LBA-ECO ND-01 Watershed Deforestation from Landsat TM Series, Rondonia, Brazil: 1999

Deforestation maps were determined for the main agricultural and surrounding forested areas of Rondonia using multiple Landsat TM scenes (Biggs et al. 2008). Cumulative deforestation estimates were derived from this time series of Landsat scenes from 1975 to 1999.

To obtain watershed-level estimates of deforestation, watershed boundaries and stream networks were delineated by a flow accumulation algorithm using a 90-m resolution digital elevation model (DEM) from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). The results were watersheds of seven Strahler stream orders (1-7) with stream networks that closely matched those of the 1:100,000 topographic maps for the area. The watershed boundaries, classified by stream order, were overlain on the time series of deforestation maps to determine the cumulative deforestation extent in 1999.