Use of remote sensing for input parameter development to geographical information system-based hydrologic models at different scales

Remote sensing and geographical information systems are becoming valuable tools for the creation, manipulation, and analysis of environmental systems. The Reynolds Creek Experimental Station was involved in the creation of a few hydrologic models. High-resolution multispectral videography provided a means by which biophysical properties (leaf area index, percent of cover) were spatially and temporally distributed throughout a few watersheds from relationships to point frame data in the field. The high-resolution imagery was then used to reduce the effects of atmosphere and to observe the effects of scaling as imagery was analyzed from 0.3 m to 30 m. The imagery and other data were used to create vegetation, contour, aspect, and slope cover layers to be used in distributed hydrologic models. The final outputs were then placed into a geographical information system package so that it could be used for the hydrologic modeling.