Abstract

Fresh water is a scarce resource in the West-African Sahel region, seasonally influenced by droughts and floods. Particularly in terms of climate change, the importance of wetlands increases for flora, fauna, human population, agriculture, livestock and fishery. Hence, access to open water is a key factor. Long-term monitoring of water dynamics is of great importance, especially with regard to the spatio-temporal extend of wetlands and drylands. It can predict future trends and facilitate the development of adequate management strategies. Lake Tabalak, a Ramsar wetland of international importance, is one of the most significant ponds in Niger and a refuge for waterbirds. Nevertheless, human population growth increased the pressure on this ecosystem, which is now degrading for all uses. The main objective of the study is a long-term monitoring of the Lake Tabalak’s water dynamics to delineate permanent and seasonal water bodies, using weather- and daytime-independent multi-sensor and multi-temporal Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data available for the study area. Data of the following sensors from 1993 until 2016 are used: Sentinel-1A, TerraSARX, ALOS PALSAR-1/2, Envisat ASAR, RADARSAT-1/2, and ERS-1/2. All SAR data are processed with the Multi-SAR-System, unifying the different characteristics of all above mentioned sensors in terms of geometric, radiometric and polarimetric resolution to a consistent format. The polarimetric representation in Kennaugh elements allows fusing single-polarized data acquired by older sensors with multi-polarized data acquired by current sensors. The TANH-normalization guarantees a consistent and therefore comparable description in a closed data range in terms of radiometry. The geometric aspect is solved by projecting all images to an earth-fixed coordinate system correcting the brightness by the help of the incidence angle. The elevation model used in the geocoding step is the novel global model produced by the TanDEM-X satellite mission. The advantage of the Multi-SAR-System is that it comprises ortho-rectification, radiometric enhancement, normalization and Kennaugh decomposition, independent from sensors, modes, polarizations or acquisition date of SAR data. In addition, optical satellite data can be included as well, to fill gaps where SAR data are missing due to the special normalization scheme. This kind of pre-processing is exclusively implemented at the Earth Observation Center of the German Aerospace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. Therefore, the dynamic change of the open water of the Lake Tabalak could be classified over dry and rainy seasons and years, using different SAR data. The study provides a unique database and contributes to a better understanding of wetland systems in the Sahel region influenced by human pressure and climate change.

Highlights

  • The semi-arid to arid West-African Sahel region lacks of fresh water and is characterized by rainy and dry season

  • Less than 1/4 of the largest water extent is left. In both seasons the lower part has no connection to the middle part of the lake, all three parts dry out from south to north, the maximum water extend is in the beginning of September, and the minimum in the middle of May

  • This study demonstrates the successful use of different Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data for doing a long-term monitoring of Lake Tabalak, a Sahelian Ramsar wetland

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Summary

Introduction

The semi-arid to arid West-African Sahel region lacks of fresh water and is characterized by rainy and dry season. Niger in the West-African Sahel region consists of about 1.000 isolated wetlands that are very valuable to different user groups, playing a major role for biodiversity and ecosystem services in general. An example for such an isolated inland wetland is Lake Tabalak, located in southwest Niger (Figure 1). The main objective of the study is to do a long-term monitoring of the water dynamics of Lake Tabalak to delineate permanent and seasonal water bodies, using weather- and daytimeindependent multi-sensor and multi-temporal SAR data processed with the Multi-SAR-System. The change of the water bodies can be investigated over several years and decades

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