Portions of the Savannah River floodplain swamp were evaluated for vegetation change using high resolution (5·6 m) aircraft multispectral scanner (MSS) data. Image distortion from aircraft movement prevented precise image-to-image registration in some areas. However, when small scenes were used (200–250 ha), a first-order linear transformation provided registration accuracies of less than or equal to one pixel. A larger area was registered using a piecewise linear method. Five major wetland classes were identified and evaluated for change. Phenological differences and the variable distribution of vegetation limited wetland type discrimination. Using unsupervised methods and ground-collected vegetation data, overall classification accuracies ranged from 84 per cent to 87 per cent for each scene. Results suggest that high-resolution aircraft MSS data can be precisely registered, if small areas are used, and that wetland vegetation change can be accurately detected and monitored.