Armando Barreto Munoz

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Journals/Publications

• Jarchow, C. J., Nouri, H., Nagler, P. L., Didan, K., Borujeni, S. C., & Barreto-munoz, A. (2021). Riparian area changes in greenness and water use on the lower Colorado river in the USA from 2000 to 2020. Remote Sensing, 13(7), 1332. doi:10.3390/rs13071332
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  Declines in riparian ecosystem greenness and water use have been observed in the delta of the Lower Colorado River (LCR) since 2000. The purpose of our case study was to measure these metrics on the U.S. side of the border between Hoover and Morelos Dams to see if declining greenness was unique to the portion of the river in Mexico. In this case study, five riparian reaches of the LCR from Hoover to Morelos Dam since 2000 were studied to evaluate trends in riparian ecosystem health. We measure these riparian woodlands using remotely sensed measurements of the two-band Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2; a proxy for greenness); daily evapotranspiration (ET; mmd−1) using EVI2 (ET(EVI2)); and an annualized ET based on EVI2, the Phenology Assessment Metric (PAM ET), an annualized ET using Landsat time-series. A key finding is that riparian health and its water use has been in decline since 2000 on the U.S. portion of the LCR, depicting a loss of green vegetation over the last two decades. EVI2 results show a decline of −13.83%, while average daily ET(EVI2) between the first and last decade had a decrease of over 1 mmd−1 (−27.30%) and the respective average PAM ET losses were 170.91 mmyr−1 (−17.95%). The difference between the first and last five-year periods, 2000–2005 and 2016–2020, showed the largest decrease in daily ET(EVI) of 1.24 mmd−1 (−32.61%). These declines come from a loss in healthy, green, riparian plant-cover, not a change in plant water use efficiency nor efficient use of managed water resources. Our results suggest further deterioration of biodiversity, wildlife habitat and other key ecosystem services on the U.S. portion of the LCR.
• Nouri, H., Nagler, P. L., Jarchow, C. J., Didan, K., Borujeni, S. C., & Barreto-munoz, A. (2021). Riparian area changes in greenness and water use on the lower Colorado river in the USA from 2000 to 2020. Remote Sensing, 13(7). doi:10.3390/rs13071332
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  Declines in riparian ecosystem greenness and water use have been observed in the delta of the Lower Colorado River (LCR) since 2000. The purpose of our case study was to measure these metrics on the U.S. side of the border between Hoover and Morelos Dams to see if declining greenness was unique to the portion of the river in Mexico. In this case study, five riparian reaches of the LCR from Hoover to Morelos Dam since 2000 were studied to evaluate trends in riparian ecosystem health. We measure these riparian woodlands using remotely sensed measurements of the two-band Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2; a proxy for greenness); daily evapotranspiration (ET; mmd−1) using EVI2 (ET(EVI2)); and an annualized ET based on EVI2, the Phenology Assessment Metric (PAM ET), an annualized ET using Landsat time-series. A key finding is that riparian health and its water use has been in decline since 2000 on the U.S. portion of the LCR, depicting a loss of green vegetation over the last two decades. EVI2 results show a decline of −13.83%, while average daily ET(EVI2) between the first and last decade had a decrease of over 1 mmd−1 (−27.30%) and the respective average PAM ET losses were 170.91 mmyr−1 (−17.95%). The difference between the first and last five-year periods, 2000–2005 and 2016–2020, showed the largest decrease in daily ET(EVI) of 1.24 mmd−1 (−32.61%). These declines come from a loss in healthy, green, riparian plant-cover, not a change in plant water use efficiency nor efficient use of managed water resources. Our results suggest further deterioration of biodiversity, wildlife habitat and other key ecosystem services on the U.S. portion of the LCR.
• Siebert, S., Salemi, H., Opp, C., Nouri, H., Nagler, P., Didan, K., Borujeni, S. C., Barreto-munoz, A., & Abbasi, N. (2021). Estimating Actual Evapotranspiration over Croplands Using Vegetation Index Methods and Dynamic Harvested Area. Remote Sensing, 13(24), 5167. doi:10.3390/rs13245167
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  Advances in estimating actual evapotranspiration (ETa) with remote sensing (RS) have contributed to improving hydrological, agricultural, and climatological studies. In this study, we evaluated the applicability of Vegetation-Index (VI) -based ETa (ET-VI) for mapping and monitoring drought in arid agricultural systems in a region where a lack of ground data hampers ETa work. To map ETa (2000–2019), ET-VIs were translated and localized using Landsat-derived 3- and 2-band Enhanced Vegetation Indices (EVI and EVI2) over croplands in the Zayandehrud River Basin (ZRB) in Iran. Since EVI and EVI2 were optimized for the MODerate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), using these VIs with Landsat sensors required a cross-sensor transformation to allow for their use in the ET-VI algorithm. The before- and after- impact of applying these empirical translation methods on the ETa estimations was examined. We also compared the effect of cropping patterns’ interannual change on the annual ETa rate using the maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series. The performance of the different ET-VIs products was then evaluated. Our results show that ETa estimates agreed well with each other and are all suitable to monitor ETa in the ZRB. Compared to ETc values, ETa estimations from MODIS-based continuity corrected Landsat-EVI (EVI2) (EVIMccL and EVI2MccL) performed slightly better across croplands than those of Landsat-EVI (EVI2) without transformation. The analysis of harvested areas and ET-VIs anomalies revealed a decline in the extent of cultivated areas and a loss of corresponding water resources downstream. The findings show the importance of continuity correction across sensors when using empirical algorithms designed and optimized for specific sensors. Our comprehensive ETa estimation of agricultural water use at 30 m spatial resolution provides an inexpensive monitoring tool for cropping areas and their water consumption.
