A AB BS ST TR RA AC CT TBrasil and Bolivia have water plans projects on the Beni-Madeira river, a major tributary of the Amazon. There are four main tributaries to the Rio Madeira: the Guapore, the Mamore and the Beni rivers into the Bolivian territory, and the Madre de Dios River crossing the North of Bolivia, coming from Peru. Most parts of these rivers are very far from the Andean capital cities of Bolivia and Peru, unreachable for long periods of time. Very few gauging stations are in operation, either for the Bolivian or the Peruvian part, most of them being located at the Andes piedmont or near the confluence at the Brazilian border as they form the Madeira river. This situation is exemplary of large transboundary basins in the tropical part of the world. We have computed 39 water level time series using ENVISAT altimetry data over the four tributaries of the Madeira and the Madeira itself. We present a preliminary study mostly conducted onto the Guapore river, in order to assess the quality of these time series for a variety of situations, but mostly narrow and meandering riverbeds. Comparison between water levels variation in the mainstream and within the inundations plains and lakes are drawn. We conclude by the perspectives offered by the combined use of radar altimetry and SAR imagery for the global monitoring of water resources, in large tropical transboundary basins.Keywords : hydrology, floodplain, wetlands, water level, radar altimetry, transboundary basin, ungauged basin, Amazon basin. 1. . I IN NT TR RO OD DU UC CT TI IO ON NObserving the temporal and spatial variations in water stored or transiting through rivers, floodplains, wetlands and lakes is essential in many aspects. It is known that societies will lack freshwater in many parts of the world within a not too distant future, and that already one third of the world's population has no access to clean water 1 . Nonetheless, our knowledge of the terrestrial water balance is limited to some well measured basins of medium size, all located in temperate areas. The scientific community is well aware of the important role of equatorial water system in the global carbon cycle. Estimate of CO 2 outgassing from Amazonian wetlands suggests that river systems are a source of CO 2 an order of magnitude greater than the exportation to ocean of organic plus inorganic carbon 2 . But the uncertainties about processes involved in the alternatively dry and inuntaded floodplain, the volume of water transiting through this huge interface between land and water, and the net balance of these ecosystems are still great. These issues and the way we can reduce the uncertainties and improve our response to the climate change threats is strongly dependent on our ability to track the time variations of water stage in great tropical river systems. Unfortunately, the conventional observations of water dynamics are scarce and unevenly spatially distributed, especially in tropical regions of the earth. Quoting Alsdorf et al., 3 , « there is a widespread recognition of the ...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.