These data were compiled for monitoring riparian zone trends and changes in the Lower Colorado Delta as part of the Minute 139 of the 1944 Water Treaty between the United States and Mexico. The quality and quantity of the Delta’s riparian and aquatic ecosystems have been dramatically reduced over the past century, due largely to significant alterations to natural hydrologic and sediment regimes. The Minute 319 Agreement states that 130 million cubic meters of water was to be released during the spring of 2014. Water was released from Morelos Dam at the Northern International Border (NIB) near Yuma, Arizona, to the river’s delta in Mexico, allowing water to reach the Gulf of California for the first time in 13 years since 2000. Our study evaluated the short and long-term effects of environmental flows to hydrological processes in this borderland delta region. Because of the landscape changes and the anticipated impacts of added water in 2014 from Minute 319 water release, we explored remote sensing-based change analysis techniques and data to develop time series data of the Colorado River delta riparian corridor vegetation greenness and water use since the year 2000. We divided the river into 7 Reaches (R1..R7) to separate between the different land covers, management conditions, and general geospatial and hydrological conditions. We generated a variety of vegetation index, ET, anomalies, and trends using time series for all reaches combined then separately. Our data shows Landsat and MODIS derived EVI and EVI2 as well as time-series data of ETLandsat-EVI (mm/day), using a modified (EVI mod) equation, and ETMODIS-EVI with both EVI and then EVI 2 as the input variable to the ET algorithm were extremely consistent across sensors and methods and covaried well with vegetation, climate, and hydrological conditions of each reach and the whole region.

These data were compiled for monitoring riparian zone trends and changes in the Lower Colorado Delta as part of the Minute 139 of the 1944 Water Treaty between the United States and Mexico. The quality and quantity of the Delta’s riparian and aquatic ecosystems have been dramatically reduced over the past century, due largely to significant alterations to natural hydrologic and sediment regimes. The Minute 319 Agreement states that 130 million cubic meters of water was to be released during the spring of 2014. Water was released from Morelos Dam at the Northern International Border (NIB) near Yuma, Arizona, to the river’s delta in Mexico, allowing water to reach the Gulf of California for the first time in 13 years since 2000. Our study evaluated the short and long-term effects of environmental flows to hydrological processes in this borderland delta region. Because of the landscape changes and the anticipated impacts of added water in 2014 from Minute 319 water release, we explored remote sensing-based change analysis techniques and data to develop time series data of the Colorado River delta riparian corridor vegetation greenness and water use since the year 2000. We divided the river into 7 Reaches (R1..R7) to separate between the different land covers, management conditions, and general geospatial and hydrological conditions. We generated a variety of vegetation index, ET, anomalies, and trends using time series for all reaches combined then separately. Our data shows Landsat and MODIS derived EVI and EVI2 as well as time-series data of ETLandsat-EVI (mm/day), using a modified (EVI mod) equation, and ETMODIS-EVI with both EVI and then EVI 2 as the input variable to the ET algorithm were extremely consistent across sensors and methods and covaried well with vegetation, climate, and hydrological conditions of each reach and the whole region.

These spatially explicit Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and evapotranspiration (ET) map derived from time series Landsat images, maps, and associated ancillary data were compiled as part of ongoing research aimed at quantifying the riparian vegetation greenness and water use in the lower Colorado River Delta in Mexico. In order to create trend and anomaly maps that characterize these ecosystems, both EVI and ET from-Landsat-OLI were processed over time and space along seven pre-defined reaches that capture different natural states and management conditions. We used EVI from the Landsat operational land imager (OLI) sensor (30 m) as an input to our ET algorithm that was previously based on coarser resolution EVI from the NASA MODIS sensor (250 m). The work explored how to improve the spatial resolution of the ET estimates of riparian plant water use. OLI 30 m images provide better characterization and performance over these rather narrow riparian corridors and thus provide better estimation of riparian-area greenness and plant water use at this scale. To capture the trends and changes over time needed for estimating ET, which is dependent upon the EVI input data, we used a simple differencing technique that compares two annual average growing season EVI and ET cycles (limited to May-October). The EVI and ET anomaly maps capture how the corridor vegetation health responds to both natural and anthropogenic changes. We limited this study to the full OLI record (2013-2019) since we were interested in understanding the response to Minute 319 pulse flow of 2014. The difference maps are an ideal tool for capturing how the released water impacted vegetation and its water use immediately after the release and over long time. The Minute 319 pulse flow science team in collaboration with the University of Arizona have developed a data processing system to support this effort with focus on understanding how remote sensing data analysis techniques can aid in assessing the riparian corridor response to these natural and anthropogenic stressors. All data associated with this project were acquired from the LP-DAAC and pre-processed to remove and capture issues prior to further analyses (see below). Preprocessing involves reprojection to a common map system, masking to only retain the area of interest, quality analysis to discard poor data, and then value addition to generate the EVI and difference maps as well as water use difference maps produced with ET-from-Landsat-EVI. The data acquisition and analysis were performed at the University of Arizona VIP lab (vip.arizona.edu) using their large Linux cluster of computing and storage resources. A mix of off the shelf software and specialized in-house tools were used to carry the different steps and analyses.

These data were compiled for evaluating river-reach level plant water use, or evapotranspiration (ET), and vegetation greenness, or Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), in the riparian corridor of the Colorado River delta as specified under Minute 319 of the 1944 Water Treaty. The seven reach areas from the Northerly International Boundary (NIB) to the end of the delta at the Sea of Cortez were defined for research activities. Also, these seven reaches are being monitored under Minute 323 of the 1944 Water Treaty. Additionally, these data were compiled for evaluating restoration-level evapotranspiration and vegetation greenness data in Reach 2 and Reach 4, as specified under Minute 323 of the 1944 Water Treaty. Objectives of our study were to measure the peak growing season ET and satellite vegetation index data, specifically using the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from Landsat, for the average of months in summer-fall (May to October) for the seven reaches, for the full riparian corridor, and for four restoration sites, from 2000 through 2020. The evapotranspiration data represent measurements of ET using the enhanced vegetation index (EVI), along with potential ET from meteorological station data in Yuma, Arizona. The vegetation greenness data represent measurements of enhanced vegetation index (EVI) Landsat imagery, and these EVI data were then used as an input for actual evapotranspiration ‘ET’, along with potential ET from meteorological station data in Yuma, Arizona. These data were collected using Landsat satellite data (30 m resolution) record from 2000 over the delta of the Colorado River starting near Yuma, AZ and continuing another 150km to the Sea of Cortez along the river corridor. These data were collected by Pamela Nagler, Ph.D. of the U.S. Geological Survey-Southwest Biological Science Center, and Armando Barreto-Muñoz, Ph.D. and Kamal Didan, Ph.D. of the University of Arizona, Vegetation Index and Phenology Lab. These data can be used to evaluate riparian vegetation community water use and vegetation greeness in the Lower Colorado River delta region where there is active restoration efforts. These ET and NDVI data depict a Landsat time series from three sensors over the 21-year period. The time-series data can be used by land and water managers to monitor spatial and temporal riparian zone trends and changes, document riparian ecosystem health and its water use, and the impact of both drought, fire, land clearing and/or non-native species biocontrol in the riparian corridor of the Lower Colorado River delta. End users of these data are federal, state, tribal partners and NGOs on both sides of the International border.

These operational land imager (OLI) value added data sets, maps, and associated ancillary data were compiled as part of an ongoing research aimed at quantifying the riparian vegetation greenness and water use in the lower Colorado River Delta in Mexico. In order to create trend and anomaly maps that characterize these ecosystems Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series imagery from Landsat OLI were acquired and processed over time and space along seven predefined reaches that capture different natural states and management conditions. We used Landsat OLI 30m data as an improvement upon past studies that were based on coarser remote sensing data from the NASA MODIS sensor (250 m). The OLI 30m images provide better characterization and performance over these rather narrow riparian corridors. To capture the change over time we used a simple differencing technique that compares two annual average growing season VI cycles (limited to May-October). These anomaly maps capture how the corridor vegetation health responds to both natural and anthropogenic changes. We limited this study to the full OLI record (2013-2019) since we were interested in understanding the response to Minute 319 pulse flow of 2014. The difference maps are an ideal tool for capturing how the released water impacted vegetation immediately and over long time. The Minute 319 pulse flow science team in collaboration with the University of Arizona have developed a data processing system to support this effort with focus on understanding how the riparian corridor is responding to these natural and anthropogenic stressors. All data associated with this project were acquired from the LP-DAAC and pre-processed to remove and capture issues prior to further processing (see below) which involved reprojection to a common projection, masking to only retain the area of interest, quality analysis to discard poor data, and then value addition to generate the NDVI and the difference maps. The data acquisition and analysis were performed at the University of Arizona VIP lab (vip.arizona.edu) using their large Linux cluster of computing and storage resources. A mix of off the shelf software and specialized in-house tools were used to carry the different steps and analyses.

These data were compiled for evaluating plant water use, or river-reach level evapotranspiration (ET) data, in the riparian corridor of the Colorado River delta as specified under Minute 319 of the 1944 Water Treaty. The seven reach areas from the Northerly International Boundary (NIB) to the end of the delta at the Sea of Cortez were defined for research activities. Also, these seven reaches are being monitored under Minute 323 of the 1944 Water Treaty. Additionally, these data were compiled for evaluating restoration-level data in Reach 2 and Reach 4, as specified under Minute 323 of the 1944 Water Treaty. Objectives of our study were to measure the peak growing season evapotranspiration (ET) for the average of months in summer-fall (May to October) for the seven reaches, for the full riparian corridor, and for four restoration sites, from 2000 through 2020. These data represent measurements of ET using the enhanced vegetation index (EVI), along with potential ET from meteorological station data in Yuma, Arizona. These data were collected using Landsat satellite data (30 m resolution) over the delta of the Colorado River starting near Yuma, AZ and continuing another 150km to the Sea of Cortez along the river corridor. These data were collected by Pamela Nagler, Ph.D. of the U.S. Geological Survey-Southwest Biological Science Center, and Armando Barreto-Muñoz, Ph.D. and Kamal Didan, Ph.D. of the University of Arizona, Vegetation Index and Phenology Lab. These data can be used to evaluate riparian vegetation community water use in the Lower Colorado River delta region where there is active restoration efforts. These ET data depict a Landsat time series from three sensors over the 21-year period. The time-series data can be used by land and water managers to monitor spatial and temporal riparian zone trends and changes, and document riparian ecosystem health and its water use in the riparian corridor of the Lower Colorado River delta near Yuma, AZ and continuing another 150km to the Sea of Cortez. End users of these data are federal, state, tribal partners and NGOs on both sides of the International border.

These data were compiled to understand the effects of riparian vegetation health on local abundance and species diversity of land birds. The primary objective of our study was to to determine the effects of riparian restoration on birds in the Colorado River delta. These tabular data represent vegetation indices and evapotranspiration (ET) data at varying spatial scales that correspond to avian use circles of 100 to 2000 meters. Three vegetation reflectance indices (VIs): NDVI, EVI, and EVI2 were obtained from Landsat imagery with a biweekly temporal frequency, and covering the entire period of bird surveys (2002-2020). The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and two-band EVI, named EVI2, were produced as tabular data sets. ET was then produced using EVI and EVI2. Also, ET was calculated from EVI2 using an empirical equation (Nagler et al., 2013). Data acquisition and processing were performed at the University of Arizona VIP lab (vip.arizona.edu) using their large Linux cluster of computing and storage resources.

Vegetation and land use are mapped for the approximately 725,000 acres constituting the Legal Delta portion of the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Delta area. Vegetation mapping is to sub-alliance to super-alliance level (based on the National Vegetation Classification Standard, see http://biology.usgs.gov/npsveg/nvcs.html ); land use is mapped to Anderson Level 2 classification ( see http://landcover.usgs.gov/pdf/anderson.pdf ). The map classification is based on a vegetation classification derived from field data collected in summer and fall of 2005 produced by the Vegetation Classification and Mapping Program of the Department of Fish and Game. The 2002 Stockton, Sacramento, and Delta High Resolution (1-foot) Orthoimagery and 2005 NAIP (1-meter) orthoimagery served as the base. Natural vegetation comprises approximately 17 percent of the Delta study area, 65 percent is agriculture and pasture, 10 percent is urban/other and 8 percent is open water.