Earth Sciences Commons^™

Characterizing Dryland Ecosystems Using Remote Sensing And Dynamic Global Vegetation Modeling, Abdolhamid Dashtiahangar

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Drylands include all terrestrial regions where the production of crops, forage, wood and other ecosystem services are limited by water. These ecosystems cover approximately 40% of the earth terrestrial surface and accommodate more than 2 billion people (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Moreover, the interannual variability of the global carbon budget is strongly regulated by vegetation dynamics in drylands. Understanding the dynamics of such ecosystems is significant for assessing the potential for and impacts of natural or anthropogenic disturbances and mitigation planning, and a necessary step toward enhancing the economic and social well-being of dryland communities in a sustainable manner (Global …

Informing Field Management Decisions To Enhance Alfalfa Seed Production Using Remote Sensing, Thomas V. Van Der Weide

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The development rate of alfalfa seed crop depends on both environmental conditions and management decisions. Crop management decisions, such as determining when to release pollinators to optimize pollination, can be informed by the identification of plant development stages from remote sensing data. I first identify what electromagnetic wavelengths are sensitive to alfalfa plant development stages using hyperspectral data. A Random Forest regression is used to determine the best Vegetation Index (VI) to monitor how much of the plant is covered in flower. The results indicate that Blue, Green, and Near-Infrared are the important electromagnetic wavelengths for the VI. Imagery collected …

Suitability Assessment For Integrated Urban Development In Makkah City Of Saudi Arabia, Mislat Alotaibi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Makkah – the third most populated city in Saudi Arabia with a population of 1,684,408 according to the 2010 demographic survey conducted by the Saudi General Authority for Statistics – is experiencing urban sprawl, which can be defined as an unplanned urban expansion that might degrade the environment and diminish the aesthetic view. This is a persisting problem in Makkah driven by multitude of processes involving the random expansion in its undeveloped land and the removal of its historic mountains surrounding Al-Masjid Al-Haram (the Holy Mosque) in an attempt to push the city limit of urban capacity within its administrative …

New Frontiers And Perspectives In Grassland Technology, Jürgen Schellberg, E. Verbruggen

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Grassland scientists and farmers are increasingly faced with emerging new technologies and in-formation systems that have been primarily developed by engineering sciences in particular: precision agriculture, remote sensing, geographic localization and biotechnology. Whether the implementation of any of these technologies may be beneficial in economic and ecological respect is a challenging judgment call, especially for those who have to carry over that decision on their farm. Compared to arable land, new technologies have been applied on grassland only partially and with some delay. However, as we will demonstrate, there is place for a successful implementation of new technologies in various …

Spatially Extensive Ground‐Penetrating Radar Snow Depth Observations During Nasa's 2017 Snowex Campaign: Comparison With In Situ, Airborne, And Satellite Observations, Hans-Peter Marshall

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Seasonal snow is an important component of Earth's hydrologic cycle and climate system, yet it remains challenging to consistently and accurately measure snow depth and snow water equivalent (SWE) across the range of diverse snowpack conditions that exist on Earth. The NASA SnowEx campaign is focused on addressing the primary gaps in snow remote sensing in order to gain an improved spatiotemporal understanding of this important resource and to further efforts toward a future satellite‐based snow remote sensing mission. Ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) is an efficient and mature approach for measuring snow depth and SWE. We collected ~1.3 million GPR snow …

Capability Of Sentinel-2 Msi Data For Monitoring And Mapping Of Soil Salinity In Dry And Wet Seasons In The Ebinur Lake Region, Xinjiang, China, Jingzhe Wang, Jianli Ding, Danlin Yu, Xuankai Ma, Zipeng Zhang, Xiangyu Ge, Dexiong Teng, Xiaohang Li, Jing Liang, Ivan Lizaga, Xiangyue Chen, Lin Yuan, Yahui Guo

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Soil salinization is one of the most important causes for land degradation and desertification and is an important threat to land management, farming activities, water quality, and sustainable development in arid and semi-arid areas. Soil salinization is often characterized with significant spatiotemporal dynamics. The salt-affected soil is predominant in the Ebinur Lake region in the Northwestern China. However, detailed local soil salinity information is ambiguous at the best due to limited monitoring techniques. Nowadays, the availability of Multi-Spectral Instrument (MSI) onboard Sentinel-2, offers unprecedented perspectives for the monitoring and mapping of soil salinity. The use of MSI data is an …

