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Habitat Mapping
This ongoing effort is developing detailed and comprehensive habitat maps and habitat data layers using satellite images, digital aerial photos, bathymetry, LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR), high resolution hyperspectral images, and on the ground field work. Recent mapping efforts have characterized and mapped areas cut off from lower Columbia River flows by dikes and levees. Additionally, an improved map of the historic lower Columbia River floodplain has recently been drafted. A clearer understanding of the historic floodplain will help reconstruct a historic ecological template of what the river once biologically supported.
More information on the following projects is available below:
Pilot Study in the Use of Digital Multimedia Shoreline Mapping
Habitat Cover Mapping Using Landsat 7 Imagery
Land Cover Change Analysis using Landsat TM Imagery
Estuarine Landcover Using Compact Airborne Spectographic Imager (CASI) Imagery
The Estuary Partnership is currently developing a tool to inventory and assess the lower Columbia River’s shorelines and nearshore environment. Unlike many Columbia River tributaries, no current comprehensive shoreline inventory of the lower Columbia River exits. The project will create properly scaled geospatial baseline data of critical features like shoreline modifications (dikes and armoring), pile dikes, over-water structures, and outfalls. Due to its visual nature, video serves as a highly intuitive method of communicating natural resource information quickly and easily. When video is integrated into a GIS system, it’s known as media mapping, and it’s a particularly important tool for organizations such as the Estuary Partnership that operate with large geographic areas that contain highly variable landscapes. If this pilot study to test the feasibility and capability of media mapping on a shoreline inventory project proves cost-efficient and practical, the Estuary Partnership will look to expand the project to create a full GIS multimedia inventory of the lower Columbia River’s entire shoreline.
The shoreline inventory will locate and characterize the following shoreline features:
- Shoreline condition (riprap, dredge spoil, seawall, dike, natural)
- Over-water structures (docks, piers, marinas, houseboats, log raft areas)
- In-water structures (pile dikes, dolphins, jetties, boat ramps)
- Undisturbed areas (potential reference sites, potential habitat monitoring sites)
- Discharge locations (tidegates, point source discharge pipes, storm water discharge locations)
The pilot program has multiple phases. Phase one involves collecting the digital shoreline imagery. Georeferenced shoreline video data will be collected on both sides of the river between river miles 128 and 146. Video will be shot between 10 and 50 meters off shore during calm conditions and aimed to record data between the waterline and the top of the riparian zone. Date, time, latitude, and longitude positions will be recorded and associated with each video image. Video is scheduled to be shot over a three week period in October-November 2005. The collection of the video imagery will provide a permanent visual record of geo-referenced shoreline features at high resolution.
Phase two involves processing and analyzing the visual and spatial information. Once post processing occurs, results of the pilot program will be reviewed by the Estuary Partnership Science Work Group. Data and results will then be made available to interested parties working on ecosystem restoration in the lower Columbia River. (View the Pilot Study Report) (View the Pilot Study Metadata)
In 2000, the Estuary Partnership initiated a project to produce a spatial data set describing the current location and distribution of estuarine and tidal freshwater habitat cover types along the lower Columbia River. The project developed a broad-brush description of estuarine and tidal freshwater habitat cover classes for the entire Estuary Partnership study area using Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite imagery. The focus was on estuarine and tidal freshwater floodplain habitat cover types, which are important to native species, particularly juvenile salmonids. Although the Landsat 7 ETM+ imagery is too coarse and lacks the spectral resolution to resolve many estuarine features important to natural resource managers, the project provided a good general description of the estuarine cover classes and helped establish the first level of a hierarchical classification scheme and a landscape perspective for the high spatial resolution imagery. The report presents the classification methodology and initial results from the satellite image classification. (View the report)
Developing an understanding of the distribution and changes in estuarine and riparian habitats is critical to the management of biological resources in the lower Columbia River. The Estuary Partnership initiated a habitat cover mapping project in 2000 to produce a data set depicting current habitat cover types along the lower Columbia River using emerging remote sensing techniques. This report presents classification results from analysis of the CASI imagery. Data sets produced for this project from both types of imagery fill a critical information gap by creating a current description of the condition and extent of estuarine habitat cover types along the lower Columbia River. View the report
The goal of this study was to measure land cover changes (type and number) in the Columbia River estuary from 1992 to 2000. To do this, we performed a change analysis on two spatial data sets describing land cover in the estuary area (or specify the mileage (like between RM 32 and Astoria). The 1992 data set was created by the NOAA Coastal Remote Sensing, Coastal Change Analysis Program in cooperation with Columbia River Estuary Study Task Force (CREST), the National Marine Fisheries Service Point Adams Field Station, and State of Washington Department of Natural Resources. The 2000 data set was produced by Earth Design Consultants, Inc. and the University of Washington Wetland Ecosystem Team as part of a larger Estuary Partnership habitat mapping study. Although the image classification methodologies used to create the data sets differed, both data sets were produced by classifying Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite imagery, making it feasible to assess land cover changes between 1992 and 2000. View the report
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