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Compilation of actual evapotranspiration and vegetation indices along critical riparian zones on the Navajo Nation from 2013-2023

Metadata Updated: February 22, 2025

These data were compiled for monitoring riparian zone trends and changes in the Navajo Nation as part of a study to document riparian ecosystem health and its water use in support of potential restoration efforts. The objective of our study was to monitor the short and medium-term effects on the riparian vegetation in relation to evapotranspiration changes, drought, and other hydrological processes, along some critical riparian zones in the Navajo Nation. These data represent time series of vegetation greenness and water use for the years 2013 to 2023. These data were collected from the spaceborne mission Landsat 8 which carries the OLI (Operational Land Imager) and TIRS (Thermal Infrared Sensor) sensors for an area within the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona. The specific regions of interest were focused on some Culturally Important Riparian Areas (CIRAS), including Buell Park/Black Creek Headwaters, Ganado/Pueblo Colorado Wash, Grand Falls, Oraibi Headwaters, Pasture Canyon, and Tappan Springs. Landsat data are collected and distributed by the U.S. Geological Survey. The acquired imagery was filtered for quality and reprocessed by the Vegetation Index and Phenology Lab at the University of Arizona, to generate vegetation indices and evapotranspiration trends for these riparian corridors. These data summarize the time series over the 11-year study. Three vegetation indices (VIs) are computed and reported: the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and the Two-Band Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2). NDVI and EVI datasets were taken directly from Landsat products, EVI2 was calculated in the VIP Lab. Time series for daily Actual Evapotranspiration (ETa), in millimeters per day, were estimated from both EVI and EVI2 data using an ET empirical model (Nagler and others, 2013). These data can be used to study the trends in vegetation greenness, productivity, and water use, using VIs and ET respectively. These estimations can be linked to other variables or causes, and used to assess the effect climate change is having in this arid region in the period from 2013 to 2023.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date February 22, 2025
Metadata Updated Date February 22, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date February 22, 2025
Metadata Updated Date February 22, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/2610e801ec8aaa04cc65da758d42bd26
Identifier USGS:67902085d34e28977994d30c
Data Last Modified 20250131
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 57b2986b-c544-46ca-86cb-336738f541d7
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -111.5675824,35.2580963,-108.9122388,36.5762762
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 9a0e472883315692e4d88c9052ecd17c67630bb3eb3caf026f9018f9e15beffc
Source Schema Version 1.1
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