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5 <br />about the river corridor were recorded on audio channel #1 of the red-band videotape. A time <br />code was recorded on audio channel #2 and as a banner on the green-band tape. This time <br />code was used to retrieve synchronized video frames from each of the videotapes to construct <br />three-band composite images. Other information was recorded as a banner on the red-band <br />tape, including latitude and longitude position from a global positioning system, airplane <br />altitude, ground speed and direction, date, and time of day. <br />Videography was collected on five dates from May 15 to June 5, 1992, by flying about <br />2,000 ft above the river surface at each study site. Videotaping at this altitude provided an <br />image resolution of 0.5 to 1.0 in per pixel and typically kept both shorelines and riparian <br />vegetation in the fields of view of the cameras. Because of the meandering river channel, <br />weather conditions, and topography, several flightlines were required to videotape each study <br />site. During videography, releases from the dam ranged from approximately 800 to 4,000 cfs. <br />Immediately prior to the first videotaping session, field crews visited each study site <br />to collect site-specific information and to place panel markers that would be used to provide <br />scale measurements during analysis of the imagery. Information gathered included descrip- <br />tions of each site, shoreline substrate, and measurements of features likely to be visible in <br />the videography. The scale markers, which consisted of 6.6-ft x 6.6-ft (2-m x 2-m) white <br />plastic panels, were placed approximately 33 ft (10 m) apart near the shoreline. Photographs <br />and narrated videotapes were also collected at each site to show positioning of the markers <br />and other features of interest, such as vegetation and topographic features. <br />After videography was collected, images were catalogued to identify river segments <br />that had been videotaped at three or four different flows, including the highest and lowest <br />flows. The number of flows at which a particular site was successfully videotaped depended, <br />in part, on weather conditions (e.g., cloud cover) during data-collecting flights. After these <br />segments were identified, the appropriate images were captured and transferred to a <br />computer format by using commercially available hardware and software. Further details <br />of videoprocessing are discussed by Snider et al. (1994). <br />The upper boundary of the riparian zone was identified on the low-flow images, and <br />the images were trimmed along this boundary to reduce the overall size of the image and the <br />amount of disk storage required for each image (Figure 4). Total area and area of water in <br />acres were then determined for each image. Area above water and area above the 800-cfs <br />level were calculated from these values, and the relationships to flow were determined for <br />each study area.