Ric Hauer
Professor, University of Montana, Division of Biological Sciences, Flathead Lake Biological Station

Evaluating River Floodplain Habitats from Airborne Remote Sensing

Abstract

A significant portion of research in stream ecology during the past 50 years has been at the habitat scale within well-specified reaches. For example, benthic algae and invertebrates are often enumerated following sampling within specific habitats. Results are expressed as numbers per square cm or square meter within riffle, pool, run, or other specific habitats.  However, quantification of habitat, whether for evaluating fish, invertebrates, algae or riparian characteristics, has been extremely labor-intensive and fraught with subjectivity. My colleagues and I at Flathead Lake BioStation have established critical linkages between airborne multispectral, hyperspectral, and thermal imagery and various fluvial (e.g., depth, velocity) and floodplain (e.g., vegetation, elevation) attributes that permit highly detailed quantification of riverine and riparian habitats at resolutions from 1x1m to 10x10 cm extended over tens of square kilometers. Image acquisition at various discharges allows modeling of habitat dynamics, potential for substrata transport and deposition, and fluvial interaction between the river and its riparian floodplain. Model validation reveals accuracy of depth and velocity measures exceeding 90%.  We are currently using these imagery-driven evaluation approaches to quantify the floodplain shifting habitat mosaic (see Stanford et al. 2005) of salmon rivers around the Pacific-rim (Kamchatka to the PNW).

Bio

Richard Hauer holds an endowed chair in Limnology at Flathead Lake Biological Station, the University of Montana. He received his BSc (1973) and MSc (1975) from Michigan State University and PhD (1980) from the University of North Texas.  From 1981 to 1985 he was a Post-doctoral Fellow at SREL–University of Georgia and at the University of Alabama.  He joined the faculty at the University of Montana in 1986. 

His primary research interest is in the factors that determine the structure and ecological function of stream ecosystems. He has published on stream nutrient dynamics associated with watershed disturbance, energy flow through food webs, bioenergetics, and population and community ecology of benthic insects. Recent research pursuits have been directed toward interactive effects of fluvial geomorphology and groundwater–surface water exchange on floodplain biocomplexity and the use of satellite and airborne remote sensing tools to evaluate river floodplain habitat.