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Wetland Ecology, Conservation and Sustainability: Applications of Geospatial Techniques

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2017) | Viewed by 55253

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Lalit Kumar

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Guest Editor

East Coast Geospatial Consultants, Armidale, NSW 2350, Australia
Interests: environmental modelling; spatial ecology; climate change impacts; remote sensing; GIS; spatial modelling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Onisimo Mutanga

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Guest Editor

School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Kwazulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
Interests: remote sensing; land use; environment; vegetation; hyperspectral remote sensing; ecosystem ecology; spatial analysis; climate change impact analysist; vegetation mapping
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Wetlands are one of the most productive environments on the planet, having very high biological diversity and productivity, and providing numerous ecosystem services. They improve water quality by trapping sediments and filtering nutrients; support various agricultural activities by providing an almost continuous source of water for irrigation, as well as for livestock consumption; support recreation and ecotourism activities; act as carbon sinks and mitigate against flooding; provide habitat to many organisms, including a wide variety of birds; and support the livelihood of millions of people, especially in developing countries. However, the state of many important wetlands around the world is of great concern. Many studies show that both the area and quality of wetlands continues to decline, compromising the ecosystem services they deliver. In a rapidly changing climate, it is important to be able to continuously and frequently monitor the health and condition of wetlands, the biodiversity (both flora and fauna) it supports, as well as changing ecosystem services. Wetlands need to be utilized in a sustainable manner such that it does not adversely affect their on-going quality for current and future generations.

Earth observation technologies, including remote sensing and geographic information systems, have contributed immensely to rapidly map and monitor wetlands. New satellite data, at both improved spatial and temporal scales, is becoming available on a yearly basis. A lot of the data, such as that available from Landsat and the Sentinel series, are available free of cost, thus increasing the use of satellite data for ecological research.

In this Special Issue, we invite original contributions on any aspect of the use of modern technologies, such as Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), to wetland ecology, conservation, sustainability, mapping and monitoring. The contributions are not limited to just wetlands, but include the biodiversity inherent in wetlands or dependent on wetlands. Climate change impacts on wetlands and their biodiversity, forage availability for grazing animals and underground water are also encouraged. There is scope for a limited number of review papers, so if you are planning to submit a review paper then please consult us first so that we can avoid duplicates.

Prof. Lalit Kumar
Prof. Onisimo Mutanga
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

wetlands
wetland biodiversity
wetland ecosystem services
forage availability
climate change
wetland mapping and monitoring
wetland ecology
remote sensing
GIS

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 7914 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Daily Monitoring of Shallow and Fine-Grained Water Patterns in Wet Grasslands Combining Aerial LiDAR Data and In Situ Piezometric Measurements

by Sébastien Rapinel, Nicolas Rossignol, Oliver Gore, Olivier Jambon, Guillaume Bouger, Jérome Mansons and Anne Bonis

Sustainability 2018, 10(3), 708; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030708 - 06 Mar 2018

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3022

Abstract

The real-time monitoring of hydrodynamics in wetlands at fine spatial and temporal scales is crucial for understanding ecological and hydrological processes. The key interest of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data is its ability to accurately detect microtopography. However, how such data may account for subtle wetland flooding changes in both space and time still needs to be tested, even though the degree to which these changes impact biodiversity patterns is of upmost importance. This study assesses the use of 1 m × 1 m resolution aerial LiDAR data in combination with in situ piezometric measurements in order to predict the flooded areas at a daily scale along a one-year hydrological period. The simulation was applied over 663 ha of wet grasslands distributed on six sites across the Marais Poitevin (France). A set of seven remote sensing images was used as the reference data in order to validate the simulation and provide a high overall accuracy (76–94%). The best results were observed in areas where the ditch density was low, whereas the highly drained sites showed a discrepancy with the predicted flooded areas. The landscape proportion index was calculated for the daily steps. The results highlighted the spatiotemporal dynamics of the shallow flooded areas. We showed that the differences in the flooding durations among the years were mainly related to a narrow contrast in topography (40 cm), and occurred over a short period of time (two months). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wetland Ecology, Conservation and Sustainability: Applications of Geospatial Techniques)

