REMOTE SENSING STREAMS 
Paul Cuplin 
Fisheries Biologist 
Bureau of Land Management 
Denver Service Center, Denver, Colorado 
  
Abstract.--To accelerate stream inventory and documentation 
of existing stream habitat conditions, stream remote sensing 
techniques were tested. Two aerial platforms were success- 
fully used for continuous aerial stream photography. Color 
infrared and Ektachrome X film when properly exposed produce 
very good water penetration in clear streams. Stream habitat 
conditions such as stream shade, upper stream bank condition, 
stream bank stability, stream channel stability and percent 
stream bottom silt can be interpreted from large scale color 
infrared photography. 
  
Introduction 
Stream inventories must often be completed in a short period of time 
with a limited staff. To accelerate stream inventory and improve 
baseline resource data remote sensing techniques are needed. The 
present aerial photography available in field offices is not large 
enough scale to allow for interpretation of stream habitat conditions. 
Large scale photography with water penetration capability is needed 
for stream habitat evaluation. 
Two aircraft platforms were tested for remote sensing streams. An 
aircraft door camera mount and an aircraft floor camera mount. 
Kodak color infrared and Kodak Ektachrome X film were tested to deter- 
mine applicability for stream inventory. 
A Nikon 35mm motor drive camera with 50mm lens was used in all tests. 
The 35mm format required enlargement with a Vantage II microfilm 
reader for interpretation of stream conditions. 
Stream habitat inventory was accomplished by first ground truthing the 
stream for stream shade, upper stream bank condition, stream bank 
stability, stream channel stability and percent stream bottom silt. 
Linear distance between prominent land marks was measured to establish 
photographic scale. 
Methods 
A Nikon F2 35mm motor drive camera with 50mm lens with Wratten 12 
filter and Kodak Ektachrome color infrared film was used to photograph 
portions of Colorado River on October 20, 1975 and Red and Rio Grande