Wetland Change Research Articles

Use of High-Resolution Land Cover Maps to Support the Maintenance of the NWI Geospatial Dataset: A Case Study in a Coastal New Orleans Region

The National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) is the most comprehensive wetland geospatial dataset in the United States. However, it can be time-consuming and costly to maintain. This study introduces automated algorithms and methods to support NWI maintenance. Through a wall-to-wall comparison between NWI and Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) datasets, a pixel-level difference product was generated at 1 m resolution. Building upon this, supplementary attributes describing wetland changes were incorporated into each NWI polygon. Additionally, new water polygons were extracted from C-CAP data, and regional statistics regarding wetland changes were computed for HUC12 watersheds. The 1 m difference product can indicate specific wetland change locations, such as wetland loss to impervious surfaces, the gain of open water bodies from uplands, and the conversion of drier vegetated wetlands to open water. The supplementary attributes can indicate the amount and percentage of wetland loss or water regime change for NWI polygons. Extracted new water polygons can serve as preliminary materials for generating NWI standard-compliant products, expediating NWI maintenance processes while reducing costs. Regional statistics of wetland change can help target watersheds with the most significant changes for maintenance, thereby reducing work areas. The approaches we present hold significant value in supporting NWI maintenance.

Dynamics of land use land cover change in an East African inland valley wetland

AbstractThe dynamics of inland valley wetlands landuse landcover (LULC) changes are of ecological and economical significance hence necessitating up‐to‐date datasets of resource status. Nalwekomba inland valley wetland is highly agriculturally utilised yet ecologically important wetland threatened with conversion. Historical LULC data sets as bench marks justifying wetland conservation are lacking. Therefore, the spatial–temporal LULC changes in Nalwekomba inland valley wetland were analysed through a combination of remote sensing and GIS, using satellite images of 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020 as reference years. Results revealed variable dominance of grassland and tree cover for the wetland and its catchment over the years; 32.7% and 35.3% and 30.9% and 29.8%, respectively, for 1990 and 41.4% and 30.4% and 26.3% and 29.1% for 2020. The 30‐year analysis revealed increasing area‐shifts for cropland and built‐up/settlement of 265.7% and 76.2%, respectively, reducing cover for shrubland by 78.31% in the wetland. Similar trend emerged for its catchment. Highest net cover gains and losses identified between 1990 and 2000 were for cropland and tree cover respectively. The observed trend points to the need for landuse planning and landcover management to enhance ecosystems' resilience to support sustainable livelihoods dependent on this ecosystem.

Dynamic landscapes and the influence of human activities in the Yellow River Delta wetland region

The Yellow River Delta (YRD) wetland is one of the largest and youngest wetland ecosystems in the world. It plays an important role in regulating climate and maintaining ecological balance in the region. This study analyzes the spatiotemporal changes in land use, wetland migration, and landscape pattern from 2013 to 2022 using Landsat-8 and Sentinel-1 data in YRD. Then wetland landscape changes and the impact of human activities are determined by analyzing correlation between landscape and socio-economic indicators including nighttime light centroid, total light intensity, cultivated land area and centroid, building area and centroid, economic and population. The results show that the total wetland area increased 1426 km2 during this decade. However, the wetland landscape pattern tended to be fragmented from 2013 to 2022, with wetlands of different types interlacing and connectivity decreasing, and distribution becoming more concentrated. Different types of human activities had influences on different aspects of wetland landscape, with the expansion of cultivated land mainly compressing the core area of wetlands from the edge, the expansion of buildings mainly disrupting wetland connectivity, and socio-economic indicators such as total light intensity and the centroid mainly causing wetland fragmentation. The results show the changes of the YRD wetland and provide an explanation of how human activities effect the change of its landscape, which provides available data to achieve sustainable development goals 6.6 and may give an access to measure the change of wetland using human-activity data, which could help to adject behaviors to protect wetlands.