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17 pages, 5164 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Big Geospatial Data Analytics for Global Mangrove Biomass and Carbon Estimation

by Wenwu Tang, Minrui Zheng, Xiang Zhao, Jiyang Shi, Jianxin Yang and Carl C. Trettin

Sustainability 2018, 10(2), 472; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10020472 - 10 Feb 2018

Cited by 38 | Viewed by 9830

Abstract

The objective of this study is to estimate the biomass and carbon of global-level mangroves as a special type of wetland. Mangrove ecosystems play an important role in regulating carbon cycling, thus having a significant impact on global environmental change. Extensive studies have been conducted for the estimation of mangrove biomass and carbon stock. However, this estimation at a global level has been insufficiently investigated because the spatial scale of interest is large and most existing studies are based on physically challenging fieldwork surveys that are limited to local scales. Over the past few decades, high-resolution geospatial data related to mangroves have been increasingly collected and processed using remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies. While these geospatial data create potential for the estimation of mangrove biomass and carbon, the processing and analysis of these data represent a big data-driven challenge. In this study, we present a spatially explicit approach that integrates GIS-based geospatial analysis and high-performance parallel computing for the estimation of mangrove biomass and carbon at the global level. This integrated approach provides support for enabling and accelerating the global-level estimation of mangrove biomass and carbon from existing high-resolution geospatial data. With this integrated approach, the total area, biomass (including above- and below-ground), and associated carbon stock of global mangroves are estimated as 130,420 km², 1.908 Pg, and 0.725 Pg C for the year of 2000. The averaged aboveground biomass density of global mangroves is estimated as 146.3 Mg ha⁻¹. Our analysis results demonstrate that this integrated geospatial analysis approach is efficacious for the computationally challenging estimation of global mangrove metrics based on high-resolution data. This global-level estimation and associated results are of great assistance for promoting our understanding of complex geospatial dynamics in mangrove forests. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wetland Ecology, Conservation and Sustainability: Applications of Geospatial Techniques)

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15 pages, 6719 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Threatened Plants in China’s Sanjiang Plain: Hotspot Distributions and Gap Analysis

by Baojia Du, Yanyan Zheng, Jiping Liu and Dehua Mao

Sustainability 2018, 10(1), 194; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10010194 - 15 Jan 2018

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4755

Abstract

Global biodiversity is markedly decreasing in response to climate change and human disturbance. Sanjiang Plain is recognized as a biodiversity hotspot in China due to its high forest and wetland coverage, but species are being lost at an unprecedented rate, induced by anthropogenic activities. Identifying hotspot distributions and conservation gaps of threatened species is of particular significance for enhancing the conservation of biodiversity. Specifically, we integrated the principles and methods of spatial hotspot inspection, geographic information system (GIS) technology and spatial autocorrelation analysis along with fieldwork to determine the spatial distribution patterns and unprotected hotspots of vulnerable and endangered plants in Sanjiang Plain. A gap analysis of the conservation status of vulnerable and endangered plants was conducted. Our results indicate that six nationally-protected plants were not observed in nature reserves or were without any protection, while the protection rates were <10% for 10 other nationally-protected plants. Protected areas (PAs) cover <5% of the distribution areas for 31 threatened plant species, while only five species are covered by national nature reserves (NNRs) within >50% of the distribution areas. We found 30 hotspots with vulnerable and endangered plants in the study area, but the area covered by NNRs is very limited. Most of the hotspots were located in areas with a high-high aggregation of plant species. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the area of existing nature reserves, establish miniature protection plots and create new PAs and ecological corridors to link the existing PAs. Our findings can contribute to the design of a PA network for botanical conservation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wetland Ecology, Conservation and Sustainability: Applications of Geospatial Techniques)

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2672 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modeling the Impact of Urban Landscape Change on Urban Wetlands Using Similarity Weighted Instance-Based Machine Learning and Markov Model

by Opeyemi A. Zubair, Wei Ji and Trina E. Weilert

Sustainability 2017, 9(12), 2223; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9122223 - 01 Dec 2017

