Soils Landscape EE Program

Tom MillardResearch Geomorphologist

Coast Forest Region

Overview

• Evaluation questions

• Selection of evaluation areas

• Methods

• Indicators

• Progress to date

• Plans for next year

Evaluation questions

• Do access structures have the least possible impact on productive soil loss and hydrologic function of the soil?

• Are harvest or road-related landslides occurring?• Are harvest or road-related slides likely to occur

as a result of recent forest practices?• Are harvest or road-related gully processes

occurring? • Are harvest or road-related snow avalanches

occurring?

Evaluation areas

• Watersheds 5000 – 10,000 ha in size

• Need to decide on process for selecting watersheds

• Coastal areas and some Interior areas – driven by landslide issues

• Many Interior areas primarily soil disturbance/permanent access issues

Evaluation methods

• Primarily remote sensing/GIS data collection and output

• Field-level sub-sampling to confirm remote sensing results

Remote sensing

• Orthophotos or regular aerial photos• Satellite images

Next Generation Satellites

• WorldView – launch 2006– 50 cm panchromatic resolution– 2.0-meter multispectral resolution

• Orbview-5 – launch early 2007– 41 cm panchromatic resolution– 1.64 m MSS (GeoEye – Orbimage/ Spaceimaging)

• US Reconnaissance Keyhole-13– Classified but analysts believe 4-10 cm resolution

Indicators – Access Structures

• % of the productive forest area devoted to permanent access

• Classify roads by type and condition

• Compare to assumptions contained in TSR

Indicators – occurrence of landslides

• Number of landslides occurring that are related to forest practices

• Effect on soil productivity

• Non-soil impacts (timber, fish habitat, community water supply, private property damage, injury/death of individuals)

Indicators – landslide likelihood

• The likelihood of harvest or road-related slides occurring within approximately the next 15 years

• Need to evaluate the amount of Class IV and Class V terrain harvested/roaded, or

• Use Terrain Attribute Data to predict (approximately) the number of landslides expected to occur

Indicators – Gully processes

• Inventory number and type of adverse gully processes

• Remote sensing – scale issues

Indicators – snow avalanches

• Some avalanche tracks identifiable from remote sensing

• Needs work

Progress to date

• One pilot in place – Hellroaring Creek near Cranbrook

• Data being collected/summarized now

Plans for next year

• 2 – 3 pilots: Coast, NIR and/or SIR

• Need substantial GIS resources

• Need very recent aerial photography/orthophotos/satellite imagery