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<br />Ihe characleristics of these siles, Using the ISTAR digital elevation data and orthoreclified. four, <br />band color data Ihal were acquired for Ihe entire CRE during 2002. Mike Breedlove (IT program) <br />recently showed that these data could not only map all campsites and beaches. but could also <br />accurately inventory all terrestrial fine,grained sediment storage sites, throughout the CRE in a <br />period ofa few months. His analysis used the color dala 10 deline the walers edge (Figure 3) and <br />to deline areas of non-vegetal ion that have high levels of surface reflectance (Figure 4). Local <br />near,infrared,band variance separatcd smooth (line'grained) and rough (coarse-grained) surfaces <br />(Figure 5), Elevation data were used to restrict the mapping of campsites and beaches to areas <br />that are 10 meters or less in height above the water's edge. which is a crilerion established for <br />campsite invenlories. but the analysis was actually performed up 10 the wall-rockfalluvium <br />interface. These individual data sets were integrated to produce a CRE digital map of fine- and <br />coarse-grained sediment deposits (Figure 6). Much oflhese analyses were largely aulomaled <br />computer processed. which was made possible by the calibrated. digital dala provided by ISTAR. <br />If this corridor,wide invenlory study was allempted using un-calibrated. aerial CIR photography. <br />Ihe time required to produce such a product would increase by a factor of 3-4 and the product <br />would have higher posilional errors making it less accurate for temporal analyses. This study <br />found some limitations in that data. mainly due to the different viewing angles of the four ISTAR <br />color delectors. For example, Ihe different view angles produced non-coincident sun glinl in the <br />four bands over much of Ihe water's surface. resulting in random, unnatural colors for the main <br />stem. Thus. mapping the water's edge required a supervised approach, which is usually one of <br />the simpler, automated remote-sensing analyses. 1ST AR now uses a color-detector system in <br />which three of the four color bands are collected Ihrough the same optics and therefore with the <br />same view angle. but the NIR band (critical for mapping vegelalion) is slill collected at a different <br />view angle. This improvement will make some aspecls of camp,sitelbeach mapping more <br />aulomaled for rapid temporal analyses, but an optimal syslem would collect all band data wilh the <br />same optics, which would not only make this type of mapping more unsupervised. mOTe rapid. <br />and less expensive. but would also produce more accurate temporal analyses. Despile these few <br />problems, the resulting inventory map of campsites and beaches is the most complete and <br />accurate database to date and provides a good foundation (dalabase and approach) for improved <br />monitoring in the future. <br /> <br />3.0 Biological Resources <br /> <br />The primary objective of the biological resource program is to undersland the <br />cause/effect relations between Glen Canyon dam operations and the downstream aquatic and <br />terreslrial biological ecosystem, and to develop a modellhat can predict ecological effects for <br />differenl dam operations. This objective is approached in Ihree ways: (I) inventory of b;(;:ugic <br />resources and, together with related physical resource data, development of a conceptual model <br />that links biotic and abiolic componenls; (2) research on and development of cause/effect <br />relations between dam operations and the ecology, and tesling the validity of the observed <br />relations under various dam operations; and (3) monitoring both long, and short-term ecosystem <br />behavior 10 determine ifmodels are predictive for both natural (tribulary) and dam perturbalions. <br />Monitoring the biologic resources within the aquatic and lerrestrial environments is a <br />fundamental aspect of these objectives and therefore remote-sensing approaches for detecling and <br />mapping the various resource parameters were evaluated within this remote-sensing initiative. <br /> <br />3./ Aquatic Environment <br /> <br />Parameters monitored in the aquatic environment are those deemed important for the <br />survival of aquatic species. These parameters consisl of the chemical and physical characteristics <br /> <br />10 <br />