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n~?~S~ PRELIMINARY APPLICATIONS OF LANDSAT IMAGES AND AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR DETERMINING LAND-USE, GEOLOGIC, AND HYDROLOGIC CHARACTERISTICS--YAMPA RIVER BASIN, COLORADO AND WYOMING By Frederick J. Heimes, Gerald K, Moore, and Timothy Doak Steele ABSTRACT Expanded energy- and recreation-related activities in the Yampa River basin, Colorado and Wyoming, have caused a rapid increase in economic development which will result in increased demand and competition for natural resources. Remote-sensing data may provide timely information which is required in planning for efficient allocation of the basin's natural resources, This study used Landsat images and small-scale color and color- infrared photographs for selected geologic, hydrologic, and land-use applica- tions within the Yampa River basin. Applications of Landsat data included: (1) Regional land-use classifi- cation,(2) lineament mapping, and (3) areal snow-cover mapping. Results from the landsat investigations indicated that: (1) Regional land-cover classifi- cation determined from Landsat data compared favorably with land use defined from aerial photographs and available ground information, (2) numerous linea- ments that may be indicators of potential ground-water resources were mapped from images using photointerpretation techniques, and (3) snow cover could generally be mapped for large areas with the exception of some densely for- ested areas of the basin and areas having a large percentage of winter-season cloud cover, The analysis of Landsat data tended to be qualitative for the most part, because of a lack of sufficient and timely ground information to quantitatively evaluate their accuracy. Aerial photographs were used for estimating turbidity at eight locations on three streams in the basin. Spectral reflectance values obtained by digitizing photographs were compared with measured turbidity values. Results showed correlations (variances explained of greater than 90 percent) between spectral reflectance obtained from color photographs and measured turbidity values. Results the design employed and from these preliminary investigations will be incorporated in of continuing studies which will further evaluate the techniques provide more quantitative measures of their accuracy.