Monitoring flooding in coastal wetlands by using radar imagery and ground-based measurements

Abstract

Satellite radar was used in a Florida Juncus roemerianusmarsh to map tidal flooding, a critical control of coastal vegetation distribution. Radar images taken during a time of near-continuous recordings of ground-based hydrology measurements directly linked marsh flooding to lowered radar returns and indicated a negative covariation between flood frequency and radar return. Flood-extent contours extracted from the radar images and calibrated with point depth measurements showed marsh elevation could be estimated to about 8 cm compared to the 150 cm topographic contours currently available.