of the island ensures beaches of sparkling white sand. 
Barbados relies on tourism as its main source of foreign exchange. In 1978 the 
tourist sector accounted for 17 percent of Gross National Product and 
approximately 33 percent of foreign exchange ( Financial Times,1978). The 
other foreign exchange earners are sugar, and to a lesser extent 
manufacturing. It must therefore be emphasised that tourism occupies a place 
of special importance in the economy of Barbados. 
According to the Barbados Physical Development Plan, (1970) ".....the brunt of 
the demand for tourist accommodation will fall on whatever land is available 
that is contiguous with or adjacent to good, safe bathing beaches, and this 
means the regions of the south and west coast of the island.'. 
Despite the government's unequivocal commitment to the location of tourist 
accomodation, there is no full-time environmental scientist to advise the 
government on coastal problems which have resulted, or which are likely to 
occur, from the location of the tourist industry. The inadequacies of control 
or remedial measures in the coastal zone is highlighted by the fact that all 
applications, to construct buildings adjacent to the beach, are processed 
individually, by the Town and Country Planning Department, without any or 
adequate studies being carried out to determine the environmental impact of 
such development. 
METHODS AND PROCEDURES 
The first stage of this study was to identify the existence of various sets of 
aerial photography of the island. This phase of the study is very important 
since the availability of coverage determines to a large extent the success of 
the photographic approach to environmental documentation. 
Black and white panchromatic aerial photography was acquired and studied for 
the years,-*1951, 1964, 1972 at scales of 1:12000,.1:5000, and 1:12500 
respectively. To supplement this photography, low altitude,colour oblique 
aerial photography was taken in 1980 with a 35 mm camera for selected areas 
along the coastal zone. The 1980 photography was taken with a 60 percent 
overlap to enable them to be viewed stereoscopically. 
Analysis of the photography was conducted by viewing pairs stereoscopically 
with the Carl Zeiss Jena Interpretoskope with magnification ranging from lx - 
15x. An acetate overlay was used to record the data extracted from the 
photography. 
A classification table was compiled in order to map and classify sea-bed 
conditions. The results were correlated with information obtained from a 
survey carried out from H. M. Surveying ship " HECATE" during 1980, to give 
precise information about the depth of the water and the slope of the sea bed. 
The results as interpreted from the aerial photography were transferred to a 
base map with the aid of a Bausch and Lomb Zoom Transferscope. A Hewlett- 
Packard 9874A Digitizer attached to a Commodore PET micro-computer was used to 
compute areas and to measure changes in land use. The software used was 
originally developed for an HP9825A computer. This software had to be adapted 
to make it compatible with the Commodore PET micro-computer. 
STUDY RESULTS 
The most striking feature is the camera's ability to see underwater features 
to a depth of about 11.3m (37 feet) in the coastal environment of Barbados. 
The depth at which underwater features are indentified depends upon a number 
of factors such as the transparency of water, the roughness of the sea 
surface, the height and angle of the sun above the horizon, the nature of the 
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