A Remotely Sensed Assessment of Surface Ecological Change over the Gomishan Wetland, Iran

Salman Qureshi,Saeid Hamzeh,Seyed Kazem Alavipanah,Maria Konyushkova,Naeim Mijani,Ata Abdollahi Kakroodi,Solmaz Fathololomi,Mohammad Karimi Firozjaei,Mehdi Homaee

doi:10.3390/rs12182989

Abstract

Due to the excessive use of natural resources in the contemporary world, the importance of ecological and environmental condition modeling has increased. Wetlands and cities represent the natural and artificial strategic areas that affect ecosystem conditions. Changes in the ecological conditions of these areas have a great impact on the conditions of the global ecosystem. Therefore, modeling spatiotemporal variations of the ecological conditions in these areas is critical. This study was aimed at comparing degrees of variation among surface ecological conditions due to natural and unnatural factors. Consequently, the surface ecological conditions of Gomishan city and Gomishan wetland in Iran were modeled for a period of 30 years, and the spatiotemporal variations were evaluated and compared with each other. To this end, 20 Landsat 5, 7, and 8, and 432 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), monthly land surface temperature (LST) (MOD11C3) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) (MOD13C3) products were utilized. The surface ecological conditions were modeled according to the Remote Sensing-based Ecological Index (RSEI), and the spatiotemporal variation of the RSEI values in the study area (Gomishan city, Gomishan wetland) were evaluated and compared with each other. According to MODIS products, the mean of the LST and NDVI variance values for the study area (Gomishan city, Gomishan wetland) were obtained to be 6.5 °C (2.1, 12.1) and 0.009 (0.005, 0.013), respectively. The highest LST and NDVI temporal variations were found for Gomishan wetland near the Caspian Sea. According to Landsat images, Gomishan wetland and Gomishan city have the highest and lowest temporal variations in surface biophysical characteristics, respectively. The mean RSEI for the study area (Gomishan city, Gomishan wetland) was 0.43 (0.65, 0.29), respectively. Additionally, the mean Coefficient of Variation (CV) of RSEI for the study area (Gomishan city, Gomishan wetland) was 0.10 (0.88, 0.51), respectively. The surface ecological conditions of Gomishan city were worse than those of the Gomishan wetland at all dates. Temporal variations in the surface ecological conditions of Gomishan wetland were greater than those of the study area and Gomishan city. These results can provide useful and effective information for environmental planning and decision-making to improve ecological conditions, protect the environment, and support sustainable ecosystem development.

Highlights

Due to the excessive use of natural resources in the contemporary world, it is critical to model surface ecological and environmental conditions with the appropriate spatial and temporal resolution [1,2,3,4,5]
Studying the spatiotemporal variations of surface biophysical characteristics and surface ecological conditions is critical for solving the challenges of environmental degradation, improving the structure and performance of ecosystems, and maintaining ecosystem services
This study compared the degree of variation between surface ecological conditions caused by natural factors and those caused by unnatural factors

Summary

Introduction

Due to the excessive use of natural resources in the contemporary world, it is critical to model surface ecological and environmental conditions with the appropriate spatial and temporal resolution [1,2,3,4,5]. Regions that play important roles in ecosystems and habitat conservation can be considered ecological regions. These spaces include a set of artificial, semi-artificial and natural ecological units [6]. Wetlands and cities are the natural and artificial ecological areas that have the greatest effect on ecosystem conditions. Modeling the spatiotemporal variation of surface ecological conditions in these areas is of great importance [7,8,9,10]. The maps created by terrestrial surveys are usually less accurate and contain fewer spatial details, making it impossible to describe the spatiotemporal changes of ecological characteristics accurately [11]

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Conclusion