INFORMATION

Many coastal areas are undergoing dramatic changes and are feeling the impact of human actives dealing with economic, landuse/abuse, and resource development. Worldwide we are seeing a dramatic loss of habitat for wildlife and fish species surrounding many coastal areas. The conversion of 95% of San Francisco Bay's tidal wetlands since 1850 represents a huge loss of habitat for its wildlife and those fish species that use the wetlands during breeding and maturing stages. Furthermore, remaining wetlands are threatened by development, erosion, pollution, and sea-level rise. Thus, management agencies must identify threats to existing wetlands and find ways to monitor both wetlands and water quality changes to determine viable strategies for wetlands restoration.

The USGS has begun a program designed to contribute to the understanding of pristine wetlands, water quality and their changes over the past 150 years. Such information is needed by ecosystem managers trying to determine the recent rate of wetlands loss and water quality changes. The main focus of this project is to generate and analyze digital 'change images' that will show how much and where changes have occurred in the San Francisco Bay Ecosystem.

Imagery

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