Hydro-Climatological Analysis of Riparian Vegetation along the San Carlos River and Lower Reaches of the Gila River of the Upper Gila River Watershed: 2019 to 2023

Riparian systems across the southwestern United States are immensely important ecosystems and serve as biodiversity hotspots for a number of plant and animal species. However, recent challenges including non-native vegetation expansion, increased wildfire activity, and widespread vegetation die-offs, have substantially impacted the conditions of these ecosystems. This study was structured to develop a riparian vegetation classification for the riparian ecosystems within the Upper Gila River level-4 Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC-4) watershed, and assess the vegetation response to a series of hydro-climatological variables, including discharge, precipitation, and temperature. This data release consists of four files, including two point shapefiles providing pixel-by-pixel vegetation greenness percent anomaly values at a 5-day time scale and a monthly time scale and two tabular *CSV documents showing discharge statistics and a time series of vegetation greenness with additional hydrologic derivatives that support this project; the other data release is a map of riparian vegetation in the study area (https://doi.org/10.5066/P13VRLRY). 

The list of files for this release includes: 
(1) 5-Day Vegetation Greenness Anomaly Values - "5Day_AnomalyPts.shp",
(2) Monthly Vegetation Greenness Anomaly Values - "Monthly__AnomalyPts.shp",
(3) Daily Discharge Statistics - "Daily_Discharge_Statistics.csv",
(4) Time Series of Vegetation Greenness and Hydrology - "5Day_TimeSeries_of_NDVI_and_Hydrology.csv"