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At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
USGS2017

Optimal hydrograph separation using a recursive digital filter constrained by chemical mass balance, with application to selected Chesapeake Bay watersheds

Quantitative estimates of base flow are necessary to address questions concerning the vulnerability and response of the Nation’s water supply to natural and human-induced change in environmental conditions. An objective of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Project is to determine how hydrologic systems are affected by watershed characteristics, including land use, land cover, water use, climate, and natural characteristics (geology, soil type, and topography). An important component of any hydrologic system is base flow, generally described as the part of streamflow that is sustained between precipitation events, fed to stream channels by delayed (usually subsurface) pathways, and more specifically as the volumetric discharge of water, estimated at a measurement site or gage at the watershed scale, which represents groundwater that discharges directly or indirectly to stream reaches and is then routed to the measurement point. Hydrograph separation using a recursive digital filter was applied to 225 sites in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The recursive digital filter was chosen for the following reasons: it is based in part on the assumption that groundwater acts as a linear reservoir, and so has a physical basis; it has only two adjustable parameters (alpha, obtained directly from recession analysis, and beta, the maximum value of the base-flow index that can be modeled by the filter), which can be determined objectively and with the same physical basis of groundwater reservoir linearity, or that can be optimized by applying a chemical-mass-balance constraint. Base-flow estimates from the recursive digital filter were compared with those from five other hydrograph-separation methods with respect to two metrics: the long-term average fraction of streamflow that is base flow, or base-flow index, and the fraction of days where streamflow is entirely base flow. There was generally good correlation between the methods, with some biased slightly high and some biased slightly low compared to the recursive digital filter. There were notable differences between the days at base flow estimated by the different methods, with the recursive digital filter having a smaller range of values. This was attributed to how the different methods determine cessation of quickflow (the part of streamflow which is not base flow). For 109 Chesapeake Bay watershed sites with available specific conductance data, the parameters of the filter were optimized using a chemical-mass-balance constraint and two different models for the time-dependence of base-flow specific conductance. Sixty-seven models were deemed acceptable and the results compared well with non-optimized results. There are a number of limitations to the optimal hydrograph-separation approach resulting from the assumptions implicit in the conceptual model, the mathematical model, and the approach taken to impose chemical mass balance (including tracer choice). These limitations may be evidenced by poor model results; conversely, poor model fit may provide an indication that two-component separation does not adequately describe the hydrologic system’s runoff response. The results of this study may be used to address a number of questions regarding the role of groundwater in understanding past changes in stream-water quality and forecasting possible future changes, such as the timing and magnitude of land-use and management practice effects on stream and groundwater quality. Ongoing and future modeling efforts may benefit from the estimates of base flow as calibration targets or as a means to filter chemical data to model base-flow loads and trends. Ultimately, base-flow estimation might provide the basis for future work aimed at improving the ability to quantify groundwater discharge, not only at the scale of a gaged watershed, but at the scale of individual reaches as well.

Scientific Investigations Report↗
USGS1995

Integrating multisource land use and land cover data

As part of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) land use and land cover (LULC) program, the USGS in cooperation with the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) is collecting and integrating LULC data for a standard USGS 1:100,000-scale product. The LULC data collection techniques include interpreting spectrally clustered Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images; interpreting 1-meter resolution digital panchromatic orthophoto images; and, for comparison, aggregating locally available large-scale digital data of urban areas. The area selected is the Vancouver, WA-OR quadrangle, which has a mix of urban, rural agriculture, and forest land. Anticipated products include an integrated LULC prototype data set in a standard classification scheme referenced to the USGS digital line graph (DLG) data of the area and prototype software to develop digital LULC data sets. This project will evaluate a draft standard LULC classification system developed by the USGS for use with various source material and collection techniques. Federal, State, and local governments, and private sector groups will have an opportunity to evaluate the resulting prototype software and data sets and to provide recommendations. It is anticipated that this joint research endeavor will increase future collaboration among interested organizations, public and private, for LULC data collection using common standards and tools.

