HR: 14:55h
AN: H53K-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Hyperscale Analysis of River Morphology Though Optical Remote Mapping of Water Depths
AU: * Fonstad, M A
EM: mfonstad@txstate.edu
AF: Department of Geography, Texas State University - San Marcos, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX 78666, United States
AB: The science of in-channel river processes and forms has profited enormously from the introduction of specialized remote sensing tools such as LiDAR and hyperspectral imaging during the past decade. However, the cost and lack of historical data make them a less than ideal choice for many geomorphic questions. As an alternative to high-performance technology, a new analytical technique applied to older color aerial imagery allows extraction of the three-dimensional river environment over enormous distances. In clearwater rivers, some light often reaches the riverbed and returns to the surface, providing optical information about different components of the physical habitat structure. The HAB-2 transform combines the Beer-Lambert law of light absorption with hydrodynamic rules to allow the estimation of river depth at each image pixel, and it allows separation of the depth effect from the remaining image information. The widespread availability of CIR digital orthophotoquads across much of the United States allows the use of HAB approaches to extract three dimensional data for large area riverscapes at scales from about a meter to that of the entire watershed. The rapid and widespread utility of image-based river DTMs allows hitherto unparalleled investigation of geomorphic structures. As one example of this utility, HAB- calibrated high-resolution imagery of the Nueces River watershed, Texas, shows systematic deviations from the classic theory of the downstream hydraulic geometry as well as an unprecedented level of randomness at most scales.
DE: 1640 Remote sensing (1855)
DE: 1855 Remote sensing (1640)
DE: 1856 River channels (0483, 0744)
DE: 1894 Instruments and techniques: modeling
DE: 1895 Instruments and techniques: monitoring
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting