UsingLIDARDatainFUSIONtoMonitor

ChannelMigrationintheNorthForkofthe
NooksackRiver
AlixHartmann
March2016
ESCI442

Abstract
Theabilitytoanalyzeriverchannelmigrationisausefultoolformonitoringchangeon
thelandscape.Inthisanalysis,IuseLIDARdatainFUSIONandArcGIStocalculatechangein
elevationalongtheNooksackRiver.Ianalyzedtwotimeperiods:2005to2009,and2009to
2015.The2005to2009analysisprovidedaclearandrelativelyaccuratepictureofriverchannel
migration.Idiscoveredthatthe2015LIDARdatawaspoorlysuitedforthisanalysisfortwo
reasons:itcontainedsignificantnoisefromvegetationandwaspoorlycoregisteredwiththe
otherdata.Forthisreason,Ihaveconcludedthattheresultsofthe2009to2015analysisare
unsuitabletodrawingconclusionsaboutriverchannelmigration.Comparingtheaccuracyof
thesetwoanalyseshighlightstheeffectthaterrorsintheLIDARdatasethasonanalysis.

Methods
ThisanalysisisbasedontheproceduresdescribedinDavidWallinsLabX:UsingLIDAR
toMonitorChannelMigration(Wallin,2016).
ThefocusofthisanalysisisonaportionofthenorthforkoftheNooksackRiver,alarge
braidedriverchannelwithhighgravelandsedimentloads.Thestudyareaislocatednearthe
townofDeminginWhatcomCounty,Washington.
First,IusedFUSIONtoconverttext(ASCII)filescontainingallreturnsdataLIDARdata
acquiredin2005intoLASfiles.FUSIONsoftware,usedtoprocessLIDARdata,isdevelopedand
distributedforfreebytheUnitedStatesForestService.Iusedthese5LASfilesastheraw
dataintheLIDARdataviewer.
Next,IexecutedaseriesoffunctionsinFUSIONusingcommandline.Thefirstcommand
performedCatalog,whichpreparedareportthatdescribesmyLIDARdataset.Thenext
command,GroundFilter,filtersthedatasettocreateabareearthlayer.Next,thecommand
GrisSuraceCreatecreatesagriddedsurfacestoredasadigitalterrainmodel(DTM).Finally,
thecommandDTM2ASCIIconvertsthisDTMintoanASCIIrasterfilethatisreadablebyother
GISprograms,includingArcGIS.
Thesamefourfunctionswereexecutedforthe2009LIDARdatausingasingle
scriptprovidedbyDr.DavidWallin(2016).

Next,the2005and2009bareearthelevationfileswerebroughtintoArcMapand
convertedtoTIFformatrastersusingthetoolASCIItoRaster.Next,therasterswere
reprojectedtoacommonprojection,UTMNAD1983Zone10N.
Todetermineelevationchange,IusedRasterCalculatortocalculatethefollowing:
(2009Raster*0.3048)2005Raster
Inthiscalculation,the2009rasterwasmultipliedby0.3048toconvertitselevation
valuesfromfeettometers,thensubtractedbythe2005raster.Thisgavemethechangein
elevation(inmeters)from2005to2009.Iclassifiedthesevaluesinto7classesusingquantile
breaks.
Finally,Iuseda2015elevationdataset(providedbyDr.DavidWallin)toanalyze
channelmigrationfrom2009to2015.AsimilarcalculationinRasterCalculatorwasmade:
2015Raster(2009Raster*0.3048)
Theoutputofthiscalculationischangeinelevation(meters)from2009to2015.I
classifiedthesevaluesinto7classesusingquantilebreaks.

Results
ThelayerscreatedbytheGroundFiltertoolfortheyears2005and2009arevisualized
inFigures1and3,respectively.TheDTMlayerscreatedbytheGridSurfaceCreatetoolforthe
years2005and2009arevisualizedinfigures2and4,respectively.Thesetoolswereutilizedto

removenoisefromvegetationfromtheLIDARdata.Thedimplesinthesebareearthlayers
meansthatmost,butnotall,ofthisnoisewasremoved.Thisisasourceoferrorintheanalysis.

Figure1:The2005Groundfiltersurface.


Figure2:The2005bareearthsurface.


Figure3:The2009Groundfiltersurface.


