Paper
Monitoring Loss of California Cropland Analysis of the San Joaquin Basin
- Authors:
- Marco Allain
- Abstract
- Central California is undergoing sustained periods of drought. Dry conditions are facilitating wildfires and other ecological disturbances. Croplands are also at risk from the drying weather. These recent climatic patterns are well known but require a multi-temporal approach to fully realize the pattern. To accomplish this, normalized difference vegetation indices (NDVI) were run on a series of Landsat Thematic Mapper and Multi Spectral Scanner images. Such an approach was taken to help quantify the loss to cropland and natural habitat. The images were statistically compared and checked against field work of the study area. Results showed that vegetation levels in the 2000s were significantly more stressed than those of the 1980s and 1990s. However, trends in the data gathered suggest that USDA water conservation and similar practices can help alleviate the problem.
- Keywords
- Landsat; Desertification; GIS; NDVI; Point-Center Quarter Method
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