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4022

Abstract

Urban wetlands play important roles in providing several ecosystem services that support the urban environment. As such, scientists have studied them to understand the urban processes that lead to their continued decline. However, little attention has been given to the drivers of land-use change that may affect this fragile ecosystem in the future. Understanding this could serve as a critical step towards urban wetland management and sustainability. In this study, we utilized an integrated approach that combined Similarity Weighted Instance-based Machine Learning and Markov chain, both embedded in the IDRISI Land Change Modeler to simulate change in the landscape of three watersheds in the Kansas City Metropolitan area. The purpose was to assess the possible future impacts of urban expansion-induced landscape change on wetlands within the study area, using a retrospective approach. To achieve this, classified SPOT satellite data covering the three watersheds were used to generate historical land cover maps of the study area between 1992 and 2010 to analyze changes to the landscape. In addition, the study identified several drivers of land change associated with the historical change process in the study area, and accounted for their role in the modeling process. On this basis, the study made the prediction of urban landscape transformation to the end date of 2014. The prediction result was verified with a more accurate map that was derived from independently classifying a 2014 SPOT image of the study area. Results from this study show that impervious surfaces, which were used as an index of urban expansion, may increase by approximately the same magnitude experienced historically, which may result in a small but significant loss of wetlands and other land cover classes within the study area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wetland Ecology, Conservation and Sustainability: Applications of Geospatial Techniques)

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7436 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Temporal Variability and Trends of Rainfall and Streamflow in Tana River Basin, Kenya

by Philip Kibet Langat, Lalit Kumar and Richard Koech

Sustainability 2017, 9(11), 1963; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9111963 - 27 Oct 2017

Cited by 39 | Viewed by 6842

Abstract

This study investigated temporal variabilities and trends of rainfall and discharges in Tana River Basin in Kenya using Mann–Kendall non-parametric test. Monthly rainfall data from ten stations spanning from 1967 to 2016 and daily streamflow data time series of observations from 1941 to 2016 (75 years) were analyzed with the aim of capturing and detecting multiannual and seasonal variabilities and monotonic trends. The results for the datasets suggested that the streamflow is largely dependent on increasing rainfall at the highlands. The rainfall trends seemed to have been influenced by altitudinal factors. The coefficient of variation of the ten rainfall stations ranged from 12% to 17% but 70% of rainfall stations showed negative monotonic trends and 30% show significant trends. The streamflow showed statistically significant upward monotonic trend and seasonal variability indicating a substantial change in the streamflow regime. Although the increasing trend of the streamflow during this period may not pose future risks and vulnerability of energy and irrigated agricultural production systems across the basin, variability observed indicates the need for enhanced alternative water management strategies during the low flow seasons. The trends and time series data indicate the potential evidence of climate and land use change and their impacts on the availability of water and sustainability of ecology and energy and agricultural production systems across the basin. Variability and trends of rainfall and streamflow are useful for planning studies, hydrological modeling and climate change impacts assessment within Tana River Basin. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wetland Ecology, Conservation and Sustainability: Applications of Geospatial Techniques)

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12704 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Remote Sensing for Wetland Mapping and Historical Change Detection at the Nisqually River Delta

by Laurel Ballanti, Kristin B. Byrd, Isa Woo and Christopher Ellings

Sustainability 2017, 9(11), 1919; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9111919 - 26 Oct 2017

