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Geographic Research

Current Activities

Land Surface Change

Land Cover Trends

David Shaver

The goal of the Land Cover Trends project is to use a national geographic framework (Omernick Level III ecoregions) to document the rates, causes and consequences of thirty years of land use and land cover change for the conterminous United States. The objectives are: 1) use comprehensive sampling and change analysis techniques with Landsat MSS and TM data to measure land cover and land use change; 2) estimate the types, rates and temporal variability of land use and land cover change; 3) describe the regional causes and consequences of land cover and land use change; and 4) prepare a national synthesis of land use and land cover change. The Mid-Continent Geographic Science Center is involved in this national-scale project by focusing on the Interior River Lowlands, Boston Mountains and Ozark Highlands ecoregions. We will provide temporal data from five time intervals between 1973 and 2000, comprehensive field observations, and an interpretation of the types, rates and temporal variability of land use and land cover change that has occurred in these three ecoregions.

Platte River

Michael Starbuck

This project is intended to provide objective scientific information that will contribute to science-based natural resources management decisions.

Twentieth-Century Land Surface Change in the Delaware River Basin

Dalia Varanka

This study analyzes long-term land use change by applying temporal GIS Land use/land cover files collected from twentieth-century topographical maps.

Upper White River Basin Study

Gary Krizanich

The Upper White River Basin located in northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri has experienced rapid population growth over the last decade. Much of the growth has occurred in rural areas without municipal sewage treatment. Additionally, poultry and beef cattle production are major agricultural activities in the basin. This combination of factors has led to declining water quality within the basin. The objectives of this study are to characterize temporal and spatial land use and land cover changes within the Upper White River Basin and assess the impact of those changes on water quality in the region.

Table Rock Lake Eutrophication Study

Gary Krizanich

Increases in nutrient input to Table Rock Lake have resulted in declining water quality. Suspected nutrient sources are from municipal wastewater effluent, on-site wastewater treatment systems and agricultural activities in the watershed. Declining water quality has manifested itself through decreasing water clarity and severe algal blooms. Water quality has a significant impact on tourism, a major contributor to the regional economy. The objective of this project is to use remote sensing techniques to monitor chlorophyll a concentrations over time. Chlorophyll a is a surrogate indicator for phytoplankton production. Identifying areas with high chlorophyll a concentrations may help to identify potential areas of nutrient sources.

Clearwater Lake Sediment Study

Gary Krizanich

Missouri has a long history as a major United States and world producer of lead ore. Possibly the most famous of these ore deposits is the New Lead Belt or Viburnum Trend of southeast Missouri. The Viburnum Trend has been developed largely within the Mark Twain National Forest, some of the most pristine lands found anywhere in the state. Land managers charged with administering programs on federal lands continue to have concerns about the long-term environmental effects of lead mining and related activities in the region.

The purpose of this investigation is to characterize the spatial and temporal distribution and concentration of trace metals in sediments of Clearwater Lake. Understanding how trace metals are released to and transported in an aquatic environment is important to the overall understanding of the impacts of mining on the natural environment.

Preliminary results indicate that the sediments in Clearwater Lake act as a sink for mining related trace elements and that the source of these trace elements can be identified through isotopic "fingerprinting". Temporal trends in the concentration of lead and zinc show relatively little change in the subbasin where no mining has taken place and increasing concentrations in the subbasins where active mining occurs. Analysis of pre- and post-mining concentrations in deep lacustrine sediments shows a doubling of the lead concentration and a nearly fifty percent increase in zinc concentration following the development of mines along the Viburnum Trend. All of the Pb-Zn concentrations however, remain well below the probable effects concentration derived from consensus-based sediment quality guidelines.

This information will be used to assess the potential impact of proposed mining operations in other parts of the Viburnum Trend. The overall benefit is to better understand the impact of long-term mining activities on the environment of the Missouri Ozarks. Results of this work will be used by Federal Land Managers to assess requests for additional mining permits in the Viburnum Trend.

