GSA Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, USA - 2019

Paper No. 179-11
Presentation Time: 11:00 AM

ASSESSING MULTI-DECADAL CHANGES IN RIPARIAN AREAS ACROSS NEVADA USING THE LANDSAT ARCHIVE


ALBANO, Christine1, HAUSNER, Mark B.1, MCEVOY, Daniel2, MCGWIRE, Ken3 and HUNTINGTON, Justin L.4, (1)Division of Hydrologic Sciences, Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Pkwy, Reno, NV 89512, (2)Division of Atmospheric Sciences, Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Address 2, Reno, NV 89512, (3)Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512, (4)Division of Hydrologic Sciences, Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512

Remotely sensed measures of vegetation vigor provide valuable and readily visible indicators of hydrologic and ecological conditions. Recent advances in cloud computing have provided unprecedented opportunities to monitor and assess multi-decadal changes in these indicators over large areas and at relatively high spatial and temporal resolution. In this study we quantify changes in riparian vegetation from 1985 to 2018 based on the Map of Riparian Vegetation for Nevada (MRVN). In doing so, we develop ecoregion-specific relations between annual metrics of climate and Landsat-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and analyze trends in the residuals of the climate-NDVI relationships to evaluate the component of change associated with non-climate factors. Our results include 30-m resolution maps of riparian NDVI trends that indicate where changes in water availability and vegetation condition have occurred over the past 33 years. These results can be used in conjunction with data related to climate, hydrology, resource management, or disturbances to diagnose causal factors of change and to evaluate the effects of management interventions.