Recent jmie_ice_icepubs items

Urban Growth in California: Projecting growth in California (2000-2050) under six alternative policy scenarios and assessing impacts to future dispersal corridors, fire threats and climate-sensitive agriculture.Urban Growth in California: Projecting Growth in California (2000-2050) under six alternative policy scenarios and assessing impacts to future dispersal corridors, fire threats and climate-sensitive agriculture.

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This paper documents the development of land use models that represent different urban growth policy scenarios for California, a contribution to the Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Climate Vulnerability and Assessment Project of 2010–2011. The research team produced six UPlan model runs that portray the following policies as footprint scenarios to 2050: Business as Usual, Smart Growth, Fire Adaptation, Infill, Conservation of Projected Connectivity for Plant Movement under Climate Change, and Conservation of Vulnerable Agricultural Lands. This paper compares the outputs from these six scenarios on outputs from three other PIER vulnerability studies: biodiversity, fire return interval, and agricultural sensitivity. While not directly targeting any conservation or agricultural objective, the Infill scenario preserved more open space for other use than any of the other scenarios. The results suggest that combining Infill objectives with other open space goals will produce...

Biomass, Carbon Sequestration, and Avoided Emissions: Assessing the Role of Urban Trees in California

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This report represents a collaborative effort between the Information Center for the Environment, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis (UCD-ICE); the Urban Ecosystems and Social Dynamics Program, Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service (USFS-PSWRS); and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Fire and Resource Assessment Program (CAL FIRE-FRAP), to assess the current status of the tree canopy and associated benefits within the urban areas of California. In addition, the current status of environmental threats to the urban area population were also examined, in order to highlight the communities most vulnerable and potentially the most likely to benefit from tree plantings and maintenance.

The Implications of Global Climate Change for Mountain Gorilla Conservation

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Efforts in biodiversity conservation have long embraced the task of reducing the impactsof the stressors imposed by anthropogenic and environmental changes. In the past, moststressors have been either on-going but gradual or incremental, such as pollution ordeforestation, or one-time catastrophic events, such as large oil spills, or a severe drought. Theprevailing conservation principle has been to plan for a static protected area or series of protectedareas, with the goal of preserving important specific habitat types, or biodiversity assemblages.The assumption has been that if properly protected, these ecosystems would remain stable(Hansen et al., 2009). Climate change has created new challenges in biodiversity conservation.While it is already changing ecosystems across the globe, it will continue to do so for decadesand perhaps centuries to come, and at a faster pace than originally anticipated (Hansen et al.,2009). The current pace of change is unprecedented in evolutionary...

A Reference Manual for Caltrans Staff on Regional Advance Mitigation Impact Assessment Methods

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This manual reviews the motivations and methods for transportation project impact assessment under the Regional Advance Mitigation Planning (RAMP) framework. RAMP is a process that creates an inventory of expected environmental impacts from multiple transportation (or other development) projects within a region (Thorne et al. 2009; Thorne et al. 2014). When conducted early in the lifecycle of the projects, such as after projects are identified on long-range transportation plans but prior to being programmed, proposed mitigation can be developed earlier, resulting in efficiencies for both project delivery and budget, and effectiveness of the mitigation developed. The RAMP approach can help avoid the cost of delays and over-runs due to late and fragmented project-by-project environmental planning and mitigation, which in California has been estimated by Caltrans internal reports at $59 million per year (Byrne 2005).

Safe Passages and the City of Riverbank: Wildlife Connectivity in the San Joaquin Valley, California

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The Safe Passages project is a collaborationbetween scientists at UC Davis and nongovernmentalconservation organizations(Defenders of Wildlife, Conservation BiologyInstitute, and South Coast Wildlands), inconsultation with state agencies (CaliforniaDepartments of Transportation and Fish andGame), and is intended to encourage theinclusion of habitat connectivity planning andprotection in local and regional planning insupport of the State Wildlife Action Plan. It wasdesigned to be a model effort, with relevance toregions struggling with finding ways to conservewildlife and natural processes in the face ofdevelopment. One major ecological process atrisk is isolation of wildlife populations andreduction of the permeability of the landscapeto wildlife movement. The project draws uponcontemporary scientific understanding ofwildlife movement, physical connections onlandscapes, and land‐use and transportationplanning in order to better fit developmentpatterns to the needs of natural processes,especially...