Ecological health analysis of wetlands in the middle reaches of Yangtze River under changing environment

ABSTRACT Changes in wetland ecosystems have a critical impact on the local ecology and species diversity. Different development scenarios and policies are key factors influencing their changes. Therefore, we studied changes of wetlands in the middle Yangtze River basin (MYRB) in 2001–2020, and a patch-generated land use simulation (PLUS) model and random forest (RF) method were applied to predict and analyze the changes under different scenarios in the MYRB in the future (i.e.2035–2095). The results indicated that: (1) The regions with high wetland proportions were concentrated in the central and eastern MYRB in 2001–2020, with a 1.5% decrease in overall wetland area; (2) The RF could simulate the future ecological quality with training and testing accuracies of 0.98 and 0.92, respectively; (3) Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) less than 0.5 in the central and eastern regions and 13.3% reduction in the northwest in the SSP245 scenario. In general, the study provides a basis for future regional studies of ecosystem quality and provides data to support wetland conservation and management.

Coastal wetland degradation and ecosystem service value change in the Yellow River Delta, China

The characteristics of changes in wetlands in different coastal areas vary, so it is necessary to select representative experimental areas to research wetland degradation, ecosystem service values (ESVs) and differences in changes among various wetland types in different ecological service function fields. The goal of this study is to better realize the spatiotemporal characteristics of wetland degradation and ESV in order to balance economic advancement and wetland ecological protection. The evolution of the wetland ESVs was analyzed by using the ESV equivalent correction technique and ecological contribution degree. The random forest (RF) classification model was utilized to extract wetland information in the Yellow River Delta (YRD) in four years (1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020). Thoroughly exploring the mechanism of impact and proposing reasonable suggestions based on a close combination of wetland changes and ecological services are conducive to the healthy development of global wetlands. The results demonstrated that the total area of wetlands expanded from 1459.5 km2 in 1990–1975.5 km2 in 2020, an increase of 28.5 %, with artificial wetlands increasing from 151.4 km2 to 1059.1 km2 and natural wetlands decreasing from 1308.1 km2 to 916.5 km2. The wetland ESV increased from 18.4 billion USD in 1990–28.6 billion USD in 2020. The transformation between types of natural wetlands tended to increase the ESV, while the transformation from natural wetlands to constructed wetlands reduced the ESV. The tidal flats and herbaceous wetlands have great value in terms of not only hydrological regulation but also gene diversity and climate regulation. The significant changes in various wetlands cause changes in different ecological service functions and promote changes in the ESV. Wetland protection, restoration, reconstruction, and rational utilization must be incorporated into urban land planning, and wetland parks and wetland protection zones should be established according to local conditions. This above research can provide typical examples and references for global wetland protection and sustainable development.

Socialization of the use of medicinal plants to improve family health resilience in Keliling Benteng Ulu Village, Banjar Regency

Indonesia is rich in biodiversity, including medicinal plants. Family medicinal plants are cultivated for the prevention and treatment of diseases. Plants in wetlands have played a vital role in the daily life of local communities, but traditional knowledge has declined with the degradation and change of wetlands. To overcome this, community service activities were carried out in the Village of Keliling Benteng Ulu, Banjar Regency in the form of lecture and distribution of medicinal plant seeds. This activity is aimed to increase the knowledge of villagers about the use of family medicinal plants. The result of this activity is an increase in knowledge related to the use of family medicinal plants for family health resilience.

Identifying the Driving Forces of Alpine Wetland Dynamic Changes in the Yellow River Source National Park from 2000 to 2020

