Has increasing drought severity led to changes in vegetation coverage as water levels decrease on Shasta Lake?

Drought impacts have an enormous impact on the quality and sustainability of an environment. This study proposes to look at the variation in environmental change of the surface water availability of Shasta Lake, California as well as the associated vegetation loss between a period of no drought, July 2019 and exceptional drought, July 2021. A Vegetation Index was created using a ratio by dividing the near infrared and red bands of Landsat 8; creating an RVI to measure and map vegetation changes. In addition, an unsupervised, maximized land cover classification was performed on the study area to quantify and highlight the following categories: Water, Tree/Vegetation, and Barren Land. Between 2019 and 2021 significant increases in the development of barren land (+21.3%), notable decreases in Trees/Vegetation (-8.08%) and surface water availability (-47.96%) were observed. As water levels drop detrimental impacts to recreation, wildlife habitats, and electricity generation is likely to be witnessed.