Tracking disturbance and inundation to identify wetland loss

Dates

Start Date: 2015-01-01
End Date: 2018-12-31
Publication Date: 2020-06-16

Citation

Vanderhoof, M.K., Christensen, J., Beal, Y.J.G. DeVries, B., Lang, M.W., Hwang, N., Mazzarella, C., and Jones, J.W., Tracking disturbance and inundation to identify wetland loss: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9ODILGN.

Summary

Global trends in wetland degradation and loss have created an urgency to monitor wetland extent, as well as track the distribution and causes of wetland loss. Satellite imagery can be used to monitor wetlands over time, but few efforts have attempted to distinguish anthropogenic wetland loss from climate-driven variability in wetland extent. We present an approach to concurrently track land cover disturbance and inundation extent across the Mid-Atlantic region, United States, using the Landsat archive in Google Earth Engine. Disturbance was identified as a change in greenness, using a harmonic linear regression approach, or as a change in growing season brightness. Inundation extent was mapped using a modified version of the U.S. Geological [...]

Summary

Global trends in wetland degradation and loss have created an urgency to monitor wetland extent, as well as track the distribution and causes of wetland loss. Satellite imagery can be used to monitor wetlands over time, but few efforts have attempted to distinguish anthropogenic wetland loss from climate-driven variability in wetland extent. We present an approach to concurrently track land cover disturbance and inundation extent across the Mid-Atlantic region, United States, using the Landsat archive in Google Earth Engine. Disturbance was identified as a change in greenness, using a harmonic linear regression approach, or as a change in growing season brightness. Inundation extent was mapped using a modified version of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWE) algorithm. Annual (2015 to 2018) disturbance averaged 0.32 percent (1095 km2 per year) of the study area per year and was most common in forested areas. While inundation extent showed substantial interannual variability, the co-occurrence of disturbance and declines in inundation extent represented a minority of both change types, totaling 109 km2 over the four-year period, and 186 km2, using the National Wetland Inventory dataset in place of the Landsat-derived inundation extent. When the annual products were evaluated with permitted wetland and stream fill points, 95 percent of the fill points were detected, with most found by the disturbance product (89 percent) and fewer found by the inundation decline product (25 percent). The results suggest that mapping inundation alone is unlikely to be adequate to find and track anthropogenic wetland loss. Alternatively, remotely tracking both disturbance and inundation can potentially focus efforts to protect, manage, and restore wetlands.

Contacts

Originator :: Melanie K Vanderhoof, Jay Christensen, Yen-Ju G Beal, Ben DeVries, Megan Lang, Nora Hwang, Christine Mazzarella, John W Jones
Metadata Contact :: Melanie K Vanderhoof
Publisher :: U.S. Geological Survey
Distributor :: U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase
SDC Data Owner :: Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
USGS Mission Area :: Land Resources

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Tracking_disturbance_and_inundation_to identify_wetland_loss_metadata.xml Original FGDC Metadata	View	19.82 KB	application/fgdc+xml
AppendixTables.zip		1.34 KB	application/zip
decline_inundation_annual.zip		18.85 MB	application/zip
disturbance_extent_annual.zip		10.5 MB	application/zip
inundation_extent_annual.zip		20.8 MB	application/zip
potential_wetland_loss.zip		17.61 MB	application/zip

Related External Resources

Type: Related Primary Publication

Vanderhoof, M.K.; Christensen, J.; Beal, Y.-J.G.; DeVries, B.; Lang, M.W.; Hwang, N.; Mazzarella, C.; Jones, J.W. Isolating Anthropogenic Wetland Loss by Concurrently Tracking Inundation and Land Cover Disturbance across the Mid-Atlantic Region, U.S.. Remote Sens. 2020, 12, 1464	https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/9/1464
Vanderhoof, M.K., Christensen, J., Beal, Y.-J.G., DeVries, B., Lang, M.W., Hwang, N., Mazzarella, C., and Jones, J.W., 2020, Isolating Anthropogenic Wetland Loss by Concurrently Tracking Inundation and Land Cover Disturbance across the Mid-Atlantic Region, U.S.: Remote Sensing, v. 12, no. 9, p. 1464, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12091464.	https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12091464

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to determine (1) if wetland loss, defined as a transition from wetland to upland, can be reliably detected using changes in Landsat inundation extent; (2) if mapping disturbance extent across all land cover types can enable the identification and attribution of wetland loss; and (3) the spatial distribution of disturbance and changes to inundation extent across the Mid-Atlantic region.

Tracking disturbance and inundation to identify wetland loss

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