My name is Angela Underwood and I’m the
education coordinator at Weeks Bay National
Estuarine Research Reserve. Weeks Bay is located
on the Southeastern shore of Mobile Bay and
encompasses over 9,000 acres of wetland and
terrestrial habitat. Estuaries like Weeks
Bay help net over 450 million dollars in Alabama
and service nurseries for over 75 percent
of all commercial fish species.
In order to properly manage lands within the
reserve it's imperative to have access to
efficient monitoring methods. Currently the
reserve has limited means of measuring precipitation,
sediment and nutrient levels.
We partnered with the Alabama Department of
Conservation and Natural resources to look
for ways to utilize NASA Earth observations
to provide the Weeks Bay estuary more thorough
information on water quality and quantity
of their biodiverse ecosystem.
We utilized NASA Earth observations including
landsat, GPM, and SRTM to provide remotely
sensed data on precipitation, land cover,
and elevation. We then ran those parameters
through the Soil and Water Assessment tool.
This model allowed for us to analyze and locate
sub-basins of critical concern in relation
to sediment and nutrient loading.
These results allowed us to teach the Weeks
Bay Estuary how incorporate NASA Earth observations
into future SWAT models.
