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Zhenghong Tang

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Sediment accumulation in playa wetlands, such as those in the Rainwater Basin in south-central Nebraska, reduces the hydrologic functionality and alters the vegetative composition of the wetlands reducing their ability to provide forage and resting habitat for migratory birds. Most Rainwater Basin wetlands have intense agricultural production occuring within their watersheds that accelerate sediment accumulation within the wetland. This sediment accumulation reduced the abilty of the wetland to hold water which, in turn, allows invasive and upland plants to proliferate with the wetland footprint. Planting upland grassland buffers around wetlands reduces the sediment load entering the wetland reducing the need...
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With extraordinary resolution and accuracy, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)-derived digital elevation models (DEMs) have been increasingly used for watershed analyses and modeling by hydrologists, planners and engineers. Such high-accuracy DEMs have demonstrated their effectiveness in delineating watershed and drainage patterns at fine scales in low-relief terrains. However, these high-resolution datasets are usually only available as topographic DEMs rather than hydrologic DEMs, presenting greater land roughness that can affect natural flow accumulation. Specifically, locations of drainage structures such as road culverts and bridges were simulated as barriers to the passage of drainage. This paper proposed...
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Use of LIDAR to Assess the Effectiveness of Grass Plantings and Buffers on Playa Natural Inundation and Sedimentation Control in the Rainwater Basin
The Rainwater Basin in south-central Nebraska includes a complex of seasonally shallow playa wetlands that attract millions of migratory waterfowl as well as other waterbirds, including the federally and state listed endangered whooping crane. The Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data provide the robust capability of capturing small variations in low-relief playa wetlands. The main objective of this project is to build LiDAR-derived 3-D geospatial models to statistically assess the effectiveness of grass plantings and buffers on playa natural inundation and sedimentation control at watershed scales in the Rainwater Basin. The anticipated products include: (1) A set of statistical models to correlate grass plantings/buffers...
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