The Yellow River Source National Park (YRSNP), one of largest alpine wetlands in China which serves as the origin of the Yellow River, is situated in the heart of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. The alpine wetland ecosystem, which is its primary ecological system, is crucial for maintaining ecological balance, preserving biodiversity, and facilitating the sustainable development of the Yellow River Basin. In this study, based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform combined with Landsat 5 7 8 remote sensing images, we used a random forest classification model to identify and classify the alpine wetland from 2000 to 2020 and analyze its pattern of dynamic changes. The main driving forces that drive the change of the alpine wetland area in the YRSNP from 2000 to 2020 are identified using a random forest regression analysis in combination with data on precipitation, temperature, potential evapotranspiration, soil moisture, and population density. The results show that: (1) From 2000 to 2020, the average overall accuracy of remote sensing classification and extraction of the YRSNP alpine wetlands is 0.8492 and the Kappa coefficient is 0.8051. (2) From 2000 to 2020, the shrinking trend of the YRSNP alpine wetland area is restrained. However, the lake wetland, marsh wetland, and marsh meadow all increase by 0.58%, 0.06%, and 3.34%, respectively, whereas the river wetland shows a declining trend. (3) The results of the identification of driving forces indicate that soil moisture is the main factor influencing the dynamic changes of the alpine wetland, although the decline in population density has a favorable impact on the alpine wetland. The results can provide scientific basis for maintaining the stability, diversity, and sustainability of the alpine wetland ecosystem in the Yellow River Source National Park.

Long-term spatio-temporal changes of wetlands in Tibetan Plateau and their response to climate change

Understanding the changes of wetlands on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is important for action to ensure ecosystem resilience in Asia. However, mapping long-term changes of wetlands at high resolutions remains challenging. Here, we quantify the spatio-temporal changes of TP wetlands from 1990 to 2019, by combining Landsat imagery with deep learning to map TP wetlands. The deep learning model combined with transfer learning strategies achieves high classification performance using a few class samples. The validation results show that the user’s accuracy is 95.5% and the producer's accuracy is 90.1% for wetland extraction, satisfying with subsequent analysis of wetland spatio-temporal changes. Based on the wetland extraction model, we have created annual wetland map in the TP for the first time. We find that the areal extent of TP wetlands has increased by 31.2 ± 6.6 % over the past 30 years. The growth is particularly noticeable (by 22.5 ± 6.2 %) during 2015–2019. Spatially, the wetland areal extent on the Qiangtang Plateau (in the inner part of TP and as habitats of various birds and rare wild animals) and the source region of Yangtze River show the largest expansions by 55.3 ± 9.3 % and 44.0 ± 8.9 %, respectively. Such rapid wetland expansions are associated with increasing rainfall and temperature which have heterogeneous influences on wetland changes across the TP. Our findings provide evidence for the impact of climate change on wetland area. The marked wetland changes highlight that climate mitigation is a priority for high-latitude ecosystems.

Effects of Temporal and Spatial Changes in Wetlands on Regional Carbon Storage in the Naoli River Basin, Sanjiang Plain, China

The Naoli River (NLR) Basin is a crucial distribution area for wetlands in China. Investigating the link between land use changes and carbon storage in this basin is of significant importance for protecting regional ecosystems and promoting the sustainable development of the social economy. This paper uses long-term Landsat satellite images provided on the GEE (Google Earth Engine) platform and the random forest classification algorithm to create spatial distribution maps of land use in the NLR Basin from 1993 to 2022. The study analyzes the dynamic changes in wetlands in the basin over the past 30 years and employs the InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) model to explore the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of carbon storage. The results reveal that the wetland area of the NLR Basin showed a downward trend from 1993 to 2022, with a total decrease of 1507.18 hm2 over 30 years. During this period, the carbon storage in the NLR Basin decreased, with a cumulative loss of 1.98 × 107 t, mainly due to the continuous reductions in wetland and forest land. Additionally, the change in carbon storage in the basin has a strong spatial and temporal relationship with the changes in land use/cover area. The total carbon storage is positively associated with the areas of wetland, forest land, and water bodies. The conversion of wetlands into any other land type results in the reduction in carbon storage. These findings can improve our understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of wetlands in the NLR Basin over the past 30 years and enable us to analyze the relationship between land use changes and regional carbon storage. The results of this study have great significance for protecting the wetland ecology and regional carbon balance in the NLR Basin.

