Abstract
With the development of a large number of tall dams and large cascade reservoir projects in the Lantsang River Basin, a large water level fluctuating zone (WLFZ) containing cascading reservoirs has formed. This newborn ecosystem is related to the sustainable development of hydropower projects, and has become a new problem to be studied urgently. Taking WLFZs in the Huangdeng, Xiaowan and Nuozhadu Reservoirs in the Lantsang River Basin as study areas, this study used multi-spectral remote-sensing field data obtained with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to ascertain the species types, coverage, distribution characteristics, dominant species and pioneer species of naturally restored vegetation. The considered data were subjected to UAV data processing, vegetation classification using multi-spectral images and a geographic information system (GIS) terrain-distribution analysis. Results show that: Polygonum Plebeium, Cynodon dactylon, Xanthium sibiricum, Ageratum conyzoides, Eleusine indica, Digitaria sanguinalis and Verbena officinalis are the dominant species of vegetation that could be naturally restored in the WLFZ; the vegetation coverage and the number of species are significantly positively correlated with the age and restoration periods of the WLFZ; the vegetation coverage of each study area increases at first, and then decreases, as a function of elevation; gentle slopes about 0–25°are more suitable for vegetation restoration. This study provides first-hand data on the natural restoration of vegetation in WLFZs, and gives a useful reference for its ecological restoration as a consequence of hydropower cascade development in the Lantsang River Basin. Finally, the study demonstrates that light UAV remote sensing is an attractive choice for investigating vegetation in reservoir WLFZs.
Highlights
In the second study area (Huangdeng 2), there is a mud path leading to the water level fluctuating zone (WLFZ), where nearby residents often fish, human activity is relatively common, the terrain is relatively steep, and the vegetation types are D
Vegetation restoration is a long process, and its coverage and species diversity are related to the age of the WLFZ and the length of the different plant growth periods
The vegetation coverage in the WLFZ is less than 2%, and there are only 1–2 vegetation species
Summary
In this study, we used UAV multi-spectral remote sensing to investigate vegetation in the WLFZs of the Lantsang River Basin, and obtain the species type, coverage, distribution characteristics, dominant species and pioneer species of the vegetation therein. Vegetation in the water level fluctuating zone of the Lantsang cascade reservoir system each study area is simple, all are herbaceous plants, mainly 1–3 dominant species, can be distributed in patches, the remaining species are usually less than 5, each species is only a few. After each air flight was completed in each research area, field investigations were conducted These investigations mainly included recording the composition and distribution of vegetation species, identifying the dominant species, taking pictures of plants and terrain in the WLFZ, analyzing the boundary line of the WLFZ and taking images according to the watered-out traces of the shore features, so as to collect interpretation marks for the remote-sensing images of the WLFZ.
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