Abstract |
The safe disposal of hazardous waste, the understanding of acid rain related effects, and the attainability of high water quality are but a few examples needing regional consideration for their management. A regional approach to environmental management is facilitated by identifying ecologically homogeneous land types within broad geographic regions. To address this need, the ecological characteristics of major land types in the eastern half of the conterminous United States are generated by a computer directly from the maps of the National Atlas. Thematic maps from the Atlas representing land surface form, surficial geology, soils, and potential natural vegetation were digitized and used in the computer for an overlay analysis. The joint spacial correlation of the like ecological characteristics were evaluated based on these maps and boundaries of major ecologically homogenous land types were drawn using computer graphics. |