Colorado River Project: A compilation of vegetation indices, phenology assessment metrics, estimates of evapotranspiration and change maps for five reaches between Hoover and Morelos Dams on the Lower Colorado River, for nearly the last two decades

Publication Date

2021-04-01

Start Date

2000

End Date

2020

Nagler, P., Barreto-Muñoz, A., and Didan, K., 2021, Colorado River Project: A compilation of vegetation indices, phenology assessment metrics, estimates of evapotranspiration and change maps for five reaches between Hoover and Morelos Dams on the Lower Colorado River, for nearly the last two decades: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9MIPBRP.

Type: Related Primary Publication

These raster and tabular data were created to continue monitoring riparian zone trends, changes and anomalies in the riparian zone of the lower Colorado River (LCR) between Hoover and Morelos Dams in the United States. The purpose of the time-series period statistics data are to provide estimates of the riparian woodland area ecosystem health and its water use for the Lower Colorado River between Hoover and Morelos dams over the past 21 years. These datasets, while specific to the research questions addressed by this research (see Larger Work Citation), were designed to be accessible and used by others involved in research efforts on the LCR. These maps capture a critical period of the LCR riparian zone over the past 21 years and provide a first synoptic view of how the vegetation responded to salt cedar biocontrol beetle defoliation events since they arrived into the LCR region ca. 2016. The ET-EVI change maps show areas where more or less greening and water use has taken place between the first and last decades and the first and last five-year periods. The riparian corridor vegetation will continue to respond not only to biocontrol activity but also to drought. The NDVI time-series information will continue to be monitored into the future and thus capture additional changes in the natural phenological cycles of these riparian species that could be due to ongoing drought conditions, higher maximum air temperatures, precipitation pattern changes and fire or land clearing activities. These types of events, when tracked using ET-EVI and NDVI data, are very important for land and water managers, and academics who follow up these studies and may spatially compare trends to restoration areas, or temporally, either by comparing to prior years or more likely, by extending the performance period beyond the year 2020.

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• USGS Data Release Products
• USGS Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC)