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The changing face of floodplains in the Mississippi River Basin detected by a 60-year land use change dataset
Citation:
Rajib, A., Q. Zheng, H. Golden, Q. Wu, C. Lane, J. Christensen, R. Morrison, A. Annis, AND F. Nardi. The changing face of floodplains in the Mississippi River Basin detected by a 60-year land use change dataset. Scientific Data. Springer Nature, New York, NY, 8:271, (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-01048-w
Impact/Purpose:
Long-term floodplain land use data can be used to effectively quantify floodplain functions and development trajectories and provide spatially explicit landscape-scale GIS data for management, restoration, and concomitant flood-risk mitigation. We present the first available GIS dataset quantifying floodplain land use change along the two million km2 Mississippi River Basin (MRB) covering 60 years (1941-2000) at 250-m resolution. We include four unique products as part of this work, a(n): (i) Google Earth Engine interactive map visualization interface, (ii) Google-based Python code (browser-agnostic), (iii) online tutorial with visualizations facilitating classroom code application, and (iv) instructional video demonstrating code application and database reproduction. These data will support MRB resilience and sustainability goals by providing 60 years of geospatially explicit floodplain data to advance adaptive management strategies for restoration, floodplain-buyout opportunities, and conservation scenarios within this globally important river basin.
Description:
Floodplains provide essential ecosystem functions, yet >80% of European and North American floodplains are substantially modified. Despite floodplain changes over the past century, comprehensive, long-term land use change data within large river basin floodplains are limited. Long-term land use data can be used to quantify floodplain functions and provide spatially explicit information for management, restoration, and flood-risk mitigation. We present a comprehensive dataset quantifying floodplain land use change along the 3.3 million km2 Mississippi River Basin (MRB) covering 60 years (1941–2000) at 250-m resolution. We developed four unique products as part of this work, a(n): (i) Google Earth Engine interactive map visualization interface, (ii) Python code that runs in any internet browser, (iii) online tutorial with visualizations facilitating classroom code application, and (iv) instructional video demonstrating code application and database reproduction. Our data show that MRB’s natural floodplain ecosystems have been substantially altered to agricultural and developed land uses. These products will support MRB resilience and sustainability goals by advancing data-driven decision making on floodplain restoration, buyout, and conservation scenarios.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: The changing face of floodplains in the Mississippi River Basin detected by a 60-year land use change dataset
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