Landsat mapping of annual inundation (1979–2006) of the Macquarie Marshes in semi-arid Australia

Measuring inundation over long timeframes is essential for understanding the responses of large floodplain wetlands on regulated rivers, such as the internationally Ramsar listed Macquarie Marshes (2000 km²) in central-eastern Australia. We used near-spring Landsat images (Multispectral Scanner (MSS...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of remote sensing 2011-01, Vol.32 (16), p.4545-4569
Main Authors: Thomas, Rachael F, Kingsford, Richard T, Lu, Yi, Hunter, Simon J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Annual rainfall
Applied geophysics
Biological and medical sciences
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
floodplains
Floods
Freshwater
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects. Techniques
High frequencies
image analysis
Internal geophysics
Inundation
Landsat
Marshes
rain
rivers
spring
Teledetection and vegetation maps
Vegetation
water management
watersheds
Wetlands
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Measuring inundation over long timeframes is essential for understanding the responses of large floodplain wetlands on regulated rivers, such as the internationally Ramsar listed Macquarie Marshes (2000 km²) in central-eastern Australia. We used near-spring Landsat images (Multispectral Scanner (MSS) and Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery) over 28 years (1979–2006) and classified for inundation, integrating water and vegetation response using Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis (ISODATA) clustering. A spatially explicit inundation index showed that zones inundated with high frequency were mostly in the northern region. Change detection of inundation indices over three consecutive water management periods (period 1 (1979–1987), period 2 (1988–1996) and period 3 (1997–2006)) showed that zones inundated with high frequency across the Macquarie Marshes contracted, equating to the loss of three or more spring floods from each 9-year period, despite no corresponding change in annual catchment or local rainfall. Landsat represents the only effective available long-term information for analysing long-term changes in inundation patterns of floodplain wetlands.
ISSN:1366-5901
0143-1161
1366-5901
DOI:10.1080/01431161.2010.489064