Open-File Report↗
USGS1999

High-Resolution Land Use and Land Cover Mapping

As the Nation?s population grows, quantifying, monitoring, and managing land use becomes increasingly important. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a long heritage of leadership and innovation in land use and land cover (LULC) mapping that has been the model both nationally and internationally for over 20 years. At present, the USGS is producing high-resolution LULC data for several watershed and urban areas within the United States. This high-resolution LULC mapping is part of an ongoing USGS Land Cover Characterization Program (LCCP). The four components of the LCCP are global (1:2,000,000-scale), national (1:100,000-scale), urban (1:24,000-scale), and special projects (various scales and time periods). Within the urban and special project components, the USGS Rocky Mountain Mapping Center (RMMC) is collecting historical as well as contemporary high-resolution LULC data. RMMC?s high-resolution LULC mapping builds on the heritage and success of previous USGS LULC programs and provides LULC information to meet user requirements.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2020

Climate sensitivity to decadal land cover and land use change across the conterminous United States

Transitions to terrestrial ecosystems attributable to land cover and land use change (LCLUC) and climate change can affect the climate at local to regional scales. However, conclusions from most previous studies do not provide information about local climate effects, and little research has directly quantified how LCLUC intensity within different ecoregions relates to climate variation. In this study, we present an observation-based analysis of climate sensitivity to LCLUC based on decadal LCLUC and climate data in different ecoregions. Our results revealed that variations in land surface temperature and vapor pressure were most sensitive to LCLUC across the conterminous United States, while precipitation was less sensitive. Persistent warming effects were produced from LCLUC in Appalachian and some of the central U.S., High Plains, and northwest ecoregions, but cooling effects were evident in the many southeast, northeast and some Great Lakes and Intermountain West ecoregions. Most of the warming and a few cooling ecoregions were sensitive to LCLUC. Ecoregions with increasing vapor pressure were found across the Great Plains, Intermountain West, and West Coast ecoregions and several of these regions in the Great Plains and West Coast were sensitive to LCLUC. A combination of changes in temperature, precipitation, and vapor pressure was used to characterize climate sensitivity associated with LCLUC forcing, and five major persistent patterns were found in some ecoregions. These findings suggest that climate conditions, especially temperature and vapor pressure, in some ecoregions are sensitive to LCLUC and such change should be better incorporated into regional climate assessments.

Global and Planetary Change↗
USGS2013

Projected surface radiative forcing due to 2000--2050 land-cover land-use albedo change over the eastern United States

Satellite-derived contemporary land-cover land-use (LCLU) and albedo data and modeled future LCLU are used to study the impact of LCLU change from 2000 to 2050 on surface albedo and radiative forcing for 19 ecoregions in the eastern United States. The modeled 2000–2050 LCLU changes indicate a future decrease in both agriculture and forested land and an increase in developed land that induces ecoregion radiative forcings ranging from −0.175 to 0.432 W m −2 driven predominately by differences in the area and type of LCLU change. At the regional scale, these projected LCLU changes induce a net negative albedo decrease (−0.001) and a regional positive radiative forcing of 0.112 W m −2 . This overall positive forcing (i.e., warming) is almost 4 times greater than that estimated for documented 1973–2000 LCLU albedo change published in a previous study using the same methods.

Journal of Land Change Science↗
USGS2016

Modeled historical land use and land cover for the conterminous United States

The landscape of the conterminous United States has changed dramatically over the last 200 years, with agricultural land use, urban expansion, forestry, and other anthropogenic activities altering land cover across vast swaths of the country. While land use and land cover (LULC) models have been developed to model potential future LULC change, few efforts have focused on recreating historical landscapes. Researchers at the US Geological Survey have used a wide range of historical data sources and a spatially explicit modeling framework to model spatially explicit historical LULC change in the conterminous United States from 1992 back to 1938. Annual LULC maps were produced at 250-m resolution, with 14 LULC classes. Assessment of model results showed good agreement with trends and spatial patterns in historical data sources such as the Census of Agriculture and historical housing density data, although comparison with historical data is complicated by definitional and methodological differences. The completion of this dataset allows researchers to assess historical LULC impacts on a range of ecological processes.

Journal of Land Use Science↗
USGS2008

Impact of land use and land cover change on the water balance of a large agricultural watershed: Historical effects and future directions

Over the last century, land use and land cover (LULC) in the United States Corn Belt region shifted from mixed perennial and annual cropping systems to primarily annual crops. Historical LULC change impacted the annual water balance in many Midwestern basins by decreasing annual evapotranspiration (ET) and increasing streamflow and base flow. Recent expansion of the biofuel industry may lead to future LULC changes from increasing corn acreage and potential conversion of the industry to cellulosic bioenergy crops of warm or cool season grasses. In this paper, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to evaluate potential impacts from future LULC change on the annual and seasonal water balance of the Raccoon River watershed in west‐central Iowa. Three primary scenarios for LULC change and three scenario variants were evaluated, including an expansion of corn acreage in the watershed and two scenarios involving expansion of land using warm season and cool season grasses for ethanol biofuel. Modeling results were consistent with historical observations. Increased corn production will decrease annual ET and increase water yield and losses of nitrate, phosphorus, and sediment, whereas increasing perennialization will increase ET and decrease water yield and loss of nonpoint source pollutants. However, widespread tile drainage that exists today may limit the extent to which a mixed perennial‐annual land cover would ever resemble pre‐1940s hydrologic conditions. Study results indicate that future LULC change will affect the water balance of the watershed, with consequences largely dependent on the future LULC trajectory.

Water Resources Research↗
USGS1995

Selected characteristics of stormflow and base flow affected by land use and cover in the Chickahominy River basin, Virginia, 1989-91

The Chickahominy River is the principal source of raw-water supply managed by the Department of Public Utilities, City of Newport News. Selected characteristics of stormflow and base flow, and major land use and cover factors that affect the distribution, movement, and quality of water of the nontidal Chickahominy River were monitored at three continuous-record stations and two partial-record stations. The stations are located in areas that drain urban, residential, and rural land uses.

Water-Resources Investigations Report↗
USGS2020

Training data selection for annual land cover classification for the LCMAP initiative

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) initiative characterizes changes in land cover, use, and condition with the goal of producing land change information that improves understanding of the earth system and provides insight into the impacts of land change on society. For LCMAP, all available high-quality data from the Landsat archive is used in a time series approach to detect land surface change. Annual thematic land cover maps are produced by classifying time series models. In this paper, we describe optimization of the classification method used to derive the thematic land cover product. We investigated the influences of auxiliary data, sample size, and training from different sources such as the U.S. Geological Survey’s Land Cover Trends project and National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2001 and NLCD 2011). Results were evaluated and validated based on independent data from the training dataset. We found that refining auxiliary data effectively reduced artifacts in the thematic land cover map that are related to data availability (i.e., SLC-off). The classification accuracy and stability were improved considerably by using a total of 20 million training pixels with a minimum of 600,000 and a maximum of 8 million training pixels per class. Finally, the NLCD 2001 training data delivered the best classification accuracy. Comparing to the original LCMAP classification strategy (Trends training data, 20,000 samples), the optimized classification strategy considerably improved the annual land cover map accuracy.

Remote Sensing↗
USGS2019

Historical land use and land cover for assessing the northern Colorado Front Range urban landscape

We describe historical land-use and land-cover (LULC) maps for the northern Colorado urban Front Range. The Front Range urban landscape is diverse and interspersed with highly productive agriculture as well as natural land cover types including evergreen forest in the Rocky Mountain foothills and Great Plains grassland. To understand the dynamics of urban growth, raster maps were created at a 1 meter resolution for each of four time steps, nominally 1937, 1957, 1977, and 1997. In total, 38 detailed LULC classes were identified using manual interpretation techniques, aerial photographs, historical maps, and other available information. The maps provide high resolution spatial data for understanding the historical progression of urbanization and will allow further analysis of the effects of urban growth on social and ecological systems.

Colorado↗
USGS1980

The influences of land use and land cover on climate; an analysis of the Washington-Baltimore area that couples remote sensing with numerical simulation

The Sun drives the atmospheric heat engine by warming the terrestrial surface which in turn warms the atmosphere above. Climate, therefore, is significantly controlled by complex interaction of energy flows near and at the terrestrial surface. When man alters this delicate energy balance by his use of the land, he may alter his climatic environment as well. Land use climatology has emerged as a discipline in which these energy interactions are studied; first, by viewing the spatial distributions of their surface manifestations, and second, by analyzing the energy exchange processes involved. Two new tools for accomplishing this study are presented: one that can interpret surface energy exchange processes from space, and another that can simulate the complex of energy transfers by a numerical simulation model. Use of a satellite-borne multispectral scanner as an imaging radiometer was made feasible by devising a gray-window model that corrects measurements made in space for the effects of the atmosphere in the optical path. The simulation model is a combination of mathematical models of energy transfer processes at or near the surface. Integration of these two analytical approaches was applied to the Washington-Baltimore area to coincide with the August 5, 1973, Skylab 3 overpass which provided data for constructing maps of the energy characteristics of the Earth's surface. The use of the two techniques provides insights into the relationship of climate to land use and land cover and in predicting alterations of climate that may result from alterations of the land surface.

Professional Paper↗
USGS2003

A hydrologic network supporting spatially referenced regression modeling in the Chesapeake Bay watershed

The U.S. Geological Survey has developed a methodology for statistically relating nutrient sources and land-surface characteristics to nutrient loads of streams. The methodology is referred to as SPAtially Referenced Regressions On Watershed attributes (SPARROW), and relates measured stream nutrient loads to nutrient sources using nonlinear statistical regression models. A spatially detailed digital hydrologic network of stream reaches, stream-reach characteristics such as mean streamflow, water velocity, reach length, and travel time, and their associated watersheds supports the regression models. This network serves as the primary framework for spatially referencing potential nutrient source information such as atmospheric deposition, septic systems, point-sources, land use, land cover, and agricultural sources and land-surface characteristics such as land use, land cover, average-annual precipitation and temperature, slope, and soil permeability. In the Chesapeake Bay watershed that covers parts of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington D.C., SPARROW was used to generate models estimating loads of total nitrogen and total phosphorus representing 1987 and 1992 land-surface conditions. The 1987 models used a hydrologic network derived from an enhanced version of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's digital River Reach File, and course resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). A new hydrologic network was created to support the 1992 models by generating stream reaches representing surface-water pathways defined by flow direction and flow accumulation algorithms from higher resolution DEMs. On a reach-by-reach basis, stream reach characteristics essential to the modeling were transferred to the newly generated pathways or reaches from the enhanced River Reach File used to support the 1987 models. To complete the new network, watersheds for each reach were generated using the direction of surface-water flow derived from the DEMs. This network improves upon existing digital stream data by increasing the level of spatial detail and providing consistency between the reach locations and topography. The hydrologic network also aids in illustrating the spatial patterns of predicted nutrient loads and sources contributed locally to each stream, and the percentages of nutrient load that reach Chesapeake Bay.

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment↗
USGS1990

Land use and land cover digital data from 1:250,000- and 1:100,000- scale maps

The Earth Science Information Centers (ESIC) distribute digital cartographic/geographic data files produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as part of the National Mapping Program. The data files are grouped into four basic types. The first type, called a Digital Line Graph (DLG), is line map information in digital form. These data files include information on planimetric base categories, such as transportation, hydrography, and boundaries. The second type, called a Digital Elevation Model (DEM), consists of a sampled array of elevations for ground positions that are usually at regularly spaced intervals. The third type, Land Use and Land Cover digital data, provide information on nine major classes of land use such as urban, agricultural, or forest as well as associated map data such as political units and Federal land ownership. The fourth type, the Geographic Names Information System, provides primary information for known places, features, and areas in the United States identified by a proper name.

Data Users Guide↗
USGS2023

Observing coastal wetland transitions using national land cover products

Over the coming century, climate change and sea-level rise are predicted to cause widespread change to coastal wetlands. Estuarine vegetated wetlands can adapt to sea-level rise through both vertical development (i.e., biophysical feedbacks and sedimentation) and upslope/horizontal migration. Quantifying changes to estuarine vegetated wetlands over time can help to inform current and future decisions regarding land management and resource stewardship. In this study, we show how coastal land cover maps readily available in the US can be used to assess and understand estuarine vegetated wetland changes. This assessment involves two steps: (1) identifying the net gain/loss of estuarine vegetated wetlands and (2) determining which land cover types contribute to the net gain/loss. From this information, we developed estuarine vegetated wetland change scenarios that evaluate whether estuarine vegetated wetland gain kept up with loss and whether the contribution was from: (1) estuarine vegetated wetland migration or tidal restoration; (2) land building (i.e., development); or (3) both. We assessed changes from 1996 to 2016 for: (1) the conterminous US; (2) each major US coastline; and (3) focal estuaries with the most change per coast. We found that the change scenario (1, 2, or 3) varied across coastlines. Moving forward, national coastal land cover programs can be informed by utilizing methodologies that leverage contemporary information for delineating the estuarine zone from upslope/adjacent wetlands. We highlight approaches that could be used to address this challenge and provide complementary information related to wetland condition changes.

Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environm↗
USGS2009

Foreword to the issue on remote sensing of regional land use and land cover

This issue showcases some good work from Chinese authors who attended the International Workshop of Earth Observation and Remote Sensing Applications (EORSA), held in Beijing, China, June 30-July 2, 2008. The five articles in this issue focus on remote sensing of regional land use and land cover.

IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth O↗