Mapping, monitoring and modelling of wetland ecosystems

Background

Globally, wetlands are under pressure due to a rapid rising demand for freshwater and fertile lands. This leads to modification of wetlands ranging from various stages of degradation to irreversible loss. Spatial information has been propagated and is increasingly used for wetland management and conservation.

The wealth of existing spatial information, however, is not optimally suited to serve this purpose. Firstly, existing maps appear to be notoriously poor when it comes to the localizing extent and describing degradation status of wetlands. Secondly, there is a lack of spatial information on wetland hydrology. Finally, existing spatial information remains static. Addressing the problems of wetland management requires a dynamic view of the changes in hydrology and land use and how these affect the status of the ecosystem.

Objectives

The project aims to develop novel remote sensing and GIS techniques to improve mapping and monitoring of wetland ecosystems. Furthermore we will develop spatially explicit dynamic models to allow simulation of the behaviour of a freshwater wetland ecosystem. These research efforts ultimately aim at development of a model, which allows predicting the hydrologic and biotic responses of this ecosystem to modifications in upstream hydrology.