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The potential role of very high-resolution imagery to characterise lake, wetland and stream systems across the Prairie Pothole Region, United States
Citation:
Vanderhoof, M. AND C. Lane. The potential role of very high-resolution imagery to characterise lake, wetland and stream systems across the Prairie Pothole Region, United States. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REMOTE SENSING. Taylor & Francis, Inc., Philadelphia, PA, 40(15):5768-5798, (2019). https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2019.1582112
Impact/Purpose:
Purpose: The purpose of this analysis was not to generate novel image processing approaches, but instead to characterise the relative impact of products on our interpretation of surface water distribution and interactions. Impact: This study found that input-data granularity has an effect on our interpretation of surface water distribution and movement that can potentially impact subsequent applications of surface water monitoring such as resource management or modeling efforts. For example, hydrologic and biogeochemical model outputs may change markedly depending on the defined expanse of wetted areas, flowpath extent, active contributing areas, and processing length (e.g., Baker et al. 2007, Nadeau and Rains 2007, Rains et al. 2015, Golden et al. 2017).
Description:
Aquatic features critical to watershed hydrology range widely in size from narrow, shallow streams to large, deep lakes. In this study we evaluated wetland, lake, and river systems across the Prairie Pothole Region to explore where pan-sharpened high-resolution (PSHR) imagery, relative to Landsat imagery, could provide additional data on surface water distribution and movement, missed by Landsat. We used the monthly Global Surface Water (GSW) Landsat product as well as surface water derived from Landsat imagery using a matched filtering algorithm (MF Landsat) to help consider how including partially inundated Landsat pixels as water influenced our findings. The PSHR outputs (and MF Landsat) were able to identify ~60–90% more surface water interactions between waterbodies, relative to the GSW Landsat product. However, regardless of Landsat source, by documenting many smaller (<0.2 ha), inundated wetlands, the PSHR outputs modified our interpretation of wetland size distribution across the Prairie Pothole Region.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: The potential role of very high-resolution imagery to characterise lake, wetland and stream systems across the Prairie Pothole Region, United States