UMBC and 十大赌博正规老平台 to Create Detailed Stream Maps of Chesapeake Bay Watershed

巴尔的摩, MD -成千上万条水道, 从波托马克河和萨斯奎哈纳河等主要河流到小源头, 流经切萨皮克湾流域. 他们中的许多人出现在美国广播公司制作的官方流地图上.S. 地质调查，但还有很多没有记录.

因为官方地图是不完整的, “如果你把管理和恢复目标建立在粗略的河流地图上, 你会错过一大块画面的,马修·贝克说。, professor of geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland 巴尔的摩 County (UMBC).

Baker’s partnership with the non-profit 十大赌博正规老平台 has been awarded $1.2 million from the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) to create a more accurate, updated map for the watershed by applying new stream mapping techniques.

The Chesapeake Bay Program is supporting accurate stream mapping to improve management and implementation of the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load—daily Bay pollution limits set by the U.S. 2010年环保局.

Small streams are often overlooked for restoration activities because they do not show up on the official maps, despite delivering large amounts of nutrient and sediment pollution to the Bay. Updated stream maps will help partners throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed prioritize restoration efforts and better understand how pollution enters the Bay’s tributaries.

创新的方法

This project follows a previous Chesapeake Bay Trust (CBT) award to Baker and his 十大赌博正规老平台 colleagues to develop the methods necessary to carry out such a daunting task. 用传统方法, “你需要熟练的人员做非常繁琐的工作, 长期注重细节的工作,贝克说。. “We look forward to continuing to develop more automated, efficient and cost-effective ways.”

现在, Baker and his team get the chance to take on the challenge of using their new techniques to create the most detailed map of the region’s waterways to date, 在以前的方法所需的时间的一小部分.

识别以前未映射的流通道, Baker and his team will analyze data from models of the terrain generated by light detection and ranging (LiDAR). This technology uses lasers emitted from aircraft to measure the relative height of Earth’s surface very precisely. 但这仅仅是个开始.

Baker’s team will remove inconsistencies and errors inherent to the LiDAR data, such as when the laser beam hits tree leaves or water surfaces instead of the ground. Then the team will find stream channels by creatively applying algorithms that interpret the terrain in the context of the surrounding landscape. 新地图可能仍无法捕捉到每一个频道, 但贝克希望在限制误报的情况下更接近结果.

串连点点滴滴

“What the CBP was asking for was not just, ‘How do you find the channels?，而是“如何将它们连接在一起形成一个网络”?”,, 具有讽刺意味的是, that’s not a simple thing to do with this sort of detailed terrain information,贝克说.

“例如, 如果一条小溪从路下面流过, the road is interpreted as a kind of dam by conventional computer algorithms, even though our eyes and brain naturally connect the channel on either side,贝克解释道. 虽然这些功能对人们来说是直观的, computers need to be taught how to fill in those gaps accurately and appropriately.

Once the team develops a more complete map, they will still have one more crucial step to complete. “A big part of the project is to validate and check the map,贝克说. “If the stream map isn’t reliable and no one believes it, then it’s not very useful. 这就是我们要花很多时间来做的.”

He estimates that about two-thirds of the time spent on the six-year project will focus on quality control. “在十大赌博正规老平台协会的帮助和专业知识下, we will compare the results of the new automated techniques with data collected from aerial imagery or on the ground at sites around the watershed.”

“十大赌博正规老平台 is a great partner in this context,贝克说。. “They’ve developed a lot of experience generating geographic datasets for the watershed.”

保护的结果

拥有一张完整、可靠的地图对保护水道至关重要. “If we want to understand how what we do on the landscape influences stream integrity and downstream health in places like the Chesapeake Bay,贝克说, “then being able to map the connections between human activities on the land and the circulatory water system that delivers their effects to the Bay is paramount.”

Streams not visible on current official maps have already proven extremely important in research. Early evidence that vegetation alongside streams could reduce discharges of harmful pollutants into the Bay came from research on streams that weren’t on the best USGS maps at the time, 贝克的笔记.

现在, the USGS has identified developing high-resolution stream maps as a national goal, 贝克希望为这一努力做出贡献. 更新后的, verified map will enhance management and protection within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and the methods Baker and the 十大赌博正规老平台 have developed have the potential to improve stream mapping—and to better protect waterways—across the nation and the world.