Introduction

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is building hydrologic models of the Florida Everglades for use in managing South Florida surface water flows for habitat restoration and maintenance in the Everglades National Park and Water Conservation Areas. Because of the low gradients present in the Everglades, small variations in topography and differences in vegetation structural characteristics are important factors in the distribution of surface water flow. At the USGS, National Mapping Division (NMD), we are developing and applying data collection, analysis, and modeling techniques to generate spatially distributed information on topography and vegetation density.

Unfortunately, existing vegetation maps fail to meet our needs because they were created with different requirements and technologies. Therefore, we are developing our own techniques to map vegetation type on a regional scale. This effort is detailed elsewhere in this volume (see Carter et al.). Here we focus on the generation of elevation and vegetation density information using unique collection and analysis techniques.