Monitoring Playa Hydrology using LANDSAT Imagery
Abstract
Playa lakes are wetland basins found across the Great Plains. These ephemeral lakes serve as habitat for migrating waterfowl and act as concentrated recharge points for groundwater aquifers. Playas are generally small but number in the tens of thousands, making them a significant component of the ecology and hydrology of the Great Plains. The shear number of playas makes this system difficult to study. Satellite remote sensing, however, can be used to monitor playa hydrology over broad space and time scales. This study demonstrates the use of a four-image LANDSAT sequence to study a cluster of playas in Beaver County, Oklahoma. A simple water budget model is developed to predict aggregate playa water surface area for the study area.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004AGUFM.H23D1154Y
- Keywords:
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- 1833 Hydroclimatology;
- 1836 Hydrologic budget (1655);
- 1890 Wetlands;
- 1894 Instruments and techniques