Impervious Surface Cover: Non-Paved Areas
A special algorithm has been applied to the Landsat 7 image to illuminate the changes in low-density residential land use which exemplify sprawl.
There is a link between impervious surfaces within a watershed, (here we see a subset of the Chesapeake Bay watershed area) and the water quality within the watershed. In general, once 10-15 % of an area is covered by impervious surfaces, increased sediments and chemical pollutants in runoff have a measurable effect on water quality. When 15-25% of a watershed is paved or impervious to drainage, increased runoff leads to reduced oxygen levels and impaired stream life. When more then 25% of surfaces are paved, many types of stream life die from the concentrated runoff and sediments.
A special algorithm has been applied to the Landsat 7 image to
illuminate the changes in low-density residential land use which exemplify sprawl.
A special algorithm has been applied to the Landsat 7 image to
illuminate the changes in low-density residential land use which exemplify sprawl.
A special algorithm has been applied to the Landsat 7 image to
illuminate the changes in low-density residential land use which exemplify sprawl.
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Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientific Visualization Studio
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Animator
- Stuart A. Snodgrass (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
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Scientist
- Andrew Smith (University of Maryland)
Release date
This page was originally published on Tuesday, June 12, 2001.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:58 PM EDT.
Missions
This page is related to the following missions:Series
This page can be found in the following series:Datasets used
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[Landsat-7: ETM+]
ID: 55This dataset can be found at: http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/about/wrs.html
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