Landscape Pattern Changes and Climate Response in Nagqu Hangcuo National Wetland Park in the Tibetan Plateau

Wetlands are vital ecosystems in the Tibetan Plateau that play a crucial role in water conservation, flood storage, and biodiversity maintenance. They are sensitive to climate change and typically have high ecological and environmental quality levels due to minimal human disturbance. This study aimed to quantify landscape pattern changes within the Nagqu Hangcuo National Wetland Park (NNWP) and identify the impact of climate on wetland change. Using remote sensing data from six periods (1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015), dynamic change analysis, landscape pattern analysis, and correlation analysis were employed to determine the evolutionary features of the wetland landscape and explore their relationship with climatic factors. The results showed that the total wetland area increased from 15.11 km2 in 1990 to 15.23 km2 in 2015. The meadow area increased the most among landscape types, primarily converted from swamps. Over 25 years, the fragmentation of the NNWP’s landscape increased while diversity decreased and its shape became more complex. Meadows were more sensitive to climatic factors than other landscape types, with correlation coefficients between wetland separation and sunshine duration being more significant than other climatic factors. Therefore, it is imperative to monitor landscape pattern changes and the effects of climate change to better protect wetland parks through long-term planning, suitable mechanisms, and advanced technology.

A remote sensing approach to assess the historical invasion of Phragmites australis in a brackish coastal marsh

IntroductionCoastal estuarine wetlands provide important habitats for a variety of endemic flora and fauna but are particularly vulnerable to biological invasions. Regular monitoring of changes in these vulnerable wetlands has become increasingly important for effective management, especially considering threats from climate change effects and human disturbance. Historical analyzes of plant invasions may guide targeted management strategies to eradicate harmful species. Estimating the distribution of invasive species has never been more accessible with the improved availability of high-resolution data and innovations in remote sensing, estimating the distribution of invasive species has never been more accessible.MethodsWe assessed the spread of non-native Phragmites australis subsp. australis in Suisun Marsh on the upper San Francisco Estuary, one of the largest brackish coastal wetlands in North America. Suisun Marsh consists of managed and tidal wetlands, and efforts have been made to control invasive P. australis on the managed wetlands to support habitat values for wildlife. We used remote-sensing analyzes of publicly available, biennial color-infrared images taken by the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) to map the expansion of invasive P. australis across two decades. We generated random forest classifications of representative images to map the distribution of P. australis, then calculated a variety of metrics describing the rate and spatial extent of the P. australis spread. Additionally, we ran generalized linear models to examine factors related to the growth of P. australis.ResultsOur classifications yielded accuracies of over 90% and showed a 234% (1,084 ha) increase in P. australis between 2003 and 2018. The expansion rate of P. australis patches averaged 1.32 m/year (±0.53 SD) which is higher than most reported in the literature. We found that P. australis expansion in managed areas within levees was significantly correlated with invasion in tidal areas outside the levees on the same parcel and also related to its spread on adjacent parcels.DiscussionOur findings suggest that despite individual landowner management efforts, P. australis has continued to expand substantially throughout Suisun Marsh. Future efforts to treat invasive P. australis may require emphasizing adaptive, collaborative management rather than individual management strategies to ensure the invasive species is eradicated on a large scale to preserve the valued ecosystem functions.

Land use and cover change and water quality of tropical wetlands under anthropogenic pressure: A case study of marshlands in the Kaziba chiefdom in South-Kivu province, Eastern DR Congo

Wetlands provide goods and ecosystem services to communities and play an important socio-economical role during dry seasons and/or droughts. However their role in nutrient stocking is poorly documented. These ecosystems are currently under anthropogenic pressure for the last decades. This study (i) assessed the land use and cover changes in and around wetlands located in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), (ii) characterized their water quality, and (iii) assessed the effect of those changes on the nutrients retention capacity (NRC). Based on a case study in three wetlands namely Luzinzi, Nkombo, and Kalamba, all located in the Walungu territory. Supervised classification based on Support Vector Machine (SVM) of very high spatial resolution satellite (of 1985, 2015, and 2021) was used to assess land use and land cover change. Water samples were taken (in 2018 and 2019) for characterization at the inlet and outlet of each marshland, and the nutrients retention capacity (NRC) was assessed. Results show that these wetlands have undergone significant changes in terms of land use and occupation, with previously woodland and herbaceous areas becoming bare soil, cultivated lands, and built-up areas, respectively. The ability of the marshes to purify the water and its quality is not affected by all these changes. The study shows that the water quality analysis of the streams draining the marshes was rather good, and a very good value was obtained for salt (Sodium Absorption Ratio: SAR). However, these marshes have a very low (if any) nutrient retention capacity. Future interventions should alleviate human pressure on these ecosystems while focusing efforts on ecological function maintenance or restoration.

