INVENTORY OF DELAWARE'S WETLANDS

OVERLAY MAPS OF DELAWARE'S WETLANDS HAVE BEEN PREPARED, SHOWING THE DOMINANT SPECIES OR GROUP OF SPECIES OF VEGETATION PRESENT. FIVE SUCH CATEGORIES OF VEGETATION WERE USED INDICATING MARSHES DOMINATED BY SPECIFIC GROUPS OF SPECIES. IN ADDITION, MAJOR SECONDARY SPECIES WERE INDICATED WHERE APPROPRIATE. SMALL, REPRESENTATIVE AREAS OF EACH OF THE MAJOR MARSH REGIONS WERE ANALYZED AND ENHANCED TO SHOW DETAILED GROWTH PATTERNS NOT SHOWN ON THE SMALL-SCALE MAPS. THE MAPPING TECHNIQUE UTILIZED THE GENERAL ELECTRIC MULTISPECTRAL DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM (GEMSDPS) TO ANALYZE NASA RB-57 COLOR-INFRARED IMAGERY. THE GEMSDPS IS A HYBRID ANALOGUE-DIGITAL SYSTEM DESIGNED AS AN ANALYSIS TOOL TO BE USED BY AN OPERATOR WHOSE OWN JUDGEMENT AND KNOWLEDGE OF GROUND TRUTH CAN BE INCORPORATED AT ANY TIME INTO THE ANALYZING PROCESS. THE RESULT IS A HIGH-SPEED, COST-EFFECTIVE METHOD FOR PRODUCING ENHANCED PHOTOMAPS SHOWING A NUMBER OF SPECTRAL CLASSES.