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legislation shares a common characteristic with many other laws passed con- 
cerning resource planning and management at the national level: they assume 
implicitly that a land use and land cover data base exists and is being 
nurtured by some unknown agency, when in fact, no such data base has ever 
existed. Filling this particular void is the focus of the USGS land use and 
land cover map and data program, which is managed by geographers working in 
the Geography Program of the Land Information and Analysis Office of USGS. 
In spite of the present incompleteness of nationwide coverage of land use 
and land cover maps, several other Federal agencies are working with the USGS 
in applying the maps and data that do exist or in planning for future use of 
the products. 
In a contribution to the Nationwide Outdoor Recreation Plan being developed 
by the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, land use and land cover 
patterns and changes through time for all U.S. barrier islands are being 
related to the potential for recreational use. 
The first maps compiled as part of the National Wetland Inventory currently 
being undertaken by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have been published 
for coastal areas of Louisiana. The Wetland Inventory gathers more specific 
information about wetlands than the USGS land use and land cover mapping pro- 
gram, but gathers no information on land uses or cover types adjoining wetlands. 
The USGS information will be used in conjunction with the Fish and Wildlife 
Service wetland information to assess potential conflicts and pressures exerted 
on wetlands from adjacent "uplands. 
The U.S. Soil Conservation Service is concerned with identification, location, 
and use of prime agricultural land. USGS will provide data on land use and 
land cover which can be interfaced with SCS mapping and data compilation for 
prime agricultural land. 
2. Applications at the Regional Level 
Shortly after the land use and land cover maps and data were available for the 
areas adjacent to the main stem of the Arkansas River in Arkansas and eastern 
Oklahoma, the Ozarks Regional Commission funded the addition of six other sets 
of data into the existing land use and land cover data base for the counties 
adjoining the Arkansas River. The data added included information on the 100- 
year flood-plain, mineral deposits, utility lines, surface transportation, 
fish and wildlife areas, and historic sites. The Arkansas River Development 
Corporation used these data in combination with a previous study to determine 
land use and land cover changes within a selected area along the Arkansas River. 
Since 1974, the USGS has been involved with the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA) and the Pacific Northwest Regional Commission in the Land 
Resource Inventory Project. This Project has focused on transferring remote 
sensing technology to State and local agencies within the three-State 
(Washington, Oregon, and Idaho) region to be used in the various land resource 
management and planning activities.