• Crimmins, M. A., Munoz, A. B., Marsh, S. E., Didan, K., & El-Vilaly, M. A. (2018). Characterizing Drought Effects on Vegetation Productivity in the Four Corners Region of the US Southwest. Sustainability. doi:10.3390/su10051643
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  The droughts striking the Colorado Plateau, where the Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation Native American reservation lands are located, and their impacts have appeared slowly and relatively unnoticed in conventional national drought monitoring efforts like the National Drought Monitor. To understand the effect of drought-based drivers on vegetation productivity in the Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation reservation lands, an assessment approach was developed integrating climate, land cover types, and topographical data with annual geospatially explicit normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)-related productivity from 1989 to 2014 derived from 15-day composite multi-sensor NDVI time series data. We studied vegetation–environment relationships by conducting multiple linear regression analysis to explain the driver of vegetation productivity changes. Our results suggest that the interannual change of vegetation productivity showed high variability in middle elevations where needleleaf forest is the dominant vegetation cover type. Our analysis also shows that the spatial variation in interannual variability of vegetation productivity was more driven by climate drivers than by topography ones. Specifically, the interannual variability in spring precipitation and fall temperature seems to be the most significant factor that correlated with the interannual variability in vegetation productivity during the last two and a half decades.
• Marsh, S. E., Munoz, A. B., Crimmins, M. A., Leeuwen, W. J., Didan, K., & El-Vilaly, M. A. (2018). Vegetation productivity responses to drought on tribal lands in the four corners region of the Southwest USA. Frontiers of Earth Science. doi:10.1007/s11707-017-0646-z
• Glenn, E. P., Jarchow, C. J., Barreto-munoz, A., Nagler, P. L., Jarchow, C. J., Glenn, E. P., Doody, T. M., Didan, K., & Barreto-munoz, A. (2016). Wide‐area estimates of evapotranspiration by red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and associated vegetation in the Murray‐Darling River Basin, Australia. Hydrological Processes, 30(9), 1376-1387. doi:10.1002/hyp.10734
• Nagler, P. L., Glenn, E. P., Jarchow, C. J., Nouri, H., Jarchow, C. J., Glenn, E. P., Doody, T. M., Didan, K., Barreto Munoz, A., & Anderson, S. (2015). Estimating wide-area evapotranspiration at multiple scales using optical vegetation index methods. 2015 AGU Fall Meeting.
• Barreto-munoz, A., Rahman, A. F., Hutabarat, J. A., Dragoni, D., Didan, K., & Barreto-munoz, A. (2013). Detecting large scale conversion of mangroves to aquaculture with change point and mixed-pixel analyses of high-fidelity MODIS data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 130, 96-107. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2012.11.014
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  Abstract Mangrove forests of the tropical and subtropical regions provide critical ecosystem services, fulfill important socio-economic and environmental functions, and support coastal livelihoods. These forests are also among the most vulnerable ecosystems, both to anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. Yet, no map or published study exists showing detailed spatiotemporal trends of mangrove deforestation at local to regional scales. This study uses change point and mixed-pixel analyses with a time series (2000–2010) of high-fidelity imagery from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for tracking deforestation of mangroves in the Mahakam Delta of Indonesia at 250 m spatial scale and a 3-monthly temporal interval. The results show that a total of 21,000 ± 152 ha of mangrove land in the Mahakam Delta were deforested and converted to shrimp ponds in 11 years. In 2000, the deforested lands covered 47% of the entire delta, while in 2010 it increased to 75%. Deforestation rates varied in each year, but peaked in 2002 and declined since then. The combination of high-fidelity time series data and a robust method of change detection resulted in a virtual reconstruction of 11 years of drastic land change history of the delta's mangrove areas at a consistent spatiotemporal scale. We anticipate that the methodology developed in this study will be useful to reconstruct deforestation histories of other places as well. Also, our findings can potentially be used to further explore the socioeconomic drivers of mangrove deforestation so that reliable, appropriate and sustainable methods of local and regional scale adaptation/mitigation strategies can be developed.