The Importance Of Landscape Position Information And Elevation Uncertainty For Barrier Island Habitat Mapping And Modeling, Nicholas Matthew Enwright

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Barrier islands provide important ecosystem services, including storm protection and erosion control to the mainland, habitat for fish and wildlife, and tourism. As a result, natural resource managers are concerned with monitoring changes to these islands and modeling future states of these environments. Landscape position, such as elevation and distance from shore, influences habitat coverage on barrier islands by regulating exposure to abiotic factors, including waves, tides, and salt spray. Geographers commonly use aerial topographic lidar data for extracting landscape position information. However, researchers rarely consider lidar elevation uncertainty when using automated processes for extracting elevation-dependent habitats from lidar data. …

Drought Impacts Assessment In Brazil: A Remote Sensing Approach, Denis Mariano

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Climate extremes are becoming more frequent in Brazil; studies project an increase in drought occurrences in many regions of the country. In the south, drought events lead to crop yield losses affecting the value chain and, therefore, the local economy. In the northeast, extended periods of drought lead to potential land degradation, affecting the livelihood and hindering local development. In the southern Amazon, an area that experienced intense land use change (LUC) in the last, the impacts are even more complex, ranging from crop yield loss and forest resilience loss, affecting ecosystem health and putting a threat on the native …

Developing Multispectral Imaging Techniques To Determine Canopy Coverage And Carbon Storage Of Seagrasses In The Gulf Of Mexico, Ivy Michelle Hinson

Theses and Dissertations

Although seagrass beds provide global ecosystem services, coverage is in rapid decline, with the capacity of seagrasses to sequester carbon of special concern. Current seagrass monitoring methods are labor intensive and may not offer a complete picture of coverage. Remote sensing offers the ability to oversee landscapes but water in coastal environments presents challenges, as the commonly used near-infrared wavelength dissipates in water.

This project aimed to provide reliable methodology to assess seagrass coverage using multispectral imagery taken from an unmanned aerial vehicle and to provide evidence for the link between seagrass coverage and stored belowground carbon for common seagrasses …

Remote Sensing Time-Series Analysis, Machine Learning, And K-Means Clustering Improves Dryland Vegetation And Biological Soil Crust Classification, Joshua Enterkine

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Dryland and semi-arid vegetation communities, although appearing to the casual observer as relatively simplistic and homogeneous, are in fact the opposite. Upon further inspection, semi-arid vegetation is highly complex and heterogeneous at almost any scale. The same holds true for biological soil crust. Growing concern about global changes in climate, nutrient cycles, and land use have required increasing scrutiny of our understanding of these communities and all of their constituents, as we seek to improve forecasting models and inform land management decisions. This thesis aims to provide insight to the paradigm of how we create and interpret vegetation classifications in …

Detecting Coastal Marsh Change From Aerial Imagery Using Spectral And Textural Methods: Pascagoula River Estuary, Mississippi, 1955-2014, Margaret Claire Bell Waldron

Master's Theses

As sea level rise accelerates, coastal marsh ecosystems are increasingly vulnerable. Vertical accretion rates must exceed or keep pace with rates of sea level rise to prevent transition to open water or inland migration of marsh vegetation. While some marsh systems along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast have remained stable, others, e.g., the marshes of the Louisiana Gulf Coast, have experienced high rates of conversion to open water. This study examined the historical extent of intertidal marsh at the mouth of the Pascagoula River in Jackson County, Mississippi to determine whether marsh extent changed during the period 1955-2014 and …

Evaluating A New Algorithm For Satellite-Based Evapotranspiration For North American Ecosystems: Model Development And Validation, Bassil El Masri, Abdullah F. Rahman, Danilo Dragoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Highlights

• We developed an algorithm to estimate evapotranspiration based solely on satellite data.

• Our model is able to track the seasonal changes in the flux tower observations.

• The errors in the model ET output were lower than the MODIS ET product.

• The modeled and observed ET strong relationship implies that our model has the potential to be applied to different ecosystems.

