Land Use Change and Effects onWater Quality in the Lake Tahoe Basin:

Applications of GIS

Christian RaumannResearch and Technology Team

USGS Western Geographic Science Center, Menlo Park, California

Project Background

3-year project funded by a Geographic ResearchApplication Prospectus Grant (now in second year)

Multi-agency collaboration:

• USGS Menlo Park: Principle investigators

• Desert Research Institute, Reno: Remote sensing specialist and geomorphologist

• USGS Water Resources, Carson City: GIS analyst and hydrologist

Lake Tahoe Basin

• Located on the California-Nevada border in the central Sierra Nevada.

• Permanent population of 60,000 Transient population over 300,000 22 million visitors per year.

• Destination for snow sports, hiking, camping, gambling, water sports, and general tourism.

• Significant development during the past 70 years.

Consequences of Growth

Land use change contributes to a highly disturbed ecosystem.

Increase in impervious surfaces: any material that prevents the infiltration of water into soil and thereby changing the flow dynamics, sedimentation load, and pollution profile of storm water runoff (roofs, roads, parking lots, sidewalks, etc.).

Major issue: Decrease in Lake Tahoe water quality (~1.5 feet/year) due to increased nutrient and pollutant loading.

Pilot Study Area

Upper Truckee River andTrout Creek Watersheds

Develop methods and test hypothesis,then apply them to the entire basin.

Representative of all land use/land covertypes in the Tahoe Basin.

Contains the most developed area of theBasin: City of South Lake Tahoe.

Many agencies (TRPA, USFS), privatecompanies (Sierra Pacific), andcommunity groups (UTWFG) involvedin related projects.

Currently Available Digital Data

Must have GIS data before performing analysis.

Much GIS data is available for the Tahoe Basin: elevation, orthophotography, soils, fire, wildlife, forestry…

…even land cover!

2000 National Land Cover Data

Data Collection

• High-resolution historical land cover and impervious cover (IC) data is unavailable, so a comprehensive data collection effort is necessary to produce data for analysis in a GIS.

• Case with many GIS projects: a need for specific data = time + $$$

Mapping historical land use change and increase in IC:• Derive land use data with IC estimates from historical

orthophotography using traditional interpretation techniques (labor intensive!).

• For present day coverage, derive land use and IC from IKONOS multispectral satellite imagery using remote sensing software employing semi-automated routines (T.Minor).

What is Remote Sensing?

"...the science of acquiring, processing, and interpreting images, and related data, obtained from aircraft and satellites that record the interaction between matter and electromagnetic radiation." -- F.Sabins, 1997

OR MORE GENERALLY:

Collecting information about an objectwithout being in physical contact with it.

Reflected/scattered/emitted energy can be measured using various kinds of remote sensing instruments.

Thankfully, many earth materials have very unique spectral signatures, almost like fingerprints.

Satellite Imagery

Remote Sensing of Impervious Surfaces

IKONOS high-resolution multispectral imagery

• Collected by satellite that “scans” the earth rather

than using a camera to photograph it.

• 4 spectral bands:

visible RED, GREEN, and BLUE

plus NEAR INFRARED

• 4-meter ground pixel resolution.

• Current scene within pilot study area

is approximately 25 km2. Acquiring

entire basin coverage this summer.

Satellite Imagery vs. Aerial Photography

2000 IKONOS ImageryFalse natural color composite,

bands 3-2-1 (RGB)

1987 Digital OrthophotoTrue natural color

Cover Variety in the Tahoe Basin

Forest canopy cover and shadow is a major concern.

Commercial area around the “Y” intersectionLow canopy cover

Black Bart neighborhoodHigh-density canopy cover

Step 1

Mask out areas in the IKONOS

scene known not to have any

impervious cover using other

data sources and visual

inspection.

Infrared false color composite,

bands 4-2-1.

Step 2

Impervious cover layer generated using image classification processing techniques (PCA).

Impervious cover in red,natural cover in black.

However, forest canopy cover isstill an issue…

Step 3

Looking through the trees:

Use logical operations to fill

gaps where forest canopy likely

covers IC.

Road detected!

Canopy covering road Road detected

undercanopy shadow

Final Impervious Cover Layer

Accuracy Assessment

ImperviousCover

NaturalCover

RowTotal

ImperviousCover (96) 92 4 96

Natural Cover (74) 8 66 74

ColumnTotal 100 70 170

Overall Accuracy = 158/170 = 92.94%

In the field, 170 “random” points were surveyed using GPS.

Labeled points as “impervious cover” or “natural cover”, then comparedto corresponding points in IKONOS-derived IC layer.

IC Layer Points

Sur

veye

d P

oint

s

Final Process for Deriving Impervious Cover Layer

What’s Next?

Contact:craumann@usgs.gov

(650) 329-5648

1. Derive IC for the entire pilot study area.

2. Compile historical land cover data using aerial photography.

3. Quantify change and analyze in a GIS.