U.S. Department of the Interior
The USGS is developing innovative technologies and approaches for measuring river discharge using remotely sensed data. Given the expense associated with remote sensing from conventional aerial platforms (e.g., helicopter, airplane), unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) offer hydrographers a lower cost alternative for data acquisition.
The USGS Dakota Water Science Center is conducting high-resolution hydrographic mapping on two additional study areas in southeastern South Dakota.
To validate the quality of light detection and ranging (lidar) data collected for the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), the USGS uses methods detailed in “Accuracy Standards for Digital Geospatial Data” developed by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS).
The goal of the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) is to complete acquisition of nationwide lidar (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IfSAR) in Alaska) in 8 years to provide the first-ever national baseline of consistent high-resolution elevation data—both bare earth and 3D point clouds—collected in a timeframe of less than a decade.
The USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to identify forest canopy gaps in riparian forests along the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. The goal is to help understand the factors affecting floodplain forest regeneration and how these factors might be managed.
Low-lying island environments, such as the Majuro Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, are particularly vulnerable to coastal flooding (inundation) whether the increased water levels are from episodic events (storm surge, wave run-up, king tides) or from chronic conditions (long-term sea-level rise). Land elevation is the primary environmental variable that determines exposure to inundation in coastal settings.
Under the leadership of Dr. Steve Kloiber (steve.kloiber@state.mn.us), the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) has completed a 10-year effort to update the State’s National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) digital maps using new remote sensing imagery and geospatial technologies to produce a clearer, updated, more accurate picture of Minnesota’s wetlands, lakes, rivers, and streams.
The USGS presently operates 102 streamgaging stations distributed throughout Alaska. As many of these stations are quite remote, considerable effort is needed to collect periodic measurements and maintain gages. Thus, developing remote sensing methods for measuring streamflow in this vast, largely inaccessible State is valuable for many reasons.
High-resolution hydrographic mapping, which provides essential data for flood mitigation and planning, has been completed on thirteen, 12-digit hydrologic units near Sioux Falls in southeastern South Dakota. A lidar-derived digital elevation model was processed to include culvert locations into the modeled drainage network.
Archival aerial stereo-photographs are a source of information that can be used to create historical topography models for rapidly changing landscapes. Researchers completed a pilot study in Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park (MDSHP), which was once the largest hydraulic mine (1.6 square kilometers) in the Sierra Nevada of California. Legacy impacts in these mined landscapes include remnant steep exposures of highly erodible Eocene-aged auriferous sediments.