Land Use and Cover Change
Land use and cover change informs and drives many of the models of the physical world we investigate. Change in farming and agricultural practices contribute to runoff from the Maumee River. Change in the amounts of water behind a dam change the groundwater recharge or discharge balance. Changes in the area of the wetlands in the Mesopotamian Marshes were used to differentiate the effects of different engineering processes on the Tigris-Euphrates river system.
Because land use change is such a critical input in many of these physical models, assessing it is integral in most of the work done at the lab.
We use visible, IR, hyperspectral, thermal and radar satellite and airial images together with past studies and maps to assess changes in cover and in land use.
