Satellite Remote Sensing of Inundated Wetlands: Global Data Record Assembly Status and Development Plans

Kyle McDonald, The City College of New York, kmcdonald2@ccny.cuny.edu (Presenter)
Bruce Chapman, JPL, bruce.d.chapman@nasa.gov
Erika Podest, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, erika.podest@jpl.nasa.gov
Ronny Schroder, The City College of New York, ronny.schroder@googlemail.com
Laura L. Hess, University of California Santa Barbara, lola@icess.ucsb.edu
Lucas A Jones, University of Montana, lucas@ntsg.umt.edu
John S Kimball, University of Montana, johnk@ntsg.umt.edu
Mahta Moghaddam, The University of Michigan, mmoghadd@umich.edu
Jane Whitcomb, University of Michigan, jbwhit@umich.edu

Wetlands cover less than 5% of Earth’s ice-free land surface but exert major impacts on global biogeochemistry, hydrology, and biological diversity. Despite the importance of these environments in the global cycling of carbon and water, there is a scarcity of suitable regional-to-global remote-sensing data for characterizing their distribution and dynamics. We are assembling a global-scale Earth System Data Record (ESDR) of natural Inundated Wetlands to facilitate investigations on their role in climate, biogeochemistry, hydrology, and biodiversity. The ESDR comprises (1) Fine-resolution (100 meter) maps, delineating wetland extent, vegetation type, and seasonal inundation dynamics for regional to continental-scale areas covering crucial wetland regions, and (2) global coarse-resolution (~25 km), multi-temporal mappings of inundated area fraction (Fw) across multiple years. The fine-scale ESDR component is constructed from L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. The global maps of inundated area fraction are obtained by combining coarse-resolution (~25 km) remote sensing observations from passive and active microwave instruments.

We present details of ESDR assembly and a comparative analysis of the high-resolution SAR-based data sets with the coarse resolution inundation data sets for wetlands ecosystems. We compare information content and accuracy of the coarse resolution data sets relative to the SAR-based data sets. We present details of remote sensing data collections, algorithm application, and data set distribution. The status of current efforts to assemble this ESDR, including data processing and wetland classification are presented. We discuss the details of data system development and the unique features addressed in data system implementation. We introduce planned efforts for conducting systematic error assessments for quantifying ESDR accuracy. This ESDR will provide the first high-resolution, accurate, consistent and comprehensive global-scale data set of wetland inundation and vegetation, including continental-scale multi-temporal and multi-year monthly inundation dynamics at varying scales.

This work was carried out in part within the framework of the ALOS Kyoto & Carbon Initiative. PALSAR data were provided by JAXA/EORC and the Alaska Satellite Facility. Portions of this work were conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Other   (Mon 4:00 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Lettenmaier, Dennis: Diagnosis and prognosis or changes in lake and wetland extent on the regional carbon balance of northern Eurasia ...details
• Moghaddam, Mahta: Mapping Wetlands Dynamics for Reducing Uncertainties in the Boreal North American Carbon Budget and Diagnosis and Prognosis of changes in Lake and Wetland Extent on the regional Carbon Balance of northern Eurasia ...details

Poster Location ID: 54