River channel monitoring of the Red River of the Texas and Oklahoma state boundary, U.S.A., using remote sensing techniques and the legal implications on riparian boundaries

The study focuses on the Red River, partially forming the border of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas in the United States of America. This river was chosen because of its volatility in migration and its impact on land value. The river can be relatively wide in areas, where the gradient is low, forming braided streams up to a mile wide. As land becomes more valuable, having a more readily and accurately defined boundary will become more important.;Rivers serve as a natural boundary. Early in American cadastral systems, many descriptions used these natural features to make it easy to recognize by the public. Natural river boundaries migrate and change courses causing difficulties with land management.;Riparian boundaries move with the changing channel of the river. Due to hydrogeological processes which contribute to accretion, erosion, reliction, and sometimes avulsion makes describing the sinuosity of riparian boundaries difficult.;Riparian boundary descriptions usually are the product of a terrestrial land survey. The value of the land usually dictated the precision used by the land surveyor during the field data acquisition. Technological advances in the instrumentation used by the land surveyor have enabled both higher precision and accuracy in surveying data along with computers and software advancement to calculate the area of the land and more accurate management of the land.;With the ability to provide specific analysis of land features through the development of geographic information system (GIS) software incorporating accurate terrain models, riparian boundaries can be easier to manage. Boundary definitions become more reliable with improved terrain information and numerical models.;This research uses GIS software tools to delineate the gradient boundary along the river from elevation models derived from remote sensing instruments, also evaluate possible areas where potential avulsionary cut-off by the river using the same remote sensing data. If an area has been identified, a technique in dating these cut-offs would prove valuable information as an application of cadastral boundary law on river morphology used to assess the differences in impact, ultimately leading to differences to the land. This study is at the interface of natural process monitoring and socio-economic impact.