Potential for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems applications for identifying groundwater-surface water exchange in a meandering river reach
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Abstract
The exchange of groundwater and surface water (GW-SW), including dissolved constituents and energy, represents a critical yet challenging characterization problem for hydrogeologists and stream ecologists. Here, we describe the use of a suite of high spatial-resolution remote-sensing techniques, collected using a small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS), to provide novel and complementary data to analyze GW-SW exchange. sUAS provided centimeter-scale resolution topography and water surface elevations, which are often drivers of exchange along the river corridor. Additionally, sUAS-based vegetation imagery, vegetation-top elevation, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) mapping indicated GW-SW exchange patterns that are difficult to characterize from the land surface and may not be resolved from coarser satellite-based imagery. We combined these data with estimates of sediment hydraulic conductivity to provide a direct estimate of GW “shortcutting” through meander necks, which was corroborated by temperature data at the riverbed interface.
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Potential for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems applications for identifying groundwater-surface water exchange in a meandering river reach |
| Series title | Geophysical Research Letters |
| DOI | 10.1002/2017GL075836 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 23 |
| Year Published | 2017 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | AGU |
| Contributing office(s) | OGW Branch of Geophysics |
| Description | 10 p. |
| First page | 11868 |
| Last page | 11877 |
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