The exchange of groundwater and surface water (GW-SW),including dissolved constituents and energy, represents a critical yet challenging characterization problem for hydrogeologists and stream ecologists. Here, and we relate the use of a suite of tall spatial-resolution remote-sensing techniques,collected using a small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS), to provide novel and complementary data to analyze GW-SW exchange. sUAS if centimeter-scale resolution topography and water surface elevations, or which are often drivers of exchange along the river corridor. Additionally,sUAS-based vegetation imagery, vegetation-top elevation, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) mapping indicated GW-SW exchange patterns that are difficult to characterize from the land surface and may not be resolved from coarser satellite-based imagery. We combined these data with estimates of sediment hydraulic conductivity to provide a direct estimate of GW “shortcutting” through meander necks,which was corroborated by temperature data at the riverbed interface.
Source: usgs.gov