Improvements to the Wetland Extent Trends (WET) index as a tool for monitoring natural and human-made wetlands

Darrah, Sarah E.; Shennan‐Farpón, Yara; Loh, Jonathan; Davidson, Nick C.; Finlayson, C. Max; Gardner, Royal C.; Walpole, Matt

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.12.032

Cited by 111 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This trajectory can be explained by the growing population in-situ as well as through migration, but also reflects governmental strategies [22,40]. While there is a lack of wetland inventories in Africa and hence only limited knowledge about wetland extent and change, a general decline of wetlands is evident [3,5,104], which is in line with our results. A recent LULC change assessment in the Wami river basin in Tanzania revealed similar results to our study with a remarkable decline of grassland and woodland resulting from a conversion to cultivated land [105].…”

Section: Lulc Changesupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Natural wetlands, however, are among the most threatened ecosystems with a decline in area of approx. 35% between 1970 and 2015 [3][4][5]. Within the multi-disciplinary research project "GlobE-Wetlands in East Africa", challenges of stagnating or declining trends in food production and nature protection were addressed for four representative wetland sites in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long-Term Land Use/Land Cover Change Assessment of the Kilombero Catchment in Tanzania Using Random Forest Classification and Robust Change Vector Analysis

Thonfeld

Steinbach²,

Muro

et al. 2020

Remote Sensing

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Information about land use/land cover (LULC) and their changes is useful for different stakeholders to assess future pathways of sustainable land use for food production as well as for nature conservation. In this study, we assess LULC changes in the Kilombero catchment in Tanzania, an important area of recent development in East Africa. LULC change is assessed in two ways: first, post-classification comparison (PCC) which allows us to directly assess changes from one LULC class to another, and second, spectral change detection. We perform LULC classification by applying random forests (RF) on sets of multitemporal metrics that account for seasonal within-class dynamics. For the spectral change detection, we make use of the robust change vector analysis (RCVA) and determine those changes that do not necessarily lead to another class. The combination of the two approaches enables us to distinguish areas that show (a) only PCC changes, (b) only spectral changes that do not affect the classification of a pixel, (c) both types of change, or (d) no changes at all. Our results reveal that only one-quarter of the catchment has not experienced any change. One-third shows both, spectral changes and LULC conversion. Changes detected with both methods predominantly occur in two major regions, one in the West of the catchment, one in the Kilombero floodplain. Both regions are important areas of food production and economic development in Tanzania. The Kilombero floodplain is a Ramsar protected area, half of which was converted to agricultural land in the past decades. Therefore, LULC monitoring is required to support sustainable land management. Relatively poor classification performances revealed several challenges during the classification process. The combined approach of PCC and RCVA allows us to detect spatial patterns of LULC change at distinct dimensions and intensities. With the assessment of additional classifier output, namely class-specific per-pixel classification probabilities and derived parameters, we account for classification uncertainty across space. We overlay the LULC change results and the spatial assessment of classification reliability to provide a thorough picture of the LULC changes taking place in the Kilombero catchment.

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Section: Lulc Changesupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Land Use/Land Cover Change Assessment of the Kilombero Catchment in Tanzania Using Random Forest Classification and Robust Change Vector Analysis

Thonfeld

Steinbach²,

Muro

et al. 2020

Remote Sensing

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“…Area declines can reduce carrying capacity, niche diversity, and spatial partitioning of resources, reducing native biota abundance (Harpole & Tilman ; Shi, Ma, Wang, Zhao, & He, ). While defining an ecosystem distribution can be challenging, mapping is a common and informative practice across marine (Murray et al., ), terrestrial (Zhang, Kang, Han, & Sakurai, ), and freshwater ecosystems (Darrah et al., ).…”

Section: Ecosystem Indicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Existing data on the distribution and health of ecosystems (Rowland et al., ) have not been collated into indicators to measure change at standardized timeframes and classification scales (local to global). Most ecosystem indicators monitor specific ecosystem types (e.g., wetlands: Darrah et al., ; forests: Hansen et al., ; marine ecosystems: Halpern et al., ), leaving gaps in indicator coverage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem indices to support global biodiversity conservation

Rowland

Bland

Keith

et al. 2019

CONSERVATION LETTERS

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Governments have committed to global targets to slow biodiversity loss and sustain ecosystem services. Biodiversity state indicators that measure progress toward these targets mostly focus on species, while indicators synthesizing ecosystem change are largely lacking. We fill this gap with three indices quantifying past and projected changes in ecosystems using data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Ecosystems. Our indices quantify changes in risk of ecosystem collapse, ecosystem area and ecological processes, and capture variation in underlying patterns among ecosystems. We apply the indices to three case studies of regional and national assessments (American/Caribbean forests, terrestrial ecosystems of Colombia, and terrestrial ecosystems of South Africa) to illustrate the indices’ complementarity and versatility in revealing patterns of interest for users across sectors. Our indices have the potential to fill the recognized need for ecosystem indicators to inform conservation targets, guide policy, and prioritize management actions.

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“…However, recent trends in the global assessment of wetlands indicate that between 1970 and 2015 the area of natural wetlands hasdecreased by approximately 35%, while constructed wetlands, mostly rice fields and reservoirs, almost doubled during this period and now constitute 12% of catalogued wetlands. Nevertheless, increases in constructed wetlands have not compensated for the loss of natural wetlands [9][10][11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Vega Alta of Segura River (Southeast of Spain): A Wetland of International Importance

2021

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The Ramsar Convention is an intergovernmental treaty for the conservation and wise use of wetlands, which establishes nine criteria related to natural values and a cultural one that wetlands must meet to be included in the list of wetlands of international importance. We aim to evaluate if the wetlands of the Vega Alta of the Segura River (southeast of Spain) meet the requirements to fulfil this agreement. Thanks to meticulous fieldwork and a bibliographic review related to the stated objective, we collected information on the existing environmental and cultural values. The results show that this set of wetlands is home to 11 species of threatened vertebrates in Spain, two priority habitats in the European Union, as well as cultural values related to their origin, conservation, and ecological functioning. Likewise, in the area there are archaeological sites, traditional uses of water associated with the cultivation of rice, and religious manifestations. Effective wetland inventories and rigorous analyzes of their ecological and environmental characteristics, as well as their socioeconomic functions, need to be carried out in order to improve their management and protection.This wetland certainly meets three criteria to be included in the Ramsar Convention list of wetlands.

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Improvements to the Wetland Extent Trends (WET) index as a tool for monitoring natural and human-made wetlands

Cited by 111 publications

References 24 publications

Long-Term Land Use/Land Cover Change Assessment of the Kilombero Catchment in Tanzania Using Random Forest Classification and Robust Change Vector Analysis

Long-Term Land Use/Land Cover Change Assessment of the Kilombero Catchment in Tanzania Using Random Forest Classification and Robust Change Vector Analysis

Ecosystem indices to support global biodiversity conservation

The Vega Alta of Segura River (Southeast of Spain): A Wetland of International Importance

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