Evaluation of hydrologic parameters in a semiarid rangeland using remotely sensed spectral data

A study was conducted to determine the relation between remotely sensed spectral data and measurements of vegetation‐related hydrologic parameters in a semiarid rangeland in southeast Arizona. Throughout the measurement periods, ranging from June to September 1990, eight sites in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service Walnut Gulch experimental watershed were monitored for water and energy fluxes and other meteorological and biological parameters. Corresponding spectral data were acquired with ground‐based radiometers, low‐altitude aircraft‐mounted instruments, and Landsat thematic mapper sensors. Spectral indices were derived from measurements of surface reflectance, based on their response to variations in hydrologic parameters and sensitivity to unrelated variables, such as solar zenith angle and soil differences. A soil‐adjusted vegetation index, SAVI (derived from red and NIR reflectance factors), was found to be highly correlated with the temporal changes in vegetation cover and biomass, but less successful in discriminating spatial differences in cover and biomass across the watershed. Significant relations were found between the surface‐air temperature ( T s ‐ T a ) difference and measurements of soil moisture content, though the shape differed from that previously published for bare soil. The relation between daily evaporation rate and measurements of ( T s ‐ T a ) and daily net radiation was similar to that derived previously for irrigated pasture and dryland shortgrass in France but differed from that derived for irrigated wheat. These results emphasized the strengths and limitations of the use of spectral data for estimation of hydrologic characteristics of sparsely vegetated sites and suggested a need for reevaluation of common empirical relations between remotely sensed measurements and surface characteristics for application to rangeland areas.