67 - 
INTRODUCTION 
Resource managers charged with multiple use management of large 
tracts of land have found that the use of remote sensing data products enhance 
their ability to more efficiently manage the various resources for which they 
are responsible. Remote sensing data products have been proven to be most 
beneficial in the inventory and analysis phases of resource management, but 
many earth resource components are of a dynamic rather than a static nature. 
It is thus necessary to inventory, maintain and update resource data frequently 
in order to monitor trends of various resources, and rapidly so that resource 
management decisions can be made and implemented while inventory data are 
still current. Not all organizations charged with resource management, however, 
have sufficient manpower or budgetary allocation to perform inventories with 
sufficient frequency and accuracy. Hence, there is a need to improve the 
efficiency of many conventional inventory systems currently in use. State-of- 
the-art remote sensing technology can provide the means for meeting this need. 
When tremendous technological advancements have taken place within a 
scientific field, as in the field of remote sensing there comes a time when this 
technical information must be transmitted to and utilized by those organizations 
and agencies which can benefit the most from this transfer of technology. For 
example, sensing vehicles now encompass the conventional survey aircraft, the 
high performance U-2 aircraft, and earth orbital platforms such as the Earth 
Resources Technological Satellite (ERTS-1). Likewise, modern sensor devices 
capitalize on the effectiveness of high resolution metric cameras, true-color 
and false-color infrared film emulsions and multispectral optical scanners. 
Most importantly, significant advancements have taken place in the field of 
automatic data analysis which include automatic image classification and data 
processing, and multistage sampling- discriminant analysis procedures. 
Under the auspices of technology transfer a remote sensing project was 
conducted with the Bureau of Land Management, who is charged with multiple 
resource management. The objective of the project was to demonstrate the 
operational utility of remote sensing data and data products for acquiring 
multidisciplinary resource information. The information gained was to be utilized 
in management framework and activity planning phases of multiple resource 
management. Manual photo interpretation of ERTS-1 and supporting aircraft 
data have been employed to produce soils, vegetation, and land use maps in a 
450,000 hectare resource planning unit in Northeastern California. The 
objective of this paper is to discuss how this satellite imagery and various 
levels of aerial photography was utilized for an operational resource inventory 
with emphasis on the soil-vegetation mapping phase of the project. 
Study Area 
The study area encompasses two planning units within the Susanville 
District (B.L.M.), located in Northeastern California. This region is 
characterized by a semi-arid climate, averaging 20 to 40 cm of precipitation per 
year, occurring primarily between October and June in the form of snow and