An economical and repeatable method for mapping shade cast on water channels

The motivation of this work is to provide insights toward determining a viable strategy for statewide monitoring of riparian vegetation condition, with particular focus on developing a repeatable, costeffective method for assessment of progress toward achieving temperature-based water quality standards mandated by the federal Clean Water Act. A reliable monitoring strategy could in turn support a datadriven prioritization and assessment framework to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of riparian restoration efforts. In this project we developed and tested a method for mapping shade cast on water channels by riparian vegetation using optical imagery sources that are affordable and regularly available across the state of Oregon. We validated the optical imagery-based results against lidar-based shade estimates that—while superior for the application—do not represent a viable approach for ongoing statewide monitoring due to their expense.