Climate change impacts on California vegetation: physiology, life history, and ecosystem change.

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Dominant plant species mediate many ecosystem services, including carbon storage, soil

retention, and water cycling. One of the uncertainties with climate change effects on terrestrial

ecosystems is understanding where transitions in dominant vegetation, often termed state

change, will occur. The complex nature of state change requires multiple lines of evidence. Here,

we present four lines of inquiry into climate change effects on dominant vegetation, focusing on

the likelihood and nature of climate change–driven state change. This study combined

physiological measurements, geographic models, historical documented cases of state change,

and statewide plot sampling networks together with interpolated climate grids. Together these

approaches suggest that the vulnerability to state change will be driven by the proximity of

climatic conditions to biological thresholds for dominant species. The sensitivity of the dominant

species...

4.2: Assessment of Landscape Context

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This Natural Resources Condition Assessment (NRCA) is part of a Servicewide eff ort in the National Park Service

(NPS) to complete comparable NRCAs for each of 270 NPS units across the 32 NPS Vital Signs Monitoring

networks between 2006 and 2014. The Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (parks) approach is unique

in several particulars: (1) its construction was made possible through signifi cant added park base funds; (2) the

parks professional staff and university partners were equally challenged to work cooperatively to create “actionable

results;” and (3) more than 80 professionals contributed to authoring and presenting this 2,600+ page condition

assessment.

The state of the valley report: an overview of the characteristics and trends of natural resources in the San Joaquin Valley's rural spaces, with an eye on resource sustainability for the future.

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The state of the valley report: an overview of the characteristics and trends of natural resources in the San Joaquin Valley's rural spaces, with an eye on resource sustainability for the future.

The Central Coast Connectivity Project, Northern Monterey County Linkages: Report on the Mount Toro to Fort Ord Reserve Study 2008-2009

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The Big Sur Land Trust contracted Connectivity for Wildlife LLC (CFW), a wildlife research organization, to conduct a wildlife connectivity study in the Central Coast of California. Using extensive field work combined with Geographic Information System (GIS) modeling CFW documents species presence and ground-truths habitat suitability models to better understand wildlife movement patterns and identify lands and waterways that provide important connectivity between core habitat areas for wildlife between Central Coast mountain ranges including the Sierra de Salinas, Santa Lucia, Santa Cruz and Gabilan mountains. Data was collected by camera trap stations, wildlife track and sign surveys and documented road-kill incidents. Results may be used to inform the Land Trust’s conservation initiatives, stewardship and education programs and to aid policy makers and planners in developing compensatory mitigation and infrastructure design considerations that protect and enhance critical wildlife...

The Development of 70-Year-Old Wieslander Vegetation Type Maps and an Assessment of Landscape Change in the Central Sierra Nevada

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Assessing dominant land cover change is critical to understanding the terrestrial consequences of climate change. This study created digital maps from a portion of a heritage vegetation survey of California, the Wieslander Vegetation Type Map survey of the 1930s. Digital maps were produced for a 30,236 km2 area of the Sierra Nevada. These historical data were compared with CalVeg, a 1996 vegetation map produced by the US Forest Service. In addition, the extent of Pinus ponderosa forests on the Placerville quadrangle was compared to a historical map from 1850 as well as the 1934 map.At low elevations, blue oak (Quercus douglasii) and foothill pine (Pinus sabiniana) areas have largely converted to grasslands. At about 1000 meters elevation, the lower edge of the “Yellow Pine Belt” (dominated by Pinus ponderosa) has retreated upslope about 180 meters between 1934 and 1996, and by 526 meters since 1850. Grazing, competition by nonnative grasses, and fire occurred on only 42% of the...