Cited by 42 | Viewed by 7576

Abstract

Coastal wetlands are important ecosystems for carbon storage and coastal resilience to climate change and sea-level rise. As such, changes in wetland habitat types can also impact ecosystem functions. Our goal was to quantify historical vegetation change within the Nisqually River watershed relevant to carbon storage, wildlife habitat, and wetland sustainability, and identify watershed-scale anthropogenic and hydrodynamic drivers of these changes. To achieve this, we produced time-series classifications of habitat, photosynthetic pathway functional types and species in the Nisqually River Delta for the years 1957, 1980, and 2015. Using an object-oriented approach, we performed a hierarchical classification on historical and current imagery to identify change within the watershed and wetland ecosystems. We found a 188.4 ha (79%) increase in emergent marsh wetland within the Nisqually River Delta between 1957 and 2015 as a result of restoration efforts that occurred in several phases through 2009. Despite these wetland gains, a total of 83.1 ha (35%) of marsh was lost between 1957 and 2015, particularly in areas near the Nisqually River mouth due to erosion and shifting river channels, resulting in a net wetland gain of 105.4 ha (44%). We found the trajectory of wetland recovery coincided with previous studies, demonstrating the role of remote sensing for historical wetland change detection as well as future coastal wetland monitoring. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wetland Ecology, Conservation and Sustainability: Applications of Geospatial Techniques)

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2204 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Rewetting Decreases Carbon Emissions from the Zoige Alpine Peatland on the Tibetan Plateau

by Lijuan Cui, Xiaoming Kang, Wei Li, Yanbin Hao, Yuan Zhang, Jinzhi Wang, Liang Yan, Xiaodong Zhang, Manyin Zhang, Jian Zhou and Paul Kardol

Sustainability 2017, 9(6), 948; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9060948 - 04 Jun 2017

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 4470

Abstract

Peatlands play an important role in the global carbon cycle and potentially have a significant impact on regional climate change. Restoring and rewetting the degraded peatlands is an urgent task. However, effects of rewetting on the carbon emissions of peatlands remain poorly understood. In this study, the process of rewetting a piece of the degraded Zoige alpine peatland was experimentally simulated and the derived results were compared with those of natural rewetting by monitoring CO₂ and CH₄ fluxes and other environmental factors before and after rewetting. The natural rewetting results showed that rewetting decreased ecosystem respiration (ER) by about 60%. Furthermore, rewetting increased CH₄ emissions by 127%, decreased total carbon emissions (TCE) from 270 to 157 mg CO₂ m⁻² h⁻¹, and decreased TCE from the entire ecosystem by 42%. The results of the controlled experiment showed that ER decreased gradually as the degree of rewetting was increased, and CH₄ fluxes and changes in water level were significantly and positively correlated: CH₄ fluxes increased from 0.3 (water level −20 cm) to 2.17 mg CH₄ m⁻² h⁻¹ (water level 20 cm). After rewetting, the TCE of the whole ecosystem were significantly decreased. Regional observations showed that CO₂ fluxes were significantly and negatively correlated to the water level; and the corresponding CO₂ equivalent was significantly and positively correlated to the water level, while TCE were significantly and negatively correlated to the water level. Our findings indicate that rewetting can decrease carbon emissions and thus contribute in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change in alpine peatland. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wetland Ecology, Conservation and Sustainability: Applications of Geospatial Techniques)

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1967 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainability of Constructed Wetland under the Impact of Aquatic Organisms Overloading

by Shih-Chieh Chen, Ming-Young Jan, Kuo-Liang Lin, Sung-Lin Chao and Chien-Sen Liao

Sustainability 2017, 9(5), 863; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9050863 - 19 May 2017

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3870

Abstract

Environmental impacts, such as earthquakes, chemical pollution and anthropogenic factors can affect the stability and sustainability of an ecosystem. In this study, a long-term (3.7 years) investigation experiment was conducted to estimate the sustainability of a constructed wetland (CW) under the impact of aquatic organisms overloading. The situation of aquatic organisms overloading in this study meant that around 27,000 kg of fishes had to be moved and accommodated in a 4 ha water area of wetland for six months. Experimental results indicated that the pH value of CW water was slightly acidic and the Dissolved Oxygen (DO) level decreased under the impact. On the other hand, the levels of Electrical Conductivity (EC), Suspended Solids (SS), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), and Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN) of CW water were increased under the impact. The pathogen analysis revealed that total coliforms, Salmonella spp., Enterococcus spp., and Escherichia coli, in the wetland water increased under the impact. The analyzed factors of water quality and amount of pathogens were all returned to their original statuses soon after the impact ended. Eventually, the results of microbial community structure analysis showed that overloading of aquatic organisms slightly increased the specific richness (R) of wetland bacteria, whereas higher structural biodiversity (H) of CW could stabilize the whole microbial community and prevent the pathogens or other bacteria from increasing to become the dominant strains. These results were novel and could be possible to conclude that a CW environment could not only stabilize the water quality and amount of pathogens resulting from the impact of aquatic organisms overloading, but also they could stabilize the microbial community structures, allowing the biogeochemical cycles of the CW to function. They could provide the useful information for wetland sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wetland Ecology, Conservation and Sustainability: Applications of Geospatial Techniques)