Presentations

• Didan, K., & Barreto Munoz, A. (2018, 12). Opportunistic Validation of Vegetation indices data records using NEONS hyperspectral data. CEOS LPV Vegetation Index and Phenology products. Sub-meeting at the 2018 AGU Fall Meeting. Washington.

Creative Productions

• Didan, K., & Barreto Munoz, A. (2018. VIIRS/NPP Vegetation Indices 16-Day L3 Product Suite. https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/VNP13A1.001. USGS/EROS LP-DAAC: NASA. https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/VNP13A1.001
• Didan, K., & Barreto Munoz, A. (2017. NASA MEaSUREs Vegetation Index and Phenology (VIP) Product Suite. https://doi.org/10.5067/MEaSUREs/VIP/VIPPHEN_NDVI.004. USGS/EROS LP-DAAC: NASA. https://doi.org/10.5067/MEaSUREs/VIP/VIPPHEN_NDVI.004
• Didan, K., & Barreto Munoz, A. (2015. MOD13Q1 MODIS/Terra Vegetation Indices 16-Day Product Suite. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD13Q1.006. USGS/EROS LP-DAAC: NASA. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD13Q1.006

Others

• Didan, K., Barreto Munoz, A., Tucker, C., & Pinzon, G. (2018, 06). Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Vegetation Index Product Suite User Guide & Abridged Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document. https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/sites/default/files/public/product_documentation/vnp13_user_guide_atbd_v2.1.2.pdf. https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/sites/default/files/public/product_documentation/vnp13_user_guide_atbd_v2.1.2.pdf
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  37. Didan K. Barreto Armando, Tucker Compton, Jorge Pinzon. 2018. Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Vegetation Index Product Suite User Guide & Abridged Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document. NASA/LP-DAAC https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/sites/default/files/public/product_documentation/vnp13_user_guide_atbd_v2.1.2.pdf
• Didan, K., Barreto Munoz, A., Miura, T., Tsend-Ayush, J., Zhang, X., Friedl, M., Grey, J., Van Leeuwen, W. J., Czapla-Myers, J. S., Jenkerson, C., Maiersperger, T., & Meyers, D. (2017, 06). Multi-Sensor Vegetation Index and Phenology Earth Science Data Records Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document and User Guide. NASA/LP-DAAC,. https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/sites/default/files/public/measures/docs/VIP_ESDRs_ATBD_And_UsersGuide.pdf. https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/sites/default/files/public/measures/docs/VIP_ESDRs_ATBD_And_UsersGuide.pdf