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<br />OO'2!zlJ.~
<br />
<br />,Geological Survey for these two areas patterned after the prototype series for
<br />the Sal ina Quadrangle, Utah (Covington, 1972; Covington and Will rams, 1972;
<br />Hackman, 1972, 1973; Price, 1972a, 1972b; Wi 11 iams, 1972; Will iams and Coving-
<br />ton, 1973; Wi 11 iams and Hackman, 1971). These include areal depiction of such
<br />topics as potential landsl ide areas, coal beds and amount of overburden,ground-
<br />water availability and quality, springs, and vegetation.
<br />
<br />TheU,S, Bureau of Land Management has compiled detailed information for
<br />one of their planning units within the Yampa River basin ata scale of 1:126,720
<br />with 73 overlays (Gary Carson, oral commun" 1975).
<br />
<br />Remote-Sens ing Appl ications
<br />
<br />There is a wide variation of vegetative cover within theYampa basin--
<br />both spatially and temporally, Tohelp'assess this variation a computer
<br />program developed at Purdue Univers ity ,and des,cribed by Landgrebe (196,9) may
<br />be used, Color-infrared imagery from the Landsat (ERTS) satellite is avail-
<br />able for all seasons 'of the year and will be reduced at the U.S, Geological
<br />Survey's EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, S,Dilk., using an' "image"100"system
<br />(G, K, Moore, written commun., 1975).
<br />
<br />The basis of the computer'program developed at Purdue University revolves
<br />around a multispect'ral approach to pattern recognition as appl ied to a digital-
<br />processing system. Us ing the Landsat (ERTS) imagery as input, the program can
<br />assess the spectral., spatial, and temporal variations of energy reflected from
<br />the earth's surface. The program can tabu late the output for the area of the
<br />basin to give percentage vegetation cover over the basin, By assessing sever-
<br />al image frames for the Yampa region over an annual cycle, the percentage
<br />'changes of vegetation as a function of season can be assessed. Remote se'nsing'
<br />also might provide information to evaluate (1) impacts of strip-mining, parti-
<br />cularly erosion, (2) extent and progress of vegetative rehabil itation, (3)
<br />most efficient use of land resources where competition exists, (4) effective-
<br />ness of solid-waste disposal, and (5) best areas for recreation use,
<br />
<br />ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS FOR SELECTED
<br />ENERGY-DEVELOPMENT PROPOSALS
<br />
<br />Procedures, from simple to complex, will be imposed ,in 'evaluating the
<br />various environmental impl icati,ons of the several proposed 'coal-development
<br />plans that might be implemented in the Yampa River basin. ,In the basin as-
<br />sessment, screening procedures should be defined to evaluate the feasibil ity
<br />of each proposal. The criteria for these procedures, in turn, will help in-
<br />d i ca te the types of env i ronmenta 1 mode 1 s and extent of envi rorimen ta I ana I ys i s
<br />needed to determine the implementation of a given development plan. These
<br />screening criteria will be made as quantitative as possible, The successful
<br />outcome of this research, however, cannot be guaranteed for the residuals-
<br />management analysis.
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