1. River Channel Change of Soda Butte Creek in Yellowstone National Park
Ryan Kintz, Angelica Merlan, Casey Smith, Steven Fritz

4. Motivation
To learn new techniques regarding the use of ArcGIS and ENVI in regards to showing the physical attributes of rivers
To make some really cool maps of rivers in Yellowstone
A good grade in Geography 176c

5. Objectives
To assist Carl Legleiter in his analysis of the fluvial geomorphology of the Soda Butte Creek in Yellowstone
To help him develop locational probability maps of the Soda Butte Creek

6. Objectives (cont.)
“Ultimately, my objectives are to relate river channel change to long-term patterns and rates of bed material transfer and provide a larger-scale context for my geostatistical analysis of reach-scale patterns of morphology and hydraulics based on field data I have collected at specific sites.”
- Carl Legleiter

7. Methods Georeferencing using ENVI and/or ArcGIS
Identifying active channel features (where the river is)
Assigning values to the raster output based on river location (making a mask of the river)
Any pixel inside the active channel is assigned a 1, all other pixels are assigned a 0

8. Example of the Process of Making a Probability Map
Graf, William

9. Methods (cont.) Weighting raster squares to create the probability map
Overlay
Sum weighted raster masks

10. Weight is based on the time in-between images divided by the whole time period available
Thad A. Wasklewicza, Shawn Andersonb,1, Pin-Shou Liu

11. Example of Final Product – Showing the Mississippi River and its Meanders
Example of Final Product from Wasklewicz et. Al

12. Data Sources Primary source of data is Carl Legleiter Sources include:
National Park Service Archives (scanned photos)
Yellowstone Ecological Research Center
Earth Explorer (USGS)

13. Example of Satellite Imagery Used

14. Anticipated Problems Lack of experience using ENVI
Time constraints of project and class schedule
Matching up data so there is constant overlay
Irregular time coverage of area
large gaps in data

15. Likely Results
These probability maps will give us more quantitative information of the dynamics of these river channels over time
Legleiter, Carl

16. Impacts of Our Project Use by National Parks Service for study
Use by National Parks Service to create riverbank protection to prevent undermining, and erosion of roads