Wetlands are very valuable areas because they provide a wide range of ecosystems services therefore modeling of wetland areas is very relevant, however, the most widely used hydrological models were developed in the 90s and usually are not adjusted to simulate wetland conditions. In case of wetlands including interception storage into the model’s calculation is even more challenging, because literature data hardly exists. This study includes the computation of interception storage capacity based on Landsat 7 image and ground truthing measurements conducted in the Biebrza Valley, Poland. The method was based on collecting and weighing dry, wet and fully saturated samples of sedges. During the experiments measurements of fresh/dry biomass and leaf area index (LAI) were performed. The research was repeated three times during the same season (May, June and July 2013) to observe temporal variability of parameters. Ground truthing measurements were used for the validating estimation of parameters derived from images acquired in a similar period as the measurements campaigns. The use of remote sensing has as major advantage of being able to obtain an area covering spatially and temporally distributed estimate of the interception storage capacity.

Results from this study proved that interception capacity of wetlands vegetation is changing considerably during the vegetation season (temporal variability) and reaches its maximum value when plants are fully developed. Different areas depending on existing plants species are characterized with different values of interception capacity (spatial variability). This research frames within the INTREV and HiWET projects, funded respectively by National Science Centre (NCN) in Poland and BELSPO STEREO III.

Date Published: 14 October 2015
PDF: 13 pages
Proc. SPIE 9637, Remote Sensing for Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Hydrology XVII, 96371Z (14 October 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2194975

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9637:
Remote Sensing for Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Hydrology XVII
Christopher M. U. Neale; Antonino Maltese, Editor(s)