2018 SWCS International Annual Conference July 29-August 1, 2018 Albuquerque Convention Center

1. Philip Heilman and Guillermo Ponce
With help from the BLM, Forest Service
and Applied Geosolutions

4. Strengths
 Cover whole allotment and area around it
 Can go back in time (Landsat 5 to 1984)
 Can compare across allotments
 Can compare to potential (given site potential and
recent climate)
Weaknesses
 Broader, but shallow (no composition)
 Not directly comparable to field measurements
 Error – but in many cases improvable
 A “Big Data” problem – takes skill and time

7. Side view of lidar point cloud of a mesquite tree
by Tyson Swetnam

8. Sensor Production Cover
Landsat (1984-) Maximum NDVI Value in the
Year
30 m Spatial Resolution
Annual 2000-2013
SATVI Derived Total
(Green + Senescent)
Foliar Cover
30 m Spatial Resolution
Pre and Post Monsoon
2008-2011
MODIS (2000-) Integrated Enhanced
Vegetation Index (iEVI)
250 m Spatial Resolution
Every 16 Days. 2000-2013
SATVI Derived Total
(Green + Senescent)
Foliar Cover
500 m Spatial Resolution
Every 8 Days, 2000-2013
Other Sensors?
Other Products? ? ?

9. MODIS (8 Day) % Cover

11. 500m
100m

27. Ranking Allotments for Production - Landsat Max NDVI

31. Loamy Upland
(41-3) Reference
Area
Loamy Upland
(41-3) Mesquite-
Dominated
Eroded State

32. R = 0.65

33. Algorithm
Field Measurements Used to Develop SATVI to Cover Relationship
Cover:
• 5% measured
•10% Landsat
(ID: 123-0.022)
Cover:
• 17% measured
•22% Landsat
(ID: 54-0.094)

34. AZ NM
Johnny Creek
Bonita Creek

38. Strengths
 Cover whole allotment
 Can go back in time
 Can compare across allotments
 Can compare to potential (given site potential and
recent climate)
Weaknesses
 Broader, but shallower (no composition)
 Not directly comparable to field measurements
 Error – but in many cases improvable
 A “Big Data” problem – takes skill and time

39. Sensor Production Cover
Landsat (1984-) Maximum NDVI Value in the
Year
30 m Spatial Resolution
Annual 2000-2013
SATVI Derived Total
(Green + Senescent)
Foliar Cover
30 m Spatial Resolution
Pre and Post Monsoon
2008-2011
MODIS (2000-) Integrated Enhanced
Vegetation Index (iEVI)
250 m Spatial Resolution
Every 16 Days. 2000-2013
SATVI Derived Total
(Green + Senescent)
Foliar Cover
500 m Spatial Resolution
Every 8 Days, 2000-2013
Other Sensors?
Other Products? ? ?

40. The road to wisdom? Well its plain
and simple to express:
Err
and err,
and err again,
but less
and less
and less. by Piet Hein

41.  Field data becoming more expensive to collect
 Harder to stay up to date with NEPA requirements
 Catalog of free (raw) imagery (Landsat 1984-;
MODIS 2000-; Google Earth Engine)
 EVI and maxNDVI datasets, Total Cover from SATVI
 Supporting technology is improving (GPS; GIS
datasets; Aerial Photography; Big Data technology)
Remote sensing is on the verge of being able to
complement, but not replace, field data