Abstract

We introduce a different operational approach to estimate 8-day average daily evapotranspiration (ET) using both routinely available data and the Penman-Monteith (P-M) equation for canopy transpiration and evaporation of intercepted water and Priestley and Taylor for soil evaporation. …

Developing Early Warning Systems For Debris Flows And Harmful Algal Blooms, Sita Karki

Dissertations

This study focused on developing early warning systems for two types of geohazards using methods that heavily rely on remote sensing data. The first investigation attempted to develop a prototype version of an early warning system for landslide development, whereas the second focused on harmful algal bloom prediction.

Construction of intensity-duration (ID) thresholds, and early warning and nowcasting systems for landslides (EWNSL) are hampered by the paucity of temporal and spatial archival data. This work represents significant steps towards the development of prototype EWNSL to forecast and nowcast landslides over Faifa Mountains in the Red Sea Hills. The developed methodologies …

Estimating Coastal Water Turbidity Using Viirs Nighttime Measurement, Chih-Wei Huang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coastal water turbidity is a key environmental factor that influences the relative clarity of the water, which therefore reduces sunlight penetration. The comprehensive spatial and temporal coverage of remote sensing allows mapping of water turbidity near the coast. Even in locations where time-consuming and expensive conventional turbidity monitoring programs exist, local technological limitations prevent complete coverage. Traditional optical satellite techniques using the visible band also have limitations in monitoring turbidity due to non-optimal observing conditions such as clouds, sun-glint, and thick aerosols. In this study, in order to complement the daytime satellite measurements, I used the data from Visible Infrared …

Remote Sensing Of Water Use Efficiency And Terrestrial Drought Recovery Across The Contiguous United States, Behzad Ahmadi, Ali Ahmadalipour, Glenn Tootle

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ecosystem water-use efficiency (WUE) is defined as the ratio of carbon gain (i.e., gross primary productivity; GPP) to water consumption (i.e., evapotranspiration; ET). WUE is markedly influential on carbon and water cycles, both of which are fundamental for ecosystem state, climate and the environment. Drought can affect WUE, subsequently disturbing the composition and functionality of terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, the impacts of drought on WUE and its components (i.e., GPP and ET) are assessed across the Contiguous US (CONUS) at fine spatial and temporal resolutions. Soil moisture simulations from land surface modeling are utilized to detect and characterize agricultural …

Application Of A Distributed Hydrologic Model For The Analysis Of Land Use Change In Kedougou, Senegal, Francisco Perez

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

West Africa has experienced extensive land use/land cover (LULC) change since the Sahel drought of the 1970s and 80s. Demographic changes, rapid urbanization, and other anthropogenic impacts on land cover in West Africa have potentially altered hydrological regimes. This work was undertaken while I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Kedougou region of Senegal, an area that has experienced significant and rapid infrastructural improvements and urbanization since the early 2000s. The Gambia River flows near Kedougou, where flooding is an extensive problem, making access and livelihood practices difficult during the rainy season. Changes in climate and land use …

Testing The Use Of Vegetation Indices As Indicators Of Pre-Eruptive Volcanic Unrest At Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, Quelyn Bekkering

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Satellite remote sensing has become an integral part of pre-eruptive and long-term volcano monitoring due to its low cost, spatial and temporal coverage, and time-series analysis capabilities. Pre-eruptive unrest at volcanoes can include increased fluxes of heat and volcanic gases, which can be manifested either directly (e.g., the appearance of thermal anomalies or fumaroles) or indirectly (e.g., through impacts on vegetation health and extent). We are evaluating the use of novel, high spatial and temporal resolution data from the Planet Labs cubesat constellation to monitor changes in vegetation related to volcanic unrest. We present results from a study of key …

Mineral Exploration Investigation In The Northern Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico, Labdan Nijr Alqahtani

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Sierra Madre region is rich in mineralized deposits, but it is hard to access because of the rugged terrain. Remote sensing and GIS can help in mineral exploration and regional structural analysis. The purpose of this project is to study linear, curvilinear, arcuate, and circular features in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico in order to improve exploration possibility. It is of great interest to know the relationship between lineament intersections, caldera features because of the location of potential mineral occurrences. In this study, 4,445 lineaments were mapped manually using directional filters applied to satellite images. A total of …

