Remote sensing of riparian buffer ecological effects

Riparian and shoreline buffers are vital landscape elements of coastal and riverine shorelines, providing significant ecosystem services, habitats, and aesthetic qualities. One critical role is the filtration and uptake of non-point source pollutants, particularly in estuaries that have seen extensive land cover change, loss of wetlands, and that face sea-level rise such as the Chesapeake Bay. Combining a remote sensing and coastal ecological approach, this project presents data science tools to investigate coastal riparian and shoreline vegetation relationships with in situ water quality sampling. This project provides tools and examples for quantifying riparian buffer vegetation, calculating Total Suspended Matter (TSM) from Earth Observation (EO) data, and demonstrates the use of data science methods to explore relationships between non-point source pollutants.