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Analysis of drought sensitivity in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, and Idaho) from 2000 through 2016

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

This data release includes data-processing scripts, data products, and associated metadata for a remote-sensing based approach to characterize vegetation sensitivity to droughts from 2000 through 2016 in the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Drought sensitivity analysis was conducted in minimally-disturbed (‘intact’) forest and shrub-steppe ecosystems, defined as 1-km pixels (i.e., grid cells) that had not experienced major recent insect mortality or fire. Drought conditions were assessed using the multi-scalar standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI), for which positive values indicate wetter that average conditions and negative values indicate drier than average conditions for a given site (Vicente-Serrano and others, 2010). A multi-scalar drought sensitivity index (S’) was developed for two drought intensity levels (L): moderate drought (-1.5 < SPEI ≤ -1) and severe drought (SPEI ≤ -1.5). Vegetation response to droughts was quantified using remotely sensed Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for summer months (June, July, and August) from 2000 through 2016. EVI is a vegetation index calculated from the blue, red, and near-infrared spectral bands representing atmospherically corrected surface reflectance and has advantages over other similar indices in its abilities to represent areas of dense vegetation (Huete and others, 2002). For each pixel, S’ represents the percent decrease in EVI under drought conditions relative to baseline (non-drought, non-pluvial) conditions. Relationships between S’ and a variety of landscape characteristics representing climatic water balance, topography, soil characteristics, and shallow groundwater availability were examined using Boosted Regression Tree (BRT) modeling, a machine-learning algorithm. For detailed descriptions of data-release components, including analysis methods and modeling, please consult the appropriate metadata documents that accompany the processing scripts and data products.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/938f5a731e677d30b79a798a54535355
Identifier USGS:5c05588ae4b0815414cc8337
Data Last Modified 20200821
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 4b97541f-e5a4-48a7-bf94-3101533c102c
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -127.086652482,39.890944806,-110.519696943,50.587060893
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash b8fe57fa18ecfdc37e72fedbe206e136db68f35341465479063543211c204a56
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -127.086652482, 39.890944806, -127.086652482, 50.587060893, -110.519696943, 50.587060893, -110.519696943, 39.890944806, -127.086652482, 39.890944806}

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