Classifying the hydrologic function of prairie potholes with remote sensing and GIS

Wetlands
By: , and 

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Abstract

A sequence of Landsat TM/ETM+ scenes capturing the substantial surface water variations exhibited by prairie pothole wetlands over a drought to deluge period were analyzed in an attempt to determine the general hydrologic function of individual wetlands (recharge, flow-through, and discharge). Multipixel objects (water bodies) were clustered according to their temporal changes in water extents. We found that wetlands receiving groundwater discharge responded differently over the time period than wetlands that did not. Also, wetlands located within topographically closed discharge basins could be distinguished from discharge basins with overland outlets. Field verification data showed that discharge wetlands with closed basins were most distinct and identifiable with reasonable accuracies (user’s accuracy = 97%, producer’s accuracy = 71%). The classification of other hydrologic function types had lower accuracies reducing the overall accuracy for the four hydrologic function classes to 51%. A simplified classification approach identifying only two hydrologic function classes was 82%. Although this technique has limited success for detecting small wetlands, Landsat-derived multipixel-object clustering can reliably differentiate wetlands receiving groundwater discharge and provides a new approach to quantify wetland dynamics in landscape scale investigations and models.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Classifying the hydrologic function of prairie potholes with remote sensing and GIS
Series title Wetlands
DOI 10.1007/s13157-011-0146-y
Volume 31
Issue 2
Year Published 2011
Language English
Publisher Springer
Contributing office(s) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Description 9 p.
First page 319
Last page 327
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