WETLANDS

JUSTIFICATION FOR USE:

Another important factor we considered in determining areas that were most suitable for development was the presence of wetland areas. We decided that developing in a wetland area could have a dramatic impact on the water quality and quantity of the Ichetucknee Basin. We felt that it was crucial for us to identify wetland areas and to not allow development in those areas.

PROCESS:

This information layer was available to us in a digital format from the Florida Geographic Data Library (FGDL). While we got the data from FGDL, it is important to note they were not the creators of this information layer. The Suwannee River Water Management District originally created the coverage, and they, in turn, gave it to the Geoplan Center for use in the FGDL. This information layer, or coverage, contained many different pieces of information, or fields, which we could analyze or display on the computer. One of the fields contained a description of the land use or land cover present in an area. Wetland areas were listed in this filed as a land cover type. We selected these wetland areas and created a new coverage that showed only wetland areas within the three county region. The information from this coverage was used differently than most of the others. This coverage, along with the Conservation Lands, Flood Potential Areas, and Archaeological and Historical Sites, was used to eliminate areas from consideration. These four coverages acted together to "mask out" those areas that, for some reason or another, were highly inappropriate for development and so should not be considered.

RESULTS:

The result of our work is a map that shows the three county area with all of the wetland areas identified. This map then became one of many different information layers that were weighted and combined to give us our Residential and Commercial Intermediate Suitability Maps.