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<br />000610 <br /> <br />Delta Wetlands and Riparian Vegetation <br /> <br />South of the international border, the Colorado River's <br />riparian zone narrows as it passes through a system of <br />earthen levees built to protect irrigated agriculture from <br />floods. 32 The Rio Hardy also is channeled, and at their <br />confluence, the combined Colorado and Hardy rivers <br />widen once again. Downstream the river divides into <br />numerous subsidiary channels, which then recombine <br />into a single channel before reaching the sea. <br /> <br />: \, .~ .'/ ~:,\::..\ - :: -:: ': ,1.1': ::::..., .\; :: <br /> <br /> <br />Plant cover in the floodplain varies in intensity, species <br />composition, and habitat value according to its position <br />in the floodplain. In this study, researchers divided the <br />floodplain into seven zones based on the dominant plant <br />species associations identified through ground surveys. <br />[See Figure 6.] The intensity of biomass (land cover) was <br />determined by spectral analyses of satellite images with <br />the number 1 referring to the highest intensity and the <br />number 4 referring to the lowest intensity. (For example, <br />R1 refers to riparian vegetation with high biomass <br /> <br />Photo 5. Cottonwood trees and willows in the Colorado River riparian corridor <br /> <br /> <br />, .',~ <br /> <br /> <br />32 Unless otherwise noted, the findings in this section are summarized from a report by Carlos Valdes-Casillas and others (1998c) 1hat has not yet been <br />published. <br /> <br />21 <br />