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USGS · 70042056

Establishing water body areal extent trends in interior Alaska from multi-temporal Landsat data

Jennifer R. Rover·Lei Ji·Bruce K. Wylie·Larry L. Tieszen
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Abstract

An accurate approach is needed for monitoring, quantifying and understanding surface water variability due to climate change. Separating inter- and intra-annual variances from longer-term shifts in surface water extents due to contemporary climate warming requires repeat measurements spanning a several-decade period. Here, we show that trends developed from multi-date measurements of the extents of more than 15,000 water bodies in central Alaska using Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS), Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data (1979–2009) were highly influenced by the quantity and timing of the data. Over the 30-year period from 1979 to 2009, the study area had a net decrease ( p < 0.05) in the extents of 3.4% of water bodies whereas 86% of water bodies exhibited no significant change. The Landsat-derived dataset provides an opportunity for additional research assessing the drivers of lake and wetland change in this region.

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Jennifer R. Rover, Lei Ji, Bruce K. Wylie, Larry L. Tieszen. 2011-12-22. Establishing water body areal extent trends in interior Alaska from multi-temporal Landsat data. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2011.643507

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