Automatic Detection And Analysis Of Rip Currents At Haeundae Beach Using X-Band Marine Radar, Chanyeong Oh, Kyungmo Ahn, Se-Hyeon Cheon

OES Faculty Publications

The observation system has been developed to investigate the rip currents at Haeundae beach using Xband marine radar. X-band radar system can observe shape, size, and velocity of rip currents, which is difficult to obtain through field observation by conventional device. Algorithms which automatically detect locations, shapes, and magnitudes of rip currents were developed using time averaged X-band radar sea clutter images. X-band sea clutter images are transformed through 3D FFT into 2D wave number spectrum and frequency spectrum. Rip current velocities were estimated using differences in wave-number spectra and wave frequency spectra due to Doppler shift. The algorithm was …

High Resolution Spatial Variability In Spring Snowmelt For An Arctic Shrub-Tundra Watershed, Branden J. Walker, Philip Marsh Dr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Arctic tundra environments are characterized by spatially heterogeneous end-of-winter snow cover because of high winds that erode, transport and deposit snow over the winter. This spatially variable end-of-winter snow cover subsequently influences the spatial and temporal variability of snowmelt and results in a patchy snowcover over the melt period. Documenting changes in both snow cover area (SCA) and snow water equivalent (SWE) during the spring melt is essential for understanding hydrological systems, but the lack of high-resolution SCA and SWE datasets that accurately capture micro-scale changes are not commonly available, and do not exist for the Canadian Arctic. This study …

Investigating The Annual Water Balance Of A High-Altitude Watershed Using Near-Real Time Lidar Data Integration Into A Physically Based Snowmelt Model, Andrew R. Hedrick

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Knowledge of the amount of water stored in the mountain snowpack is crucial for flood prevention, drought mitigation, and energy production in the Western United States. In modeling terms, the most important component of the hydrologic water balance is the precipitation input to the system. Determining where and how much precipitation falls in mountain catchments, however, is the most difficult problem with regards to closing the water balance. The work presented in this dissertation details the modeling portion of the NASA Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) using the iSnobal physically based snow model. This combination of remote sensing and modeling at …

Assessing The Cooling Effects Of Urban Vegetation On Urban Heat Mitigation In Selected U.S. Cities, Qiuyan Yu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urban Heat Island (UHI) is a growing problem worldwide. Mitigation of UHI is necessary for cities to adapt to climate change and enhance sustainable development at a city scale. Cooling cities with urban vegetation management is a sustainable solution for urban heat mitigation. Urban vegetation influences urban microclimate through the shading effect, surface roughness, and evapotranspiration. The differences in horizontal and vertical structures of urban vegetation determine the shading effect, surface roughness, and evapotranspiration. Enhancing the cooling effect of urban vegetation requires a comprehensive understanding of how vegetation structure affects UHI. The effects of horizontal structure on land surface temperature …

Remote Estimation Of Surface Water PCo2 In The Gulf Of Mexico, Shuangling Chen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Surface ocean partial pressure of CO₂ (pCO₂) is a critical parameter in the quantification of air-sea CO₂ flux, which further plays an important role in quantifying the global carbon budget and understanding ocean acidification. The demand for a clearer understanding of how, and how fast, the ocean is changing due to atmospheric CO₂ absorption, requires accurate and synoptic estimation of surface pCO₂.

Surface ocean pCO₂ is mainly controlled by four oceanic processes – thermodynamics, ocean mixing, biological activities, and air-sea CO₂ exchange. Surface ocean pCO_{2 …}

Spectral And Stratigraphic Mapping Of Layered Sulfate Deposits On Mars Using Advanced Crism Data Processing Techniques, Kathryn Elizabeth Powell

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

We apply orbital remote sensing of Mars to analyze the mineralogy and geologic setting of two areas near rover landing sites. We use the Compact Reconnaissance Orbiter for Mars (CRISM) observations, modeled to single scattering albedo, to identify and map hydrated sulfates in layered sedimentary sequences in these two locations. In Meridiani Planum, the Opportunity rover has characterized a ~10 m section of sulfate-bearing deposits known as the Burns formation. At our study area in ~20 km to the south at Iazu Crater, we found that the crater walls have strong spectral signatures of polyhydrated sulfate, strongly correlated with a …