Lead Mining in Missouri Links

Habitat Modeling Using Remotely Sensed Data

Jeffrey Spooner

The construction of levees, bank revetments and wing dikes along the lower Missouri River has resulted in a significant reduction in the quantity and quality of its terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Recent efforts to rehabilitate the river corridor have included restoring floodplain wetlands, and constructing side channels. The success of these and other habitat rehabilitation efforts along the river corridor is dependent on an appreciation for the complexity of floodplain ecosystems. A critical component of floodplain ecology is the spatial and temporal distribution of vegetation. Floodplains are typically dynamic surfaces that are continuously shaped by erosion and deposition. These processes play an important role in the distribution of vegetation over space and time. The objective of this project is to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of vegetation communities that have evolved on Overton Bottoms, a site managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Missouri Department of Conservation, since the flood of 1993. Landsat-5 and Landsat-7 Thematic Mapper data were used to map seven general classes of vegetation and land-cover on Overton Bottoms. Five land-cover maps were produced and analyzed by comparing the amount of change that had occurred since 1993. This project is one of six integrated projects being conducted by an interdisciplinary team of USGS scientists. Their objectives are to quantify ecological responses to structures designed to rehabilitate parts of the Missouri River corridor, to demonstrate the utility of scientific data to the adaptive management process, and to address fundamental scientific questions. Together, we have established compelling evidence for a strong relationship between the distribution of floodplain vegetation and floodplain landforms. This information will be useful in identifying sites for future rehabilitation projects. Further, we have demonstrated the value of scientific information in the design and management of rehabilitation projects along the lower Missouri River.

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Hazards

USGS-MSU Research Team Investigate Southwest Missouri Sinkhole Collapse

Shaded relief and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) images of a sinkhole collapse in Nixa, Missouri. A sinkhole collapse early Sunday morning August 13, 2006 in Nixa, Missouri is responsible for the disappearance of a garage and the Chevy Cavalier once parked inside. The sinkhole was initially estimated to be approximately 60 feet in diameter and 75 feet deep. While sinkholes are common in karst areas such as the Missouri Ozarks, the sudden collapse of one beneath a home is not a common occurrence. A team of researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Missouri State University (MSU) will be cooperating on a study to better understand the spatial distribution of sinkholes and the potential for the formation of additional karst features in southwest Missouri. Nixa sinkhole collapse - animation showing a 3-dimensional view of the LIDAR points (6 MB wmv file)

Taum Sauk Reservoir - Impoundment Failure

A water supply impoundment used for power generation located on top of Proffit mountain, adjacent to Johnson Shut-Ins State Park in southeast Missouri, collapsed on December 14, 2005. More... Digital flyover videos of the Taum Sauk Reservoir: video 1 (6 MB wmv file) | video 2 (11 MB wmv file)

Landslide Hazards Research

Jeffrey Spooner / J. David Rogers

Landslides are a significant geological hazard. In the United States, landslides cause over $1 billion in damages and as many as 50 deaths annually. Globally, landslides cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries. The term "landslide" is used generally to describe the movement of a mass of rock, debris, earth or some combination of these materials down a slope. Landslides are classified using two nouns: the type of material (such as rock, debris or earth), and the type of movement (such as fall, topple, slide, spread or flow). Although typically associated with mountainous terrain, landslides can occur in low-relief regions as excavation failures, river or stream bank failures, or the collapse of mine waste piles.

Recent landslide research has focused on causes and mitigation; understanding the physical process associated with slope failure and the social processes associated with loss reduction. A variety of mapping and monitoring technologies have been employed to identify contributing factors, and simulate events based on site-specific characteristics. Characterizing critical slope morphologies in order to predict slope failure potential, especially with small slides is an important area of new research, which can be addressed using remotely sensed radar image data. The objective of this project is to develop GIScience and remote sensing tools and techniques to better understand landslide hazards.

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Emerging Technologies

Digital Aerial Camera Characterization and Calibration

Steve Helterbrand

The USGS plays key roles in the field of remote sensing as a user and as one of the world's largest providers of remotely sensed data. Aerial photographs have long been an important type of remotely sensed data used by the USGS and other Federal and State agencies. The USGS calibrated every aerial mapping camera used to produce aerial photographs for the USGS to ensure the usability and reliability of the imagery. Our camera calibration became a defacto standard for many other agencies. Advances in camera technology, specifically the use of charge couple devices (ccd) in digital aerial cameras, have made our calibration processes obsolete. The USGS is actively engaged in the development of new digital camera calibration techniques to continue to ensure the usability and reliability of data acquired using digital cameras. Our objectives are to:

1. Calibrate digital cameras and characterize the results,
2. Develop policies and procedures to support, implement and characterize digital cameras,
3. Develop guidelines for digital image acquisition, and
4. Develop in-situ test range specifications and testing methodologies for analog/digital camera characterization and to perform the characterization and calibration of both satellite and aerial mapping sensors.

