resources/)
- [Kingsport trail-map announcement](https://www.kingsporttn.gov/bays-mountain-park-unveils-new-trail-maps/)
- [Tennessee natural area page](https://www.tn.gov/environment/program-areas/na-natural-areas/natural-areas-east-region/east-region-/na-na-bays-mountain.html)

Boundary:
- Start with the official park map / Avenza trail map as the practical boundary reference
- Upgrade to a machine-readable polygon later if City of Kingsport or another authoritative GIS source is identified

Primary lidar source:
- [USGS LidarExplorer](https://www.usgs.gov/tools/lidarexplorer)

Fallback:
- Tennessee state or regional sources if they are newer or easier to clip locally

Acquisition checklist:
- derive or digitize a clean park boundary for working use
- collect point cloud tiles overlapping the full park and a small operational buffer
- collect building/structure footprints for park facilities if available
- note any gap between the official recreation map footprint and the natural area footprint

Collection note:
- This is the most important **local operational pilot** because it is close to
  the current Kingsport-area work and can become the first hands-on clutter
  validation area.

NEON supplement:
- Do not make NEON a priority for Bays Mountain.
- Use this as a USGS-driven local park workflow and compare it later against a
  separate NEON-backed calibration area like Great Smoky.

## NEON Priority For Phase 1

If you only have time to add NEON to one Phase 1 area, choose:

1. Great Smoky Mountains
2. Everglades region only if the regional analog data looks useful
3. Skip NEON for Acadia and Bays Mountain on the first pass

## Metadata To Capture For Every Download

For every source we stage, also write a small note file recording:

- source URL
- source organization
- download date
- area name
- acquisition year(s)
- format (`LAZ`, `LAS`, `EPT`, `DEM`, `GeoJSON`, etc.)
- CRS / projection
- any obvious coverage gaps
- whether it looks usable for vegetation, structures, or terrain only

## Practical First Download Sequence

If only one person is collecting data, do it in this order:

1. Great Smoky Mountains boundary + lidar
2. Bays Mountain boundary + lidar
3. Acadia boundary + NOAA lidar
4. Everglades boundary + NOAA lidar

Why this order:
- Great Smoky gives the first broad mountain benchmark
- Bays Mountain gives the first local hands-on test area
- Acadia and Everglades then cover the two main coastal edge cases

## Immediate Follow-On After Download

Once the first Phase 1 assets exist, the next engineering step should be:

1. clip one small AOI test subset for each area
2. run `ITM_BASE`
3. run `ITM_SAMPLED_LOCAL` where structure/vegetation layers exist
4. compare site and backhaul reason tags in the validation summary