Multitemporal modeling and simulation of the complex dynamics in urban wetlands: the case of Bogota, Colombia

Urban wetlands are essential to the longstanding health and well-being of cities. Acknowledged as rich in biodiversity and highly productive ecosystems, they provide ecosystem services represented in aspects such as air purification, urban climate regulation, physical and mental health, recreation, and contemplation, among a wide variety of other goods and services on which the quality of life of the inhabitants of large cities such as Bogota depends largely. We used cellular automata to model and simulate urban wetland changes in Bogota, Colombia. The study applied the coupled Markov-Future Land Use Simulation (FLUS) model to simulate and analyze land use/land cover (LULC) change over 20 years. First, we used an orthomosaic (1998) and two WorldView-2 satellite images (2004 and 2010), to detect land cover changes. Then, using the artificial neural network FLUS module, we calculated the relationships between land classes and associated drivers and estimated the probability of occurrence of each land class. Finally, we applied Intensity Analysis to examine the observed and projected LULC change (1998–2034). Results indicate that gains in areas of crops and pastures are at the expense of wetlands. In addition, simulation outputs show that wetlands will likely represent less than 2% of the total study area in 2034, representing a 14% decrease in 24 years. The importance of this project lies in its potential contribution to the decision-making process within the city and as an instrument of natural resource management. Additionally, the results of this study could contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6, “Clean water and sanitation," and climate change mitigation.

Analysis of long-term spatio-temporal wetland change reveals the complex nature of habitat alterations – A case study from the Czech Republic 1842–2017

Wetlands fulfil a number of functions in the landscape, especially non-productive ones. Information on landscape and biotope changes is important not only from a theoretical point of view for understanding the forces and pressures that cause changes in the landscape, but also from a practical point of view, as we can take inspiration from history when planning the landscape. The main goal of this study is to analyse the dynamics and trajectories of changes in wetlands, including testing the influence of the main natural conditions (climate, geomorphology) on their changes, for a large area of 141 cadastral territories (1315 km2), which will allow the results to be sufficiently generalized. The results of our study confirmed the global trend of rapid wetland loss, with almost three quarters of wetlands disappearing, mostly on arable land (37 %). The results of the study are of great importance in the field of the ecology of landscapes and wetlands, both in the national and international context, not only because they make it possible to understand the regularities and forces that affect changes in wetlands and landscapes, but also have significance due to the methodology. The specific methodology and procedure are based on the application of advanced GIS functions (Union and Intersect functions) to identify the location and area of individual change dynamics and types of wetland (new, extinct, continuous), using accurate old large-scale maps and aerial photographs. The proposed and tested methodological procedure can generally be used for wetlands in other locations, but also for studying the dynamics of changes and trajectories of other biotopes in the landscape. The greatest potential for using the results of this work in the field of environmental protection is the possibility of using the places of extinct wetlands for their restoration.

The Changes in Dominant Driving Factors in the Evolution Process of Wetland in the Yellow River Delta during 2015–2022