Model development can become increasingly difficult as more data becomes available and more variables must be introduced. It is usually time consuming and difficult for a human to track extremely large numbers of variables. The objective of this project is to research computational techniques to allow a semi-automated process of developing models of physical phenomena using large amounts of variables. To accomplish this, the research at NGTOC III will: a) modify the SNNS package to change the basic operating from signal levels to tracking data packets throughout each node in the network. b) Gather data and develop self-training techniques for the network. c) Research and apply other elements of computational intelligence (such as genetic algorithms) in the generation of neural networks. This includes creating new networks for each iteration as well as directly modifying nodes through genetic algorithms. And finally d) Develop methods to take the additional data tracked through a neural network and create mathematical models of physical phenomena. The results of this research will be a system that can be applied to various aspects of physical phenomena research, both inside and outside the USGS. Another output will be new techniques on tracking data through a neural network and how to create a mathematical output from said network. Currently, the modifications to SNNS are complete and allow tracking of data through the various network pathways to the output. The significance of this work is that it will enhance the ability of researchers to develop models by automating much of the process on a computer. This can allow models of larger numbers of variables to be developed, speed up the process of developing models, and so on. It also provides new research into tracking information in neural networks and modifying their basic operation to track this data.

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Resource Management

U.S.-Mexico Border Environmental Health Initiative

Jean Parcher and Delbert Humberson

International borders politically divide the landscape but rarely represent barriers for environmental issues. The major issues surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border involve economics and population growth that present challenges to environmental management and natural resource planning. To monitor trends and analyze the stresses to the environment, the Border Environmental Health Initiative (BEHI) first objective is to provide an integrated, Web-based, environmental resource geospatial database for display and analysis to monitor linkages between environmental health and quality of life issues in the border region http://borderhealth.cr.usgs.gov/IMS.html . This multi-discipline initiative includes collaboration from U.S. and Mexican government agencies. In addition a data download page http://borderhealth.cr.usgs.gov/datalayers.html allows GIS users full access to the binationally integrated fundamental geospatial and environmental scientific datasets for the U.S.-Mexico border region at various scales, current status maps of data holdings, and direct links to the metadata files. The second objective of BEHI is to use these integrated datasets to examine and analyze the linkages between human health and environmental health. This analysis will apply a GIS-based quantitative weight-of-evidence and weighted logistic regression (WOE/WLR) model in an attempt to associate identified areas of poor environmental quality with areas where human health may also be impaired in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

CHIPS: A New Way to Monitor Colonias Along the United States - Mexico Border

Jean Parcher and Delbert Humberson

Colonias, which are unincorporated border settlements in the United States, have emerged in rural areas without the governance and services normally provided by local government. Cooperation with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Offices of the Texas Attorney General, Secretary of State, and the Texas Water Development Board has allowed the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to improve colonia Geographic Information System (GIS) boundaries and develop the Colonia Health, Infrastructure, and Platting Status tool (CHIPS). Together, the GIS boundaries and CHIPS aid the Texas government in prioritizing the limited funds that are available for infrastructure improvement. CHIPS's report generator can be tailored to the needs of the user, providing either broad or specific output. For example, a congressman could use CHIPS to list colonias with wastewater issues in a specific county, whereas a health researcher could list all colonias without clinical access. To help cities along the United States-Mexico border manage issues related to colonias growth, CHIPS is publicly available in an Internet-enabled GIS as part of a cooperative study between the USGS, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Mexican Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática. The USGS Open File Report is available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1230/ and the database can be downloaded at: The U.S. Geological Survey's U.S.-Mexico Border Environmental Health Initiative (BEHI) site at: http://borderhealth.cr.usgs.gov/datalayers.html

Land Remote Sensing Project - Extraction of Actual Evapotranspiration Loss as input for Modeling Land Use Management Scenarios to Reduce Water Depletion in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin

Jean Parcher, Mike Starbuck, and Delbert Humberson

The Rio Grande river from it's headwaters in Colorado to the terminus in the Gulf of Mexico is the second longest river in the U.S. The majority of the basin lies within the dry domain ecoregion that encompasses the arid Chihuahuan Desert. The river and its tributaries are a lifeline for agricultural, urbanization, and natural resources sustainability. The objective of this research is to extract by remote sensing techniques actual evapotranspiration (ET) rates for selected crop types and natural vegetation within the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin. Using the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) model, the ET calculations will provide an important water depletion variable for the binational Integrated Water Resources Management Plan (IRWMP) for the arid Rio Grande/Rio Bravo basin. Currently management plans for the basin focus on diversion, return flow, and surface-ground water interactions to model surface water consumption and availability. Current estimates approximate that irrigated areas deplete 11.7% of the ET losses in the basin, whereas natural or invasive species land cover deplete 83% of the ET losses. Providing more accurate ET data using Landsat ETM for specific crop types, natural vegetation, and invasive species will provide greater accuracy for hydrologic modeling in the basin. But more importantly the results will provide scientific data for policy makers to make economically beneficial and environmental decisions concerning best uses of scarce water resources

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