Las Vegas Valley Water District & Southern Nevada Water Authority

Project Goal

The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) implemented the Water Smart Landscape (WSL) Program in 2002 that provides monetary rebates for residents and businesses in southern Nevada to convert existing turf coverage on their properties to a desert-friendly landscape, called Xeriscape. However, a question that has persisted over the past few years: how much grass exists in Southern Nevada? We decided to try and answer the question using a combination of Remote Sensing and GIS technologies.

Learn more about us

Learn more about our application: Site 1

Business Problem Solved

With all the data collected during the WSL Program process, including address / parcel information, we not only determined the amount of turf existing in Southern Nevada visible to airborne imagery, but were able to identify turf-intensive areas and even potential applicants to whom we could market the program.

Technology Implemented

The imagery product used in this study was 6-inch, 4-band digital aerial imagery provided by Digital Mapping, Inc. The software used to assist in the analysis included Leica’s ERDAS Imagine, ArcGIS and Python, and Feature Analyst from Visual Learning Systems (VLS). Hardware used includes Sun Ultra 40 Workstations with an MS Windows XP Professional x64 operating system, and IBM Intellistation M-Pro machines with MS Windows XP Professional.

Development Team Biography

Project Manager: Judy Brandt, GIS Analyst-Judy was the primary analyst on this project. Judy has worked for SNWA since 2001, focusing primarily on GIS and Remote Sensing, with emphasis on geology, hydrogeology, hydrology, and feature extraction from imagery; Project Specialist: Melissa Mezger, GIS Intern-Melissa assisted Judy on different tasks throughout this project. Melissa is currently attending the University of Nevada – Las Vegas, majoring in Environmental Studies, and has interned with SNWA since 2006; Technical Analyst: Ric Raymond, Remote Sensing Analyst-Ric provided technical analysis and support in regards with processing the imagery and helping Judy establish vegetation indices for it. Ric has been with SNWA since 2005, focusing on various remote sensing tasks for projects; Product Analyst: Craig Hale, Data Resources Supervisor-Craig was the lead analyst in evaluating and selecting the vendor providing imagery for the project. Craig has worked for SNWA since 1995.