Most of the previous studies exploring the changing patterns of wetland in the Yellow River Delta (YRD) were conducted based on sparse time-series images, which ignored its severe environmental gradient and rapid evolution process of the wetland. The changes in the dominant factors in the evolution of the wetland in the YRD are not clear. This study used the dense time-series Sentinel-2 images to establish a wetland database of the YRD, and then analyzed the spatial distribution characteristics of, and temporal changes in, the wetland during 2015–2022. Finally, the dominant factors of the spatio-temporal evolutions of the wetland were explored and revealed. The results showed the following. (1) During 2015–2022, the wetland in the YRD was dominated by artificial wetland, accounting for 54.02% of the total wetland area in the study area. In 2015–2022, the total wetland area increased by 309.90 km2, including an increase of 222.63 km2 in natural wetlands and 87.27 km2 in artificial wetlands. In the conversion between wetland types, 218.73 km2 of artificial wetlands were converted into natural wetlands, and 75.18 km2 of natural wetlands were converted into artificial wetlands. The patch density of rivers, swamps, and salt pans increased, showing a trend of fragmentation. However, the overall degree of landscape fragmentation in wetlands weakened. The trend of changes in the number of patches and landscape shape index was the same, while the trend of changes in Shannon’s diversity index and Contagion index was completely opposite. (2) Natural factors, such as precipitation (0.51, 2015; 0.65, 2016), DEM (0.57, 2017; 0.47, 2018; 0.49, 2020; 0.46, 2021), vegetation coverage (0.59, 2019), and temperature (0.48, 2022), were the dominant influencing factors of wetland changes in the YRD. The dominant single factor causing the changes in artificial wetlands was vegetation coverage, while socio-economic factors had lower explanatory power, with the average q value of 0.18. (3) During 2015–2022, the interactions between the natural and artificial factors of the wetland changes were mostly nonlinear and showed double-factor enhancement. The interactions between temperature and sunshine hours had the largest explanatory power for natural wetland change, while interactions between precipitation and vegetation coverage, and between temperature and vegetation coverage, had large contribution rates for artificial wetland change. The interactions among natural factors had the greatest impacts on wetland change, followed by interactions between natural factors and socio-economic factors, while interactions among socio-economic factors had more slight impacts on wetland change. The results can provide a scientific basis for regional wetland protection and management.

Monitoring spatio-temporal changes in wetlands with harmonized image series in Google Earth Engine.

Study of rapidly changing lakes and wetlands with remote sensing methods is critical for understanding the climatic and anthropogenic effects. However, most of the studies search for the change of water body in specific time periods. Although this approach reduces the workload related to downloading and processing a large number of satellite images in computer environment, it actually causes ignoring some criticalchanges that occurred out of specified time periods.On the other hand, this situation reduces the data volume and the limited data causes problems for the management of water resources. The Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform allows the opportunity to rapidly and practically process large-scale temporal data without downloading. In this study, areal changes in Lake Akşehir in Türkiye, from 1985 to 2020, were calculated and mapped by the GEE as a case. In order to calculate the changes, the Landsat 5 TM, 7 ETM + and 8 OLI&TIRS images were harmonized and created annual mosaics. TheNormalized difference water index (NDWI) and theautomated water extraction index (AWEI) were applied to these annual mosaics. By this approach, the change in the water area representing a shrank by 87% on average (according to the calculations91% for the NDWI and 83% for the AWEI) from 1985 to 2020 was assessed practically and rapidly on annual mosaics created from all images between the studied period, instead of assessment based on images taken on only one date in the chosen years as in previous studies. Such an approach will provide time and labour savings and provide more meaningful and uninterrupted data for studies about changes in other wetland areas.

Spatial-Temporal Changes of Limoto Wetland Land Use/Cover Before, During and After Restoration Activities in Eastern Uganda

