Abstract
River floodplains are the dominant wetland habitat in the
Amazon river basin, providing important habitation for
aquatic flora and fauna, and playing a key role in
sustaining regional fish production. The annual
inundation pulse has been identified as the dominant
environmental factor affecting aquatic biota on the
floodplain, and the characteristics of this pulse, in
terms of timing, duration and amplitude, vary spatially
on the floodplain as a function of fluctuations in river
stage height and topography. River floodplains are
furthermore globally significant sources of methane (CH4)
and other trace gases essential to climate regulation.
Refined information on wetland distributions and dynamics
are currently needed to improve estimates of habitat
availability and to calculate regional contributions of
trace gases, especially CH4, to the troposphere. This
paper describes how multitemporal time series of
spaceborne L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data
from the Japanese Earth Resource Satellite 1 (JERS-1)
were used to generate a model of the spatial and temporal
variation of inundation on the floodplain of a typical
black water river in the Central Brazilian Amazon and how
this model was utilized, together with in situ
measurements of river stage heights and CH4 fluxes, to
model regional estimates of CH4 emissions. We also
demonstrate how a JERS-1 SAR time series can be used to
map the spatial variation of flood duration on the
floodplain, a key factor controlling local variations in
plant biodiversity. For both applications, the
availability of adequate time series of satellite sensor
data is the prime factor affecting the reliability and
accuracy of the flood models and the spatial details of
the flood duration map. The availability of in situ data,
especially daily river height measurements, was also
critical for the development of the flooding model and
for the subsequent decoupling of the model from the
satellite sensor data.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1303-1328 |
Journal | International Journal of Remote Sensing |
Volume | 23 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2002 |
MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- remote sensing
- GIS
- SAR
- methane
- methane emissions
- greenhouse gas emissions
- greenhouse gases