Research and Development Office

Improving the Cost Effectiveness of High Definition Aerial Video to Survey/Quantify Invasive Species Infestations and Endangered Species Habitat to Assist in Adaptive Management of Rivers and Reservoirs

Project ID: 4800
Principal Investigator: Ronald Miller
Research Topic: Water Resource Data Analysis
Funded Fiscal Years: 2006 and 2007
Keywords: None

Research Question

Information regarding invasive and endangered species is valuable to Reclamation managers to assist in their management decisions regarding water delivery and use. High definition video imagery has proven to be capable of providing the detail needed to survey and quantify certain invasive species infestations and locate endangered species habitat in rivers and reservoirs. Currently, the post-acquisition georeferencing of the imagery is labor intensive because accurate geospatial information is not collected with the imagery. This research proposal seeks to develop methods to collect geospatial parameters at the time of data acquisition to reduce the post-processing labor involved with geolocating the imagery, and get information to Reclamation managers faster.

Need and Benefit

Currently, Reclamation uses video imagery that is non-georeferenced or must perform labor intensive georeferencing techniques in order to determine impacts of reservoir operations on endangered/invasive species in relation to water delivery. These methods tend to reduce the inherent cost savings of aerial videography. At the moment, there are no other efficient methods available to Reclamation scientists who use videography for mapping, to provide managers with management impact information.

Contributing Partners

Contact the Principal Investigator for information about partners.

Research Products

Please contact research@usbr.gov about research products related to this project.

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