Investigating the impact of watershed land cover change on the hydrometric state of the Upper Kennebecasis River

dc.contributor.advisorLeblon, Brigitte
dc.contributor.advisorLaRocque, Armand
dc.contributor.advisorSchulz, Karsten
dc.contributor.authorMontgomery, Dylon
dc.date.accessioned2023-03-01T16:47:06Z
dc.date.available2023-03-01T16:47:06Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.date.updated2023-03-01T15:03:16Z
dc.description.abstractAlong with the increase in frequency and seriousness of flooding happening globally, southern New Brunswick is no exception. The Upper Kennebecasis River has seen increased flooding due to higher water levels and discharges. This study aims to determine a link between high water levels and discharges and land-use changes in the Upper Kennebecasis River watershed from 1985-2019. Trends in hydrometric and meteorological data were analyzed using the Mann-Kendall test. Significant increasing trends were as follows: winter and fall maximum discharge; January, November, December, and winter average discharge; annual peak water level; winter and fall maximum water level; and January, February, and December average water level. Only two trends were found in the meteorological data: the average winter temperature and the December precipitation. Annual precipitation remained unchanged during the study period, which allows us to conclude that increased precipitation is not the cause of the increased flooding. Land-use changes were determined by comparing land-use maps established for 1984 and 2019 from the Random Forest Classifier using a combination of Landsat imagery and LiDAR-based topographical variables. The overall classification accuracies for the 1984 and 2019 images were 98.6% and 94.1% respectfully. From 1984-2019, there was a 20% TWA loss in mixedwood, however, there was a 20% TWA increase in softwood and shrubland. The change of the mixed-wood forests to softwood plantation and shrubland areas (which corresponded to regeneration areas) may be the cause of the increase in water level and discharge in the Upper Kennebecasis River watershed. Keywords: Land Cover Change, Landsat-8 OLI, Landsat-5 TM, runoff, flooding, Random Forest
dc.description.copyright© Dylon Montgomery, 2021
dc.formattext/xml
dc.format.extentx, 87 pages
dc.format.mediumelectronic
dc.identifier.urihttps://unbscholar.lib.unb.ca/handle/1882/14478
dc.language.isoen_CA
dc.publisherUniversity of New Brunswick
dc.rightshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
dc.subject.disciplineForestry and Environmental Management
dc.titleInvestigating the impact of watershed land cover change on the hydrometric state of the Upper Kennebecasis River
dc.typemaster thesis
thesis.degree.disciplineForestry and Environmental Management
thesis.degree.fullnameMaster of Forestry
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of New Brunswick
thesis.degree.levelmasters
thesis.degree.nameM.F.

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