Identification of Continental Wetlands Using Different Orbital Remote Sensors

Abstract

This paper evaluates the potential of false-color composite images, from 3 different remote sensing satellites, for the identification of continental wetlands. Landsat 8, Sentinel-2 and CBERS-4 scenes from three different Ramsar sites (i.e., sites designated to be of international importance) two sites located within the Mato-Grossense Pantanal and one within the Sul-mato-grossense were used for analyses. For each site, images from both the dry and rainy seasons were analyzed using Near-Infrared (NIR), Shortwave Infrared (SWIR), and visible (VIS) bands. The results show that false-color composite images from both the Landsat 8 and the Sentinel-2 satellites, with both SWIR 2-NIR-BLUE and NIR-SWIR-RED spectral band combinations, allow the identification of wetlands.