What criteria do scientists use to delineate riparian and wetland areas?
Defining wetlands has become more difficult as greater economic stakes have increased the involvement of politics and decreased the involvement of science. A universally accepted wetland definition satisfactory to all users has not yet been developed because the definition depends on the objectives and the field of interest. However, scientists generally agree that wetlands are characterized by one or more of the following features: 1) wetland hydrology, the driving force creating all wetlands, 2) hydric soils, an indicator of the absence of oxygen, and 3) hydrophytic vegetation, an indicator reflecting wetland site conditions. The problem is how to define and obtain consensus on thresholds for these three criteria and various combinations of the three criteria. Jurisdictional and Functional Wetland Criteria–Much of the disagreement on thresholds has been focused on differences between jurisdictional wetlands, and functional wetlands. For more detailed information, see pages 6-7 (Jurs