Purpose: Limoto Wetland is an arm of the Mpologoma wetland system in the Kyoga basin and is a vital ecosystem that supports rural livelihoods through the provision of various ecological goods and services. However, this ecosystem has been undergoing rapid degradation arising from competing land uses particularly paddy rice growing. In turn, this led to reduced capacity of the wetland to provide ecosystem services, thereby reducing the resilience of both the ecosystem and the livelihoods of adjacent communities. Interventions through a restoration program that introduced alternative livelihood options were instituted. It’s important to document these changes to obtain insights that can aid decision-making for effective restoration and conservation. This study, therefore, sought to examine the spatial-temporal changes in Limoto wetland land use/cover transitions for the years 2015, 2020, and 2022.
 Methodology: To quantify the wetland changes, remotely sensed imageries for 2015, 2020, and 2022 were utilized in classifying land use and land cover dynamics on Limoto Wetland through the Maximum Likelihood algorithm. A total of 500 points were collected from different land use/cover types and used as reference points to develop the image error matrices. Overall accuracy, producer’s and user’s accuracies as well as Kappa statistics were generated from the error matrices. A Kappa test was carried out to measure the extent of classification accuracy; the Kappa coefficient, K, being a coefficient of agreement. It reflects the difference between the actual agreement of classification with reference data and the agreement expected by chance.
 Findings: Results generally showed that five years after the restoration program (2020), Limoto wetlands regained over 50% of previously converted wetlands to farming. Papyrus coverage also more than doubled from 3.4% to 11.35% of the total wetland coverage. Farms degraded over the past years (1986-2019). However, in 2022, wetland coverage declined drastically as farming took up more than half of the coverage (55%) land, and built-up areas also increased. These changes between 2015-2020 were majorly driven by the introduction of alternative livelihood options which vacated communities from the wetland.
 Recommendation: The changes after 2020 were due to the unsustainability of the livelihood options and the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown which rendered only farming as the socio-economic activity, coupled with movement restrictions that curtailed monitoring and control of activities in wetlands by enforcers. The study recommends community-tailored, tenable, and sustainable alternative livelihood options to influence community-led wetland restoration and conservation to curb the continuous loss of this wetland.

Impact of wetland change on ecosystem services in different urbanization stages: A case study in the Hang-Jia-Hu region, China

Urbanization has had a profound impact on wetlands, and wetland conservation and restoration have attracted much attention. However, the detailed impacts of different urbanization and wetland changing processes on ecosystem services (ESs) are not well understood. Based on long-time series of remote sensing data (1990–2020), flood mitigation (FM), water purification (WP), carbon sequestration (CS), and biodiversity conservation (BC) were quantified in the Hang-Jia-Hu (HJH) region, China. According to the changing trend of urban land, the study period was divided into three urbanization stages: slow urbanization (1990–1998), rapid urbanization (1998–2013), and moderate urbanization (2013–2020). Regression analysis was used to explore the quantitative relationship between urbanization/wetland changes and ESs. The results showed that the urban land expansion rates in the slow urbanization, rapid urbanization, and moderate urbanization stages were 46.51 km2/yr, 100.62 km2/yr, and 70.87 km2/yr, respectively, and the corresponding wetland changing rates were 5.14 km2/yr, 19.54 km2/yr and −20.88 km2/yr, respectively. FM decreased in the slow and moderate urbanization stages and increased in the rapid urbanization stage, and WP increased in the slow and rapid urbanization stages and decreased in the moderate urbanization stage. Urbanization led to a decrease in FM, CS, and BC. Wetland restoration improved these ESs, while wetland loss caused a decline in multiple ESs in the slow and rapid urbanization stages. Wetland restoration partially offsets the negative effects of urbanization and wetland loss on ESs in the rapid urbanization stage. Urbanization and wetland changes have linear and nonlinear effects on ESs in different urbanization stages. Wetland restoration is an effective way to improve ESs in urbanization regions. This study can make an important contribution to sustainable wetland ecosystem development in urbanization regions.

Application of Remote Sensing Technology in Sustainable Urban Planning and Development

Urban planning is super vital for cities. Good planning for the city would provide more convenience and benefits to citizens through economic effects, beautiful scenery and so on. This study analyses the application of remote sensing technologies in urban landscaping planning, transportation, and environmental protection. The combination of remote sensing and GIS technologies makes urban landscaping planning more accessible in urban landscaping planning. Usually, remote sensing provides satellite images, while the GIS processes the image and compares the target region for analysis. The combination method could predict urban green spaces. In urban transportation planning, remote sensing technology could combine with Artificial intelligence smart video technology to protect peoples safety in transportation, such as observing traffic violations by capturing videos or images and protecting traffic safety. In environmental protection, remote sensing could monitor the area change of wetlands and solve the natural disasters around the city. Different approaches have their benefits and disadvantages, and thus making urban plans by combining various techniques is essential.

Seasonal fluctuations of marsh wetlands in the headwