Use and applicability of the vegetation component of the national site classification system

Existing vegetation on a site in Sumter National Forest, South Carolina was classified using high altitude aerial optical bar color infrared photography in an effort to determine if the National Site Classification (NSC) system could be used in the heterogeneously forested southeastern United States where it had not previously been used. Results show that the revised UNESCO international classification and mapping of vegetation system, as incorporated into the NSCS, is general enough at the higher levels and specific enough at the lower levels to adequately accommodate densely forested, heterogeneous areas as well as the larger, more homogeneous regions of the Pacific Northwest. The major problem is of existing vegetation versus natural vegetation.