Investigating drought effects in the

lower Sierra Nevada mountain range

using LANDSAT 7 and MASTER
! Drought naturally occurs in the lower Sierra Mountain range.
! There was an abundance of rain and snow in 2011, while 2013 saw
record low precipitation.

! California is currently experiencing a severe cumulative drought
from 2011-2014.
Millerton Lake, outside Fresno, CA
(January 9, 2014)
Madera Canal at
Millerton Lake
(January 9, 2014)
! How has the vegetation in the lower
Sierra Nevada mountain range been
responding to the drought event from
2011-2014?
! Understanding drought events can help
with wildfire prediction and sustainability
of the forest.
! MASTER data collected from the DC-8 flights at:
19-June-2013; 25-June-2014
! LANDSAT 7 is an orbiting USGS satellite with a
30mX30m resolution. Has 7 spectral bands. Scan line
corrector failure (2003)
! LANDSAT 7 data of the Sierra Nevada mountains
outside of Fresno, CA at:
24-June-2011; 26-June-2012 ; 29-June-2013; 02-July-2014
! LANDSAT 7 rasters are composed of pixels with reflectance values
that can be manipulated.
! Different no data stripes on each LANDSAT 7 raster.
! No data stripes were compiled using ArcGIS raster calculator.
! All no data values in each raster were assigned 0, while all other values
were assigned 1.
! Each LANDSAT 7 raster was then multiplied by the stripe compilation tif.
! Result: each LANDSAT 7 raster had exactly the same no data stripes and could be
compared.
2011
2012
Compiled no-data
stripes from
2011-2014
2011
2012
! Eight regions clipped in ArcMap
! herb1-3: similar elevation,
herbaceous/grassland vegetation
! tree1-3: similar elevation,
evergreen forest vegetation
! lower elevation: San Joaquin
Experimental Range (SJER),
sparse oak and mainly
herbaceous/grassland species
! upper elevation: Teakettle
Experimental site (TEAK), mainly
dense pine and fir species
herb1
herb2
herb3
tree2
tree3
tree1
lower elevation
upper elevation
Millerton Lake
Fresno, CA
! NDVI is a measure of photosynthetic absorption in the red portion of the
EM spectrum. This index shows how green vegetation is.

Larger NDVI,
seemingly more healthy vegetation.
! NDII is a measure of water absorption in the IR region of the EM
spectrum. Larger NDII, seemingly more canopy water content.
! Mean NDVI and NDII calculated for each region from 2011-2014 using
spectral data.
herb1
herb2
herb3
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
M
e
a
n

N
D
V
I

a
n
d

N
D
I
I

Year
LANDSAT 7 Mean NDVI and NDII of herb1 region
NDVI
NDII
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
M
e
a
n

N
D
V
I

a
n
d

N
D
I
I

Year
LANDSAT 7 Mean NDVI and NDII of herb2 region
NDVI
NDII
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
M
e
a
n

N
D
V
I

a
n
d

N
D
I
I

Year
LANDSAT 7 Mean NDVI and NDII of herb3 region
NDVI
NDII
tree3
tree2
tree1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
M
e
a
n

N
D
V
I

a
n
d

N
D
I
I

Year
LANDSAT 7 Mean NDVI and NDII of tree1 region
NDVI
NDII
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
M
e
a
n

N
D
V
I

a
n
d

N
D
I
I

Year
LANDSAT 7 Mean NDVI and NDII of tree2 region
NDVI
NDII
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
M
e
a
n

N
D
V
I

a
n
d

N
D
I
I

Year
LANDSAT 7 Mean NDVI and NDII of tree3 region
NDVI
NDII
lower elevation
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
M
e
a
n

N
D
V
I

a
n
d

N
D
I
I

Year
LANDSAT 7 Mean NDVI and NDII of lower elevation
region
NDVI L7
NDII L7
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
M
e
a
n

N
D
V
I

a
n
d

N
D
I
I

Year
L7, MA Mean NDVI and L7 NDII of lower elevation
region
NDVI L7
NDVI MA
NDII L7
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
M
e
a
n

N
D
V
I

Year
MASTER Mean NDVI of lower elevation region
NDVI MA
upper elevation
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
M
e
a
n

N
D
V
I

a
n
d

N
D
I
I

Year
LANDSAT 7 Mean NDVI and NDII of upper elevation
region
NDVI L7
NDII L7
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
M
e
a
n

N
D
V
I

a
n
d

N
D
I
I

Year
L7, MA Mean NDVI and L7 NDII of upper elevation
region
NDVI L7
NDVI MA
NDII L7
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
M
e
a
n

N
D
V
I

Year
MASTER Mean NDVI of upper elevation region
NDVI MA
! NDVI and NDII decreased for herbaceous type
vegetation and remained relatively constant for
evergreen forest over 2011-2014. Probably because
evergreen trees have larger reaching roots which
allow access to a variety of water sources.
! It seems NDVI and NDII have a direct relationship.
! NDVI and NDII both support each other for
evidence of drought.
! Create a ten or twenty year average of
these sites to determine if the 2011-2014
drought period is abnormal.
! With higher resolution
spectrophotometers determine how
individual species are being affected by
the drought.
! How will trend look at this time next
year?
Acknowledgments:
-Dr. Emily Schaller, the NASA Airborne
Science Program and NSERC
-John Potapenko and Dr. Susan Ustin
-Team Best Team Please dont go!
-All my fellow Sarpians