Finding Springs in the Mojave Desert

Francis J. McCarthy III
Paxton McClurg
Jerry Tagestad


A 3D view of Death Valley and the Panamint Range. This image was created by draping our TM image over a DEM.

Introduction

The purpose of this project was to develop methods of identifying and mapping hydrologic features in a desert environment. The area we chose for our study is Death Valley National Park, in the Mojave Desert. Hydrologic features such as springs, perennial streams and shallow ground water may be identifiable using remote sensing and GIS methods.

Objective:

  • Identify and predict occurrences of springs in the Panamint Range region of Death Valley.

    Methods:

  • Remote Sensing Methods I - Manipulate Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image of the area to identify areas of vegetation, wetness and evaporites
  • Remote Sensing and GIS Methods - Use digital elevation model (DEM) to produce relief map, streams coverage, and flow accumulation for the area.
  • GIS Methods - Digitize existing springs from USGS quads, overlay our TM and DEM derived coverages with one another and existing springs to extract statistical data to asses the accuracy of our methods.

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    by Marcus Daley