A GIS-Enabled Application to Assist Environmental Assessment of Wetlands

Author: Ilir Bejleri
Organization: GeoPlan Center, University of Florida

431 Architecture Building
Gainesville, FL 32611
USA

Phone: (352) 392-0997
Fax: (392) 352-3308
ILIR@GEOPLAN.UFL.EDU

This paper describes the development of an application in ArcView GIS by the GeoPlan Center of the University of Florida to assist with the wetlands rapid assessment procedure (WRAP). WRAP was developed by the South Florida Water Management District with the intention to be used by a number of agencies including the Department of Transportation as a standard and consistent tool for environmental assessment of wetlands in the State of Florida.

The functionality of the application is focused on the office component of the WRAP methodology, both prior and after on-site wetland evaluation. Functions include identification of wetlands in the road project corridor; usage of the aerial photography to delineate more accurately recent changes; identification of adjacent land uses, habitat, soils, hydrology, species, and so on; and automation of the field data sheet and the wetland impact scoring system. Documentation of the findings in the field is supported by the ability to hot link photos of species and other physical aspects of wetlands with the digital database. Additionally the application creates Web pages that document the analysis including layouts, statistical tables, field data sheets, and photos and comments that can be attached to e-mail or posted on the Web. This allows sharing of results among specialist and facilitates interagency coordination during the wetland assessment process.