A guide to Wildlands Conservation in the Central Coast Region of California.

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

A guide to Wildlands Conservation in the Central Coast Region of California.

BioMove - Improvement and Parameterization of a Hybrid Model fo the ASsessment of Climate Change impacts on the Vegetation of California

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

There is substantial evidence that climate change is affecting ecosystems worldwide.

California is no exception. With insights from historic climate change and subsequent

species’ responses, scientists are developing refined tools to evaluate how species change

may continue in the future and what impact this may have on biodiversity and

conservation. Bioclimatic envelope modeling is one approach to modeling species

distribution. However, it has many shortcomings by neglecting to account for

individualistic species response or inter specific competition. Furthermore, bioclimatic

envelope models do not account for species dispersal constraints or those imposed by

disturbances such as land use change or fire. BioMove is a novel spatially explicit,

dynamic species modeling approach developed to address these issues. It simulates a

target species in a dynamic landscape, competing with a target species in competition

with...

2015 Mitigation Needs Assessment for Transportation Projects for the Sacramento Valley Pilot Project for Regional Advance Mitigation Planning

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This report documents an assessment of the potential environmental impacts of transportation projects under development by Caltrans for a study area. The report is an update of a previous study, overseen by the by the Regional Advance Mitigation Planning (RAMP) working group (Regional Advance Mitigation Planning Work Group, 2011). The RAMP working group previously selected the pilot project area as a useful area in which to provide an application and test of methods to conduct a regional accounting of the expected impacts from multiple projects. This approach to impact assessment is an integral part of developing regional advance mitigation planning methodologies.

This report provides an overview of the legal obligations for Caltrans with regard to compensatory mitigation, with a listing of the federal and state acts that require special consideration, consultation or permits for impacts to species or habitat, and to the waters of the United States and California,...

Development and application of downscaled hydroclimatic predictor variables for use in climate vulnerability and assessment studies.

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This paper outlines the production of 270 meter grid‐scale maps for 14 climate and derivative

hydrologic variables for a region that encompasses the State of California and all the streams

that flow into it. The paper describes the Basin Characterization Model (BCM), a map‐based,

mechanistic model used to process the hydrological variables. Three historic and three future

time periods of 30 years (1911–1940, 1941–1970, 1971–2000, 2010–2039, 2040–2069, and 2070–

2099) were developed that summarize 180 years of monthly historic and future climate values.

These comprise a standardized set of fine‐scale climate data that were shared with 14 research

groups, including the U.S. National Park Service and several University of California groups as

part of this project. The paper presents three analyses done with the outputs from the Basin

Characterization Model: trends in hydrologic variables over baseline, the most recent 30‐year

period;...

A Review of Lessons Learned through the RAMP Working Group, Addendum to the Draft Statewide Framework

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This document is a review of insights and lessons learned in the years since the RAMP working group developed its Draft Statewide Framework (AECOM 2012). It has been developed by the University of California, Davis (UCD), and is intended primarily to supply additional perspective to Caltrans, through a synthesis of information gathered during an impact analysis for a pilot project, from a series of interviews with agency personnel, from a project developed for the Transportation Research Board by UCD, and from ongoing discussions in RAMP’s multi-agency working group.

Designing a geodatabase for your project: A wetlands delineation example

Wed, 11 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000

The key to successful geodatabase design in ArcGIS 8.3 is laying out the project objectives before you begin. Our team at the Information Center for the Environment at UC Davis is mapping for the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory (NWI). This paper addresses how we organized our geodatabase to delineate the wetlands, how we developed a topology, our consideration of national standards, and our methods for synchronizing the data and creating backups.

Geospatial Risk Assessment of North Coast Watersheds in California

Mon, 21 Jun 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Researchers at the Information Center for the Environment (ICE) are using ArcGIS to inventory and monitor environmental risks to California’s north, coastal watersheds. In collaboration with state agencies, ICE has created a comprehensive GIS for selected watersheds in which water quality improvement and endangered species recovery is paramount. ICE has leveraged hyperspectral imagery, extensive field data, and framework datasets to provide resources managers with single source content to make decisions concerning the environmental risk of landslide potential; alterations in aquatic habitat; and land use change, among many. Our results indicate that a geospatial framework for information brokerage is critical for assessing land use decisions at a watershed scale.

