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Remote Sensing of the Environment : Rio Grande Delta Marshes

Research Objectives

This project will provide data for the establishment of a wetland basemap for the Rio Grande Delta using spaceborne remotely sensed imagery. The creation of a wetland basemap on a regional scale will provide the foundation for continuing research being proposed to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Advanced Research Program. The funds approved for this project will be used solely for the acquisition of LANDSAT Thematic Mapper (TM) multispectral imagery. In addition to the TM imagery, the U. S. Department of Agriculture located in Weslaco, Texas will provide high resolution multispectral videography over several marshes along and within the Rio Grande Delta. The proposed research has two primary objectives:
  1. Establish a wetland basemap of coastal marshes along the southern coast of Texas and the Rio Grande Delta. A large scale, regional basemap will be derived from remotely sensed multispectral imagery (TM) using classification methods employed by the Center for Space Research.

  2. Incorporation of high resolution multispectral videography acquired by the USDA-Weslaco for a regional change detection of coastal marshes. Signatures of marshes identified in the high resolution videography will be used to identify similar marshes on a regional scale

The lack of information on the composition and structure of the marsh communities is especially important in the Rio Grand Delta because of the clearing for agriculture, urbanization, and flood control purposes. Marsh habitat in the Rio Grande Delta provides critical habitat for a myriad of waterfowl species and several threatened and endangered mammalian species such as the ocelat (Felis pardalis) and jaguarundi (Felis yagouarundi). The Rio Grande Delta includes the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge which constitutes 19,680 ha of the delta. It also includes the lower portion of the Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge which is part of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service's initiative to establish a wildlife corridor along the Rio Grande.

To preserve existing native vegetation and to provide land for the re-establishment of native communities, the U.S. and Texas governments are purchasing lands for the Rio Grande Wildlife Corridor. It will be difficult for managers to maintain existing communities (prevent change to a different configuration) or to re-establish marsh vegetation in denuded areas if they do not know the composition of existing natural marshes.

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Last Modified: Wed Apr 14, 1999
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