Figure4:The2009bareearthsurface.
Thisanalysishasyieldedtodatasets:changeinelevationfrom2005to2009andchange
inelevationfrom2009to2015.
ChannelMigrationfrom2005to2009
Thespatialextentofthestudyareaforthe2005to2009analysisishighlightedinFigure
5.Figure6showsthecalculatedchangeinelevation,classifiedbyquantilebreaks.


Figure5:Spatialextentof2005to2009studyarea,highlightedinorange.Theaerialimagery
seenherewasacquiredin2013,courtesyofNationalAgricultureImageryProgram(NAIP).


Figure6:Thecalculatedchangeinelevationfrom2005to2009.
Theseresultshighlightsectionsoftheriverwhichhaveeithergained(showningreen)
orlost(showninpurple)gravelandsediment.Largevaluesofgain(upto27.6meters)andloss
(upto51.3meters)arelikelynotrealchangesinelevation,andmaybeexplainedbyerrorsin
theanalysis.Possiblesourcesoferrorarediscussedinthediscussionsection.

ChannelMigrationfrom2009to2015
Thespatialextentofthestudyareaforthe2009to2015analysisishighlightedinFigure
7.Figure8showsthecalculatedchangeinelevation,classifiedbyquantilebreaks.

Figure7:Spatialextentof2009to2015studyarea,highlightedinorange.Theaerialimagery
seenherewasacquiredin2013,courtesyofNationalAgricultureImageryProgram(NAIP).


Figure8:Thecalculatedchangeinelevationfrom2009to2015.
Theseresultshighlightsectionsoftheriverwhichhaveeithergained(showningreen)
orlost(showninpurple)gravelandsediment.Largevaluesofgain(upto43.3meters)andloss
(upto53.5meters)arelikelynotrealchangesinelevation,andmaybeexplainedbyerrorsin
theanalysis.Inaddition,this2009to2015analysishasamuchlargerrangeofvaluesthanthe
2005to2009analysis.Muchlargerportionsofthestudyareahaveextreme,andlikely

erroneous,gainorlossvalues.Possiblecausesoferrorhereareexploredinthediscussion
section.

Discussion
The2005to2009analysis,whileitcontainedsomeerror,providedaclearpictureof
riverchannelmigration.Ontheotherhand,the2009to2015analysiscontainedsignificant
errorandisnotsuitablefordrawingconclusionsaboutchannelmigrationduringthistime
period.
Itshouldbenotedthatthisdatasetisadigitalsurfacemodel(DSM),unlikethe2005and
2009digitalterrainmodels(DTM).Digitalsurfacemodelsshowthefirstreturn,whiledigital
terrainmodelsprovideabareearthsurface.Thismeansthatthe2015DSMislesssuitablefor
channelmigrationanalysisbecauseitcontainsmuchmorenoisefromvegetationonthe
ground.
Inbothanalyses,Idiscoveredthatsmallpatchesofextremeelevationlossorgain(both
alongtheriverchannelandfartheroutofthevalley)areduetonoisefromvegetationdata.If
thisanalysisweretoberepeated,errorcouldbeminimizedbyadjustingsettingsinthe
GroundFilterandGrisSurfaceCreatetoolstoproducebetterbareearthsurfaceswithlessnoise
fromvegetation.

Visualcomparisonofthe2015DSMdatashowedthatwaspoorlyalignedwith
realworldsurfaces.Thismeansthatyeartoyearchangecalculationswerecompromisedby
thisshiftinspace.Thisisespeciallypronouncedinthenorthwesternportionofthe2009to
20015studyarea(Figure8),wherethereisalinearpatternofelevationgainalongMountBaker
Highway.Becausetheanalysistookintoaccountthisfalseshiftintheroad,itshowedthat
elevationhadshiftedwhennosuchchangehadtakenplace.
Thisanalysiscouldbeusefultolandandnaturalresourcemanagersinterestedin
trackingchangesinriverchannelsovertime.Furtherstudycouldusedatafromthistypeof
analysistoestimatevolumetricchangeintheriverchannel.However,muchmorecouldbe
donetominimizenoiseandimproveaccuracyintheanalysis.

LiteratureCited
Wallin,David.2016.LabX:UsingLIDARdatatoMonitorChannelMigration.
http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/wallin/envr442/442_lidar_nooksack.htm