Geographic Information System support for total maximum daily load analysis of the Mattole River Watershed, Humboldt County, California

Wed, 3 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000

The Mattole River Watershed (Figure 1), Humboldt County, California, is listed on the Clean Water Act Section 303(d) list of impaired water bodies, for sediment and temperature. As required by this section and subsequent litigation, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (NCRWQCB) is under consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for these constituents. Sediment and temperature are non-point source pollutants that impair the listed beneficial uses for the river, particularly cold water fisheries for endangered salmonid populations. The Information Center for the Environment (ICE), at the University of California, Davis, has developed analysis procedures for assisting the NCRWQCB in addressing the TMDLs in the Mattole Watershed.

To address the sediment TMDL, roads and mass-wasting features were inventoried. The mass-wasting inventory identified all discreet and chronic sediment sources through...

ICEMAP2 (Interactive California environmental management, assessment, and planning system mark 2): A MapObjects based Internet mapping service

Tue, 2 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000

ICEMAPS2 is a new Internet mapping service of the Information Center for the Environment. It is based on the new technology of MapObjects, and MapObjects Internet Map Server. ICEMAPS2 exceeds its predecessor, ICEMAPS (based on PERL and Arc/Info), in performance and functionality. The success implementation of a MapObjects based map server has cut development and maintenance time dramatically. Future versions of ICEMAPS will most probably be based on ODE Arc/Info technology.

Migrating attributes tied to the EPA river reache file to the national hydrography dataset

Tue, 2 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000

In cooperation with several federal and state agencies, the Information Center for the Environment (ICE) at the University of California Davis is analyzing the ability to cross-reference information linked to California's hydrography dataset (a modified form of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's River Reach File) to the new National Hydrography Dataset. California's Reach File contains a critical but non-standard foreign key that is essential to many research applications. Additionally, ICE plans to test, verify, and recommend enhancements to cross-referencing methods to improve the transfer of reach-code information from earlier hydrography datasets in California to the NHD.

Watershed analysis tool for environmental resources: GIS technology in the new millennium

Tue, 2 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000

The Information Center for the Environment (ICE), UC Davis, is currently developing a decision support system to facilitate watershed analyses by state resource agencies in California. ICE is using the latest in ESRI GIS to provide resource managers critical environmental data, including a desktop application with embedded GIS to facilitate watershed analysis. This tool incorporates readily available GIS data such as biotic occurrences and distributions, hydrography and geomorphology. Other relevant data are task specific, such as staff reports, water quality matrices, and site location photographs. The approach used is adaptable to assessing a broad array of conservation priorities in natural resource management.

Using GIS to improve water quality reporting in California

Tue, 2 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000

In 1998, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) scientists were trained to use the Geospatial Waterbody System (GeoWBS), developed by the Information Center for the Environment (ICE). The Regional Board scientists are currently using the system to report waterbody assessments to the EPA, as mandated by the Clean Water Act. As part of ICE’s continuing work with the GeoWBS database, ICE staff members visited each RWQCB in California to assist the scientists with geographic delineation of waterbodies that will be included in the 303(d) report.

Applied geographic information systems in cooperative natural resource projects: A California Example

Tue, 2 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000

The Information Center for the Environment (ICE) at the University of California, Davis has been cooperating with various federal, state, and local agencies on the Natural Resource Projects Inventory (NRPI) to locate and catalog watershed-scale environmental management and restoration projects throughout the State. One of the goals of NRPI is to represent these projects spatially so they can be viewed in conjunction with other critical data layers. Currently, 1,464 projects are spatially referenced out of a total of over 1,700 projects in the NRPI database. This spatial online database will allow the public and decision makers to derive more effective conclusions regarding ecological restoration.

