Classification of wetlands has been a problematical task, with the commonly accepted definition of what constitutes a wetland being among the major difficulties. A number of national wetland classifications exist. In the 1970s, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance introduced a first attempt to establish an internationally acceptable wetland classification scheme.[1]
The Ramsar classification of wetland types is intended as a means for fast identification of the main types of wetlands for the purposes of the convention.[2]
The wetlands are classified into three major classes:
These are further subdivided by the type of water: fresh / saline / brackish / alkaline; and may be further classified by the substrate type of other characteristics.
Wetlands in Australia that considered to be of national importance are so classified by criteria published in association with the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia (DIWA).[3]
The following list is that used within Australia to classify wetland by type:[4]
Wetlands of the United States are classified according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wetlands Inventory (NWI).[5]
In the US, the best known classification systems are the Cowardin classification system and the hydrogeomorphic (HGM) classification system.
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