Identification of disrupted surfaces due to military activity at the Ft. Irwin National Training Center: An aerial photograph and satellite image analysis
- Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)
- California State Univ., Carson, CA (United States)
Concern for environmental management of our natural resources is most often focused on the anthropogenic impacts placed upon these resources. Desert landscapes, in particular, are fragile environments, and minimal stresses on surficial materials can greatly increase the rate and character of erosional responses. The National Training Center, Ft. Irwin, located in the middle of the Mojave Desert, California, provides an isolated study area of intense ORV activity occurring over a 50-year period. Geomorphic surfaces, and surficial disruption from two study sites within the Ft. Irwin area were mapped from 1947, 1:28,400, and 1993 1:12,000 black and white aerial photographs. Several field checks were conducted to verify this mapping. However, mapping from black and white aerial photography relies heavily on tonal differences, patterns, and morphological criteria. Satellite imagery, sensitive to changes in mineralogy, can help improve the ability to distinguish geomorphic units in desert regions. In order to assess both the extent of disrupted surfaces and the surficial geomorphology discemable from satellite imagery, analysis was done on SPOT panchromatic and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) multispectral imagery acquired during the spring of 1987 and 1993. The resulting classified images provide a clear indication of the capabilities of the satellite data to aid in the delineation of disrupted geomorphic surfaces.
- OSTI ID:
- 255313
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960203-; TRN: 96:002806-0013
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 11. thematic conference on geologic remote sensing, Las Vegas, NV (United States), 27-29 Feb 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the eleventh thematic conference - geologic remote sensing: Practical solutions for real world problems. Volume 1; PB: 634 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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