Morphological characterization of ponds and tidal courses in coastal wetlands using Google Earth imagery

G. N. REVOLLO; NATALIA V. REVOLLO; CLAUDIO A. DELRIEUX; G.M. E. PERILLO

ESTUARINE COASTAL AND SHELF SCIENCE

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2020

0272-7714

Ponds and tidal courses are signifcant landforms that frequently arise in marshes and tidal flats environments.An understanding of their development and permanence is relevant to determine future dynamic processes thatalter tidal flats and salt marshes environments, such as changes in the sea level, increase in the wave activity, andsome other variations associated to the climate change. Direct access for monitoring in these regions is complex,extremely expensive and not always feasible. Remote sensing imagery represents a monitoring alternative, butrequires the research of specifc image processing procedures to extract the information concerning to theseenvironmental studies. In this work, we developed a methodology for assessing the relevant morphologicalparameters of ponds and tidal courses using Google Earth imagery. An automatic classifer identifes theselandforms as such (accuracy over 86%), producing a shape descriptors dataset. Then, ponds and tidal courses intidal flats are morphologically characterized, and their behavior is compared to the surrounding environment.Subsequent analysis found signifcant differences in morphological characteristics that arise independently of themarsh environmental conditions. The evidence suggests that the evolution processes of the depressions in salt flatenvironments are clearly different in comparison with salt marshes environments. In salt marshes, the permanence and evolution of the depressions is related to the age of marshes, whereas in tidal flats the dynamicprocesses and sediment input have influence on depressions evolution.