Project Team: Coastal Mid-Atlantic Water Resources Team
Team Location: Patrick Henry Building, Richmond, Virginia; and NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
Map of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index of agricultural fields and surrounding areas in the coastal plain of North Carolina. Image Credit: Mid-Atlantic Water Resources Team.
Authors:
Lydia Cuker (College of William & Mary)
Steve Padgett-Vasquez (University of Georgia)
Kelsey Renoll (College of William & Mary)
Bryce Kaw-uh (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
Paul Warner (U.S. Air Force)
Shaun Clark (U.S. Air Force)
Mentors/Advisors:
Dr. Kenton Ross (NASA DEVELOP, National Science Advisor)
James Favors (NASA DEVELOP, State and Local Lead)
Past/Other Contributors:
Scott Barron (DEVELOP, Geospatial Programming Young Professional)
Abigail Holbrook (DEVELOP, NASA Langley Research Center)
Nathan Owen (DEVELOP, NASA Langley Research Center)
Christopher Ferraro (DEVELOP, NASA Langley Research Center)
Abstract:
Accurate water management decisions and policies are vital to ensuring the reversal of groundwater depletion and saltwater intrusion in the aquifers underlying the coastal plain of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. Current methods offer data for the area on a limited, inconsistent basis, leading to an incomplete assessment of coastal aquifer conditions. By analyzing the area using remotely sensed data, water consumption behavior can be understood on a larger scale, contributing to better-informed water management policies. Regional analysis of evapotranspiration using Landsat 8 has been shown to be a useful tool in understanding water consumption behavior. These data, combined with groundwater storage information acquired using Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data, can help establish a water budget for the area, allowing for better-informed water management decisions. Establishing a means to calculate evapotranspiration in the area using the Mapping EvapoTranspiration at High Resolution and Internalized Calibration (METRIC) model is a useful, accessible tool for water resource monitoring for both state agencies and Digital Harvest, a precision agriculture company using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) collected data to analyze crops. METRIC outputs will enhance all parties’ understandings of water usage and stress in the vegetated areas studied. Furthermore, calculating groundwater storage trends over the past decade will better inform water resource policy for state agencies. Utilizing remote sensing data in the area will contribute to a large-scale, more complete understanding of the water consumption behavior in the area.