Jefferson County Ecological Conservation: Quantifying the Effects of Hydrologic Restoration in the Camas National Wildlife Refuge and Mud Lake Wildlife Management Area
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Wetlands in the Camas National Wildlife Refuge and Mud Lake Wildlife Management Area, a rare landscape feature in the Intermountain West, are crucial for migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway, yet these wetlands have experienced a noticeable decline in extent and inundation over the last 40+ years. Partners at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Idaho Department of Fish and Game have ongoing restoration efforts that are yet to be quantified. To assist these partners, we used NASA Earth observations to quantify change in wetland extent and determine if the restoration projects met the intended impact. The QA_PIXEL band from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) was used to identify water. Landsat 8 OLI imagery was also used for classifying landcover in ArcGIS Pro for 2016 and 2020 and to forecast landcover in 2060 using TerrSet’s Land Change Modeler. We also compared lidar data from 2011 and 2019 to detect changes in vegetation height, ground elevation, and surface water levels, and Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument (MSI) imagery to detect changes in vegetation health. Classification results indicated overall accuracies over 84% and Kappa indices above 0.80, well surpassing random classification performance. From 2016 to 2020 our classifications showed an 825 acre increase in wetland extent, and our forecasted 2060 model showed a 2795 acre decrease. Combining our partners’ knowledge of the area with our analyses, we created a remote sensing workflow to enhance future monitoring and decision-making. This study demonstrated the feasibility of NASA Earth observations in quantifying wetlands, informing restoration projects, and supporting avian conservation.
The concept of a student land use survey was discussed with the curriculum development team of the Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado. In these discussions it soon became apparent that the curriculum potentials included much more than a classroom activity involving mapping the features on the ground in the area of study. A new flood control dam to be located in the area of Denver, Colorado, became the central topic in a program involving a wide variety of curriculum fields, such as mapmaking, local community history, physical geography, mathematics, and environmental studies. Consequently, a prototype of a multidisciplinary unit concept was developed for later incorporation by the Jefferson County curriculum team.
Remotely sensed data is gaining wider acceptance in land use planning activities because of several inherent advantages offered by the technology. Scope of applications have increased to meet planners broadening responsibilities and needs for more comprehensive and specific information in response to new legislative mandates. Specific data needs associated with the land use planning process are varied. To illustrate how remote sensing surveys can be designed to meet a variety of goals at several planning levels, specific examples of the use of remotely sensed data and analysis techniques in four planning oriented land use surveys are discussed. These examples illustrate the use of aerial photography at the state planning level in Maryland and county level in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Special applications of aerial photography are demonstrated by energy planning in San Bernardino County, California and water management planning in New Castle County, Delaware.