Abstract
Riparian zone is crucial to the health of streams and their surrounding environment. Evaluation of riparian condition is essential to achieve and maintain good stream health, as well as to sustain ecological functions that riparian areas provide. This manuscript is aimed to evaluate riparian conditions of Songhua River, the fifth longest river in China, using physical structural integrality (PSI) values derived from remote sensing and validated by field measurements. The variation and clusters of PSI values were discriminated by the spatial statistics to quantify variation of riparian condition in each measurement section. Evaluation results derived from 13 measurement sections indicated that over 60% of the riparian zones have been disturbed by human activities. Analysis of land use patterns of riparian zone in the cold and hot spots found that land-use patterns had an important effect on riparian condition. The build-up and farmland areas had been the main human disturbances to the riparian condition, which were increased from 1976 to 2013. The low-low clusters (low PSI values with low neighbors) of PSI values can be implemented to identify the vulnerability of the riparian zone.
Highlights
Riparian zones are narrow strips of land located along the banks of rivers, streams, and water networks
This study evaluated the riparian condition of the Songhua River across the Northeastern Plain of China, using a series of indicators developed from 2,081 basic evaluation units (BEUs)
No significant difference between evaluation results was found when compared with field measurements
Summary
Riparian zones are narrow strips of land located along the banks of rivers, streams, and water networks. Most of the methods are based on expert knowledge in selection of measuring sections and monitoring sites, evaluating the PSI through field measurements Those methods are challenged in assessing long stretches of riparian zone, in particular vast regions and remote locations. Remote sensing techniques have been utilized to map indicators of riparian condition because of advantages in spatial extensiveness, non-invasiveness, and repetitive capability[19,20,21,22]. Those studies demonstrated that indicators such as streambed width, riparian zone www.nature.com/scientificreports/. The specific objectives of this paper are to: (1) demonstrate the feasibility of the multi-metric approach through comparisons with field measurements; (2) discriminate the variation and clusters of riparian condition to identify the vulnerability and stability of the riparian zones; and (3) explore the change of landscape of the riparian zone using the land use data from 1976 to 2013 to understand the effects of human impacts on riparian conditions
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