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14364 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Climate Variability and Mangrove Cover Dynamics at Species Level in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh

by Manoj Kumer Ghosh, Lalit Kumar and Chandan Roy

Sustainability 2017, 9(5), 805; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9050805 - 11 May 2017

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 6107

Abstract

Mangrove ecosystems are complex in nature. For monitoring the impact of climate variability in this ecosystem, a multidisciplinary approach is a prerequisite. Changes in temperature and rainfall pattern have been suggested as an influential factor responsible for the change in mangrove species composition and spatial distribution. The main aim of this study was to assess the relationship between temperature, rainfall pattern and dynamics of mangrove species in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh, over a 38 year time period from 1977 to 2015. To assess the relationship, a three stage analytical process was employed. Primarily, the trend of temperature and rainfall over the study period were identified using a linear trend model; then, the supervised maximum likelihood classifier technique was employed to classify images recorded by Landsat series and post-classification comparison techniques were used to detect changes at species level. The rate of change of different mangrove species was also estimated in the second stage. Finally, the relationship between temperature, rainfall and the dynamics of mangroves at species level was determined using a simple linear regression model. The results show a significant statistical relationship between temperature, rainfall and the dynamics of mangrove species. The trends of change for Heritiera fomes and Sonneratia apelatala show a strong relationship with temperature and rainfall, while Ceriops decandra shows a weak relationship. In contrast, Excoecaria agallocha and Xylocarpus mekongensis do not show any significant relationship with temperature and rainfall. On the basis of our results, it can be concluded that temperature and rainfall are important climatic factors influencing the dynamics of three major mangrove species viz. H. fomes, S. apelatala and C. decandra in the Sundarbans. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wetland Ecology, Conservation and Sustainability: Applications of Geospatial Techniques)

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3160 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Invasive Eichhornia crassipes Affects the Capacity of Submerged Macrophytes to Utilize Nutrients

by Jian Zhou, Xu Pan, Haiting Xu, Qi Wang and Lijuan Cui

Sustainability 2017, 9(4), 565; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9040565 - 07 Apr 2017

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3664

Abstract

Invasion by free-floating species, such as Eichhornia crassipes, is one of the most critical threats to the biodiversity and sustainability of wetland ecosystems, where all plants experience spatial heterogeneity in substrate nutrients. However, few studies have focused on the effects of free-floating invaders on the capacity of submerged plants to utilize substrate nutrients. A 10-week greenhouse experiment was conducted to test the effects of free-floating invasive E. crassipes (presence or absence) on the growth of Ceratophyllum demersum and Myriophyllum spicatum, and their capacity to use heterogeneous and homogeneous substrate nutrients. We found that the invasion of E. crassipes could significantly decrease the growth of both submerged C. demersum and M. spicatum and that substrate nutrient heterogeneity increased the growth of C. demersum (approximately 30% in total biomass and 40% in the number of nodes) but not of M. spicatum. The two submerged species have different strategies to address invasion by E. crassipes. These results indicate that E. crassipes can prevent the growth of submerged plants even if the submerged plants can effectively use heterogeneous nutrients. For the effective conservation of submerged macrophytes in wetlands, measures should be taken to restrict the spread of invasive free-floating species. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wetland Ecology, Conservation and Sustainability: Applications of Geospatial Techniques)

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