Nonpoint Source Pollution Modeling in the North Coast of California

Fri, 7 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000

The Navarro River watershed hosts one of the last extant populations of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) in the Central California Evolutionarily Significant Unit. As such, the identification and restoration of riparian habitats in the Navarro River watershed is paramount to the continued survival of this coho salmon population. This study utilizes a modeling procedure to identify priority locations in the Navarro River watershed using a geographic information system (GIS). This riparian habitat modeling method was used to identify priority restoration sites in the Navarro River watershed. The modeling structure emphasizes a hydrological metric, wetness index, and several landuse – land cover parameters. This GIS based model of the Navarro River was used for selecting potential riparian restoration sites, and used to demonstrate the utility of the model for selection of potential salmonid habitat. The results of analyzing the similarity between two model runs, one emphasizing...

California rivers assessment: Assembling environmental data to characterize California's watersheds

Fri, 7 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000

The California Rivers Assessment (CARA) is a computer-based geographic data management system designed to give resource managers, policy-makers, landowners, scientists and interested citizens rapid access to essential information and tools with which to make sound decisions about the conservation and use of California's rivers. CARA is intended to provide an evaluation of the environmental conditions of California's rivers by integrating existing data from previously uncoordinated contributors and organizations, and to improve river conservation and management by making this information available and useful. The assessment utilizes a suite of watershed facts, processed in ESRI’s ARC/INFO and ArcView Geographic Information System software, to provide an objective view of the watershed integrity of California's riverine resources. These watershed facts focus on existing riparian and aquatic resources: biodiversity, water quality, and resource management activities. Access to...

California's Experience with the river reach file

Fri, 7 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Organized hydrographic information is vital to the success of environmental planning and management. Joint efforts from the USGS and U.S. EPA to produce a spatial base and attribute model, respectively, have resulted in an alpha release of the River Reach File, a national hydrographic standard (RF3-alpha). In California, this represents over 200,000 records of hydrographic features maintained and distributed by the state's Teale GIS Technology Center in ARC/INFO format for use by public agencies and the private sector. This paper summarizes the key events, beginning in 1992, with the California Department of Fish and Game's GIS program, which have led to the revision and correction of over 60,000 RF3 records in cooperation with federal, state, University of California at Davis (UCD), and private entities. The detail in the revisions ranges from complete hydrograhic address enumeration in portions of the Eel River basin, to statewide reconciliation of USGS hydrographic names...

California riparian evaluation system: an ArcView decision support tool for environmental management

Fri, 7 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000

The California Riparian Evaluation System (CARES) is a habitat evaluation tool designed to be used by decision makers who are not experienced with GIS. The current version was designed for the Wildlife Conservation Board of the California Department of Fish and Game to support their analysis of how riparian habitat restoration funds should be allocated. CARES, developed by the California Rivers Assessment (CARA) staff at the University of California, Davis, allows for the identification of riparian areas of high quality and diversity which are at risk or which have a high potential for conservation or restoration. The system is comprised of a state-of-the-art ArcView 3.0 graphical user interface through which users may alter evaluation criteria priorities to match conservation goals. The application operates by allowing users to specify a mapping of the domain of a coverage onto a [-1,1] score. The users may then specify relative weightings for each variable and construct a...

Improving water quality reporting in California with the Geo Waterbody system

Fri, 7 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000

In California, water quality assessment information is currently reported via a FoxPro (DOS) system known as the WaterBody System (WBS). WBS does not have a spatial component, and therefore users typically enter information for large named water courses. Several states, including California, have developed links from WBS waterbodies to EPA River Reach File (RF3-alpha) features, spatially referencing WBS to an existing nationwide hydrography layer. This spatial referencing step, however, has typically occurred after local scientists and resource managers entered assessment information into the WBS.

In order to improve water quality reporting, the University of California, Davis (UCD) Information Center for the Environment (ICE) has developed GeoWBS, a customized graphical user interface using ArcView and the Dialog Designer Extension that allows users entering water quality assessment information to better spatially define waterbodies. This system links the assessment...

