Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2022
Keywords
seeps, springs, geology, topography, aquifer outcrops, topographic indices, geospatial modeling, Kenai Peninsula Lowlands, Alaska
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14010063
Abstract
We hypothesized topographic features alone could be used to locate groundwater discharge, but only where diagnostic topographic signatures could first be identified through the use of limited field observations and geologic data. We built a geodatabase from geologic and topographic data, with the geologic data only covering ~40% of the study area and topographic data derived from airborne LiDAR covering the entire study area. We identified two types of groundwater discharge: shallow hillslope groundwater discharge, commonly manifested as diffuse seeps, and aquifer-outcrop groundwater discharge, commonly manifested as springs. We developed multistep manual procedures that allowed us to accurately predict the locations of both types of groundwater discharge in 93% of cases, though only where geologic data were available. However, field verification suggested that both types of groundwater discharge could be identified by specific combinations of topographic variables alone. We then applied maximum entropy modeling, a machine learning technique, to predict the prevalence of both types of groundwater discharge using six topographic variables: profile curvature range, with a permutation importance of 43.2%, followed by distance to flowlines, elevation, topographic roughness index, flow-weighted slope, and planform curvature, with permutation importance of 20.8%, 18.5%, 15.2%, 1.8%, and 0.5%, respectively. The AUC values for the model were 0.95 for training data and 0.91 for testing data, indicating outstanding model performance.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Remote Sensing, v. 14, issue 1, art. 63
Scholar Commons Citation
Gerlach, Mary E.; Rains, Kai C.; Guerrón-Orejuela, Edgar J.; Kleindl, William J.; Downs, Joni; Landry, Shawn M.; and Rains, Mark C., "Using Remote Sensing and Machine Learning to Locate Groundwater Discharge to Salmon-Bearing Streams" (2022). School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications. 2326.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/geo_facpub/2326
