In 1979, the Geographic Applications Laboratory
of the Department of Geography, Oregon State University,
was retained by the Portland General Electric Company to
form and supervise a program to monitor the bioenvironment
in the vicinity of the Boardman Coal-Fired Power plant. This
partially fulfills requirements of the Department of Energy in
allowing the newly built power plant to become operational.
This was achieved in August, 1980. Remote sensing was chosen
as the tool to perform this task because of its ability to monitor
large areas effectively at a minimal cost. Three imagery modes
of varying scale were selected (1) LANDSAT Multispectral
Scanning; (2) High level color infrared imagery acquired by
NASA U-2 operational aircraft and; (3) Low level color and
color infrared imagery, which was selected as the primary
source of analysis. After establishing study area boundaries,
- study sites and primary imagery flight lines, the functions of
this project included: imagery acquisition; analytical interpretation;
monthly and annual written evaluations of study area
conditions and imagery quality; and establishment of a background
file for future analytical reference