Protection status of California's hardwood riparian habitat

Fri, 7 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Riparian habitats in the California hardwoods zone are slowly being converted from natural landuses to permanently anthropogenic landuses. Riparian habitat is important for species diversity, water quality, and recreation. CA Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) Hardwoods Rangeland Monitoring Project's map of the riparian areas in the hardwoods zone was combined with the UCSB California Gap Analysis Managed Areas map to show the area of the riparian habitat in the study not protected from development. Using ARC/INFO GRID, it was found that, of the approximately 2,780,000 acres of riparian mapped by CDF, 65% is privately owned and not managed for biodiversity. A digital elevation model (DEM) was used to determine which riparian areas were on slopes of <10¦ . Riparian habitat on a slope of <10¦ and privately owned is at a higher risk of development and represents 35% of the total riparian habitat in the study area. In addition, to the management status and slope...

California rivers assessment on-line query system

Fri, 7 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000

California's widely diverse rivers are among the state's most valuable resources. Rivers are also among California's most damaged ecosystems because of the many demands placed upon them over time. In 1992, the California Resources Agency determined there was a need to develop a good foundation of river-related information to assist planning and decision-making. The California River's Assessment (CARA) was thus begun and now comprises more than twenty federal, state and local agencies, and private organizations.

The purpose of CARA is to develop an information system that can provide a comprehensive inventory and evaluation of California's river resources and to make this information easily accessible to decision-makers and the general public. The World-Wide Web serves as a vehicle for disseminating this data in a user-friendly fashion. Our intention is to move beyond the simple display of static snapshots of river data by allowing non-specialist users to query public...

Riparian habitat inventory and assessment agreement

Thu, 30 Oct 2003 00:00:00 +0000

The first fact to know about CARA is that participating groups or individuals collectively felt that scores of sets of facts were critical to their individual or cooperative work with California's rivers. In all, 99 sets of statewide, regional, or local data were integrated directly into CARA. Links were created to another 206 internet providers of information.

CARA contains 39 sets of mapped geographical information system(GIS) layers, 60 sets of tabular (database) and textual text) data, as well as links (internet connections) to 510 additional maps, tables and texts located on other servers. All of this data is organized by watershed and theme. CARA makes the data available to interested parties over the internet for a wide variety of analytical and management purposes.

Identifying environmental and agricultural values and opportunities for regional planning:a GIS approach

Thu, 30 Oct 2003 00:00:00 +0000

The Sacramento, California, U.S.A, Area Council of Governments (SACOG) commissioned the Information Center for the Environment, University of California, Davis (ICE) to assemble a suite of the best available region-wide GIS data depicting natural resource values and conservation opportunities for the six County, 6,500 square mile (16,830 square kilometer) Sacramento, California region. This region is planned and managed by a large and diverse number of government entities and it contains a population of approximately 2,000,000 with a wide range of natural resource and economic interests. The purpose of this commission was to create a visual, conceptual tool depicting and weighting natural resource variables that are of value to the many parties of interest in land use and conservation planning in the region.

On the uses of hyperspectral data analysis and watershed analytical methods to evaluate the extent of riparian vegetation and habitat in the Navarro River, California

Thu, 23 Oct 2003 00:00:00 +0000

The primary goal of this project was to test the feasibility of using high-spatial resolution, Airborne visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data to identify and assess riparian vegetation over an area with complex topography and land use. In particular, our goals were to use ecological field data to 1) provide a priori expectations of vegetation classifications, 2) serve as verification for spectral classification, and 3) to form a basis from which to nest the classification results within ongoing ecological research. The second aspect of this research was the use of watershed analytical methods to develop a classification of stream segments based on their macro-scale geomorphic properties. In particular, we used terrain-based algorithms to cluster stream segments to describe their geomorphic confinement. Lastly, to benefit longer-term and more broad scale vegetation mapping efforts throughout the region, we compared two vegetation data, the AVIRIS Riparian classification...