Tracing Real-Time Transnational Hydrologic Sensitivity and Crop Irrigation in the Upper Rhine Area over the Exceptional Drought Episode 2018–2020 Using Open Source Sentinel-2 Data

Abstract

Climate and regional land-use and landcover change (LUCC) impact the ecosystem of the Upper Rhine Area (URA) and transform large parts of the landscape into strongly irrigated agricultural cropland. The increase of long-term drought periods and the trend towards low summer precipitation totals trigger an increase in groundwater scarcity and amplify the negative effects of extensive irrigation purposes and freshwater consumption in a hydrologically sensitive region in Central Europe. This article presents qualitative transnational open source remote sensing temporal series of vegetation indices (NDVI) and groundwater level development to tracing near real-time vegetation change and socio-ecological feedbacks during periods of climate extremes in the Upper Rhine Area (2018–2020). Increased freshwater consumption caused a dramatic drop in groundwater availability, which eventually led to a strong degradation of the vegetation canopy and caused governmental regulations in July 2020. Assessing vegetation growth behavior and linking groundwater reactions in the URA through open source satellite data contributes to a rapidly accessible understanding of the ecosystem’s feedbacks on the local to the transnational scale and further enables risk management and eco-political regulations in current and future decision-making processes.

Enhanced trends in spectral greening and climate anomalies across Europe

“…The discussion about the cause and effect of the local and regional anthropogenic overprint on the ecosystem’s functionalities, fuelled by global climate change feedbacks, has been reinforced by the strong gradient of continental European flood and drought spells (Ciais et al, 2005 ; Harris, 2010 ; Herrmann & Hutchinson, 2005 ; Lin et al, 2020 ; Zahradníček et al, 2015 ). Particularly, the severe drought episodes in 2003, 2010, between 2018 and 2020 (and this year, 2022), and followed by dramatic flooding events across Europe in summer 2021 have entered the political and economic debate (Brun et al, 2020 ; Büntgen et al, 2021 ; Cramer et al, 2018 ; Dirmeyer et al, 2021 ; Hanewinkel et al, 2022 ; Hari et al, 2020 ; Kahle et al, 2022 ; Kempf & Glaser, 2020 ). Temperature is constantly increasing across Europe and particularly over terrestrial surfaces.…”

Scales of transformations—Modelling settlement and land-use dynamics in late antique and early medieval Basel, Switzerland

“…Consequently, the climate can be considered oceanic, with mild winters and warm summers, according to the Köppen Cfb climate zone [ 94 ]. The region is furthermore liable to pronounced heat waves [ 95 ]. In historical context, the climatic conditions between 100 AD and 800 AD were supposed to be relatively stable–compared to the large frequency oscillations of the late Holocene [ 96 ].…”

Modelling Bias and Environmental Preferences in Archaeological Spatial Analysis

“…In combination with precipitation anomalies, a high aquifer and increased melt-water discharge can lead to rapid waterlogging and extensive flooding of broad parts of the floodplain (GiaCona et al, 2018;himmelsBaCh et al, 2015ahimmelsBaCh et al, , 2015bKemPf, 2019aKemPf, , 2019bKemPf, , 2020cmartin et al, 2010). On the other hand, during increased summer temperature and precipitation decrease, the region suffers from long-term hot drought periods, which impacts the natural and human-made ecosystem (Blauhut et al, 2015;erfurt et al, 2019;KemPf and Glaser, 2020). and northern Switzerland and aligns with the river Rhine at the eastern margins.…”