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A GIS APPROACH TO IDENTIFY AND CLASSIFY HYDROGEOMORPHIC TYPES OF COASTAL WETLANDS OF THE GREAT LAKES
Citation:
Moffett, M F., N E. Detenbeck, T. P. Simon, S. L. Stark, V. J. Brady, M. S. Peterson, AND J. Keough. A GIS APPROACH TO IDENTIFY AND CLASSIFY HYDROGEOMORPHIC TYPES OF COASTAL WETLANDS OF THE GREAT LAKES. Presented at Society of Wetland Scientists Annual Meeting and Special Symposium, Lake Placid, NY, June 2-7, 2002.
Description:
There is a need by Great Lakes managers to have a comprehensive inventory of the coastal wetland resources for monitoring and assessment. An electronic database and geographic information system (GIS) point coverage of coastal wetland locations along the U.S. shoreline have been produced primarily from literature sources and contains the entire list of wetlands identified by Herdendorf (et al. 1981). As part of an EPA Regional Monitoring and Assessment Program project in 2001, the coordinate accurance in the database was checked by visits to over 130 of 283 riverine coastal wetlands across four Great Lakes using a global positioning system (GPS). Location, area and classification information in the point coverage database is being cross-walked with wetland areas identified in the U.S. FWS National Wetland Inventory and state inventory polygon coverages for Lake Michigan to determine the concordance of these two independent data sources for locating wetlands. As a further step, GIS tools are being tested for efficacy of use to identify coastal wetlands by their proximity to and influence by waters of the Great Lakes and to classify them into one of three hydrogeomorphic types (shoreline, protected or riverine). The need for combining data and using GIS to assist in the identification of different types of coastal wetlands is especially important for a large geographic region with many small and inaccessible wetlands along the coastal Great Lakes. This abstract does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.