Spatio-Temporal Variations Of Soil Active Layer Thickness In Chinese Boreal Forests From 2000 To 2015, Xiongxiong Bai, Jian Yang, Bo Tao, Wei Ren

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

The soil active layer in boreal forests is sensitive to climate warming. Climate-induced changes in the active layer may greatly affect the global carbon budget and planetary climatic system by releasing large quantities of greenhouse gases that currently are stored in permafrost. Ground surface temperature is an immediate driver of active layer thickness (ALT) dynamics. In this study, we mapped ALT distribution in Chinese boreal larch forests from 2000 to 2015 by integrating remote sensing data with the Stefan equation. We then examined the changes of the ALT in response to changes in ground surface temperature and identified drivers of …

Remote Sensing Of Soil Moisture Using S-Band Signals Of Opportunity: Model Development And Experimental Validation, Marvin Jesse, Benjamin Nold, James L. Garrison

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Root zone soil moisture (RZSM) is a vital aspect in meteorology, hydrology, and agriculture. There are currently some methods in passive and active remote sensing at L-band, but these methods are limited to a sensing depth of approximately 10 cm. Observing RZSM (water in the top meter of soil) will require lower frequencies, thus presenting significant difficulties for a spaceborne instrument, because of the required antenna size, the presence of radio-frequency interference (RFI), and competition for spectrum allocations (in the case of active radar). Bistatic radar using Signal of Opportunity (SoOp) (e.g. digital satellite transmitters) provides an opportunity for remote …

Remote Sensing Using I-Band And S-Band Signals Of Opportunity, Kadir Efecik, Benjamin R. Nold, James L. Garrison

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Measurement of soil moisture, especially the root zone soil moisture, is important in agriculture, meteorology, and hydrology. Root zone soil moisture is concerned with the first meter down the soil. Active and passive remote sensing methods used today utilizing L-band(1-2GHz) are physically limited to a sensing depth of about 5 cm or less. To remotely sense the soil moisture in the deeper parts of the soil, the frequency should be lowered. Lower frequencies cannot be used in active spaceborne instruments because of their need for larger antennas, radio frequency interference (RFI), and frequency spectrum allocations. Ground-based passive remote sensing using …

Spatial And Temporal Distributions Of Pelagic Sargassum In The Intra-Americas Sea And Atlantic Ocean, Mengqiu Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pelagic Sargassum is one type of marine macroalgae that is known to be abundant in the Gulf of Mexico and Sargasso Sea. It is also known to serve as a critical habitat for many marine animals. In the past few years, large amounts of Sargassum have been reported in the Tropical Atlantic and Caribbean Sea (CS), causing significant environmental and economic problems. The goal of this study is to improve the understanding of Sargassum distributions, quantity, transport pathways, and bloom mechanisms in the CS and Tropic Atlantic through combining a variety of techniques including satellite remote sensing, field and laboratory …

Estimating Live Fuel Moisture In Southern California Using Remote Sensing Vegetation Water Content Proxies, Shenyue Jia, Seung Hee Kim, Son V. Nghiem, Wonhee Cho, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Wildfires are a major ecological disturbance in Southern California and often lead to great destruction along the Wildland-Urban Interface. Live fuel moisture has been used as an important indicator of wildfire risk in measurements of vegetation water content. However, the limited field measurements of live fuel moisture in both time and space have affected the accuracy of wildfire risk estimations. Traditional estimation of live fuel moisture using remote sensing data was based on vegetation indices, indirect proxies of vegetation water content and subject to influence from weather conditions. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of estimating live fuel moisture …

A Comparative Study On Coastal Zone Changes And Anthropogenic Impacts Between Tampa Bay, Usa, And Xiangshan Harbor, China, During The Last 30 Years, Qiandong Guo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Currently, the U.S. and China are the two largest national economic entities in the world. However, it is noticeable that the two countries have considerably different strategies for economic development, environmental protection and land supply in coastal zones. In order to understand the coastline dynamics, land use land cover (LULC) changes and land management policies in the U.S. and China, a case study of the Tampa Bay (TB) watershed, Florida, U.S., and Xiangshan Harbor (XH), Zhejiang Province, China was conducted. The two areas possess similar humid subtropical climate and dense population, but experienced different anthropogenic impacts. TB sat at a …