Interior least tern sandbar nesting habitat measurements from Landsat TM imagery

Publication Date

2018-10-05

Start Date

1980-01-01

End Date

2011-12-31

Bulliner, E.A., 2018, Interior least tern sandbar nesting habitat measurements from Landsat TM imagery: U.S. Geological Survey data release, http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F7CV4GNG.

The purpose of this dataset is to present methods used to create riverine land cover classification data (simply referred to as classification data) used to quantify sandbar area potentially used by the ILT across large rivers of the Central U.S. The database and classification products presented are intended to provide a systematic calculation of sandbar area across all useable images in the Landsat TM archive while accounting for varying river stage. Classified land cover datasets are presented for multiple flow segments from eight rivers, along with a database containing Landsat metadata and discharge records for all relevant Landsat images. The database encompasses all imagery for the eight classified rivers along with five additional rivers less commonly used by the ILT and not investigated as part of this dataset. These rivers consist of a very small fraction of the overall ILT population habitat and were deemed less important for this analysis. However, they were included in the database as a framework for future analysis if they should later be deemed important. This dataset was compiled using a combination of Landsat Climate Data Record (CDR) surface reflectance data products developed and processed by the USGS Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center (U.S. Geological Survey, 2014), discharge data from the USGS national stream gauging network, and dam release and river-stage records from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The intent of this dataset is to provide a historic summary of sandbars visible from the Landsat TM satellites on large rivers used by the ILT given all available images in the Landsat TM period of record. Additionally, this dataset provides an analysis framework amenable for ongoing monitoring of sandbars useable by the ILT as nesting habitat. This shapefile identifies river segments derived from the national Hydrography dataset, v2, used in this work.

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• Columbia Environmental Research Center (CERC)

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