As ocean waters rise and salinity increases in rivers close to the coast, many forests are dying and However, determining the salinity of every blackwater river throughout the east coast is no easy feat. By building on top of previous research conducted by John Gardner, a former PhD student in the Nicholas School of the Environment who is now an assistant professor of earth, marine, and environmental sciences at UNC, the project team had an idea of how they could use satellite imagery to determine river color.