COMMISSION VII 
INTERPRETATION OF DATA 
INTERPRETATION DES INFORMATIONS 
INTERPRETATION DER INFORMATIONEN 
President: 
Secretary: 
Dr. L. Sayn-Wittgenstein (Canada) 
Dr. A. Aldred (Canada) 
Monday, July 12, 1976, from 16.15 to 17.00 
Session 1 of Commission VII 
Topic: Business Meeting 
Chairman: Dr. L. Sayn-Wittgenstein (Canada) 
1. Commission VII Technical Program 
The mechanics for running the technical ses- 
sions and extra sessions given out by the Con- 
gress organizers were reviewed. 
2. Resolutions Committee 
A committee, chaired by Mr. R. Heller (U.S.A.), 
was set up to receive Commission VII resolutions 
and to transmit them to the I.S.P. Council. 
2. Report by Dr. G. Hildebrandt (F.R.G.) on the 
International Union of Forest Research Orga- 
nizations Subject Group on Remote Sensing 
The objectives of the Subject Group are the 
promotion of the application of remote sensing 
in forestry, the dissemination of information on 
new methods of remote sensing, and the ex- 
change of information. In addition, the Group 
advises international organizations on remote 
sensing applications. For example, five members 
of the Group participated as consultants to FAO 
in the formulation of the tropical forest cover 
monitoring project. 
The Subject Group has an active core of forty 
experts and approximately two hundred interested 
participants. Interest within IUFRO in remote 
sensing is rising and ties with Commission VII 
are facilitated by the fact that the President of 
Commission VII is a member of the IUFRO Group. 
In. 1973, a remote sensing symposium was orga- 
nized in Freiberg (F.R.G.). Proceedings were 
published and are still available for DM 26 
from Professor G. Hildebrandt. Proceedings of a 
1976 Oslo symposium will be available from the 
same source. 
At Oslo it was proposed that time and location 
of the next meeting of the IUFRO Group should 
be coordinated with Commission VII. Close ties 
with Commission VII will be maintained in the 
future. 
Wednesday, July 14, 1976, from 15.45 to 17.15 
Session 2 of Commission VII 
Topic: Water and Wetlands 
Chairman: Dr. L. Sayn-Wittgenstein (Canada) 
126 
Invited Papers 
Author: Dr. R. McEwen (U.S.A.) 
Title: Remote Sensing and Mapping of 
Coastal Wetlands /P VII/07 
Presented by Dr. R. Welch (USA) 
Limitations of line maps presently used to por- 
tray coastal information were reviewed. The ad- 
vantages and disadvantages of aerial photo- 
graphs (black and white and color) for interpreting 
wetland vegetation were discussed. Color ortho- 
photo maps were considered to be a better 
means of presenting coastal wetlands information 
than line maps. 
Author: Dr. C. Olson (U.S.A.) 
Title: Remote Sensing of Water and Wet- 
lands /P VII/09 
Applications of remote sensing in water and 
wetland inventory and monitoring programs are 
growing rapidly. This growth parallels the earlier 
development of remote sensing of terrestrial 
features. Techniques for accurately mapping 
location and outline of water bodies and dis- 
criminating between different types of wetland 
vegetation are operational. Progress is being 
made in remote determination of water quality, 
dynamics of wetland circulations, and standing 
plant biomass. Greater attention needs to be 
placed on the development of quantitative 
methods, on understanding wetland dynamics, 
on determining the spectral charasteristics of 
water and wetland materials, and on adapting 
remote sensing techniques to needs of decision 
makers. 
Panel Discussion 
Topic: Assessment of Water Quality and 
Wetlands 
Moderator: Dr. C. Olson (U.S.A.) 
Panelists: — Mr. D. Kolouch (F.R.G.) 
Dr. U. Wieczoreck (F.R.G.) 
Dr. K. Thomson (Canada) 
Dr. Thomson observed that more data are re- 
quired on the effects of atmospheric conditions 
on interpretation. 
Mr. Kolouch reported that an experiment had 
been carried out: 1) to find the optimum spectral 
bands for discriminating turbid and clear water, 
2) to find out whether there are spectral signa- 
tures which could be indicators of suspension 
and 3) to determine if the degree of turbidity 
could be quantified. Specral bands in the 600, 
850 and 1085 nm zones were found to be the 
best. At these optimum turbidity could be quan- 
tified, though further testing is needed before 
generalizations can be made. 
Dr. Wieczorek said the use of aerial photographs 
for interpreting tidal currents charasteristics 
inferred from aerial linear patterns left behind in 
eroded and deposited material had been studied. 
Some of the morphological and pattern charac- 
teristics had been investigated through mathe- 
matical representations based on density gra- 
dients. The statistics generated on large com- 
puters had contributed to automatic mapping of 
tidal currents and assisted human interpretation. 
In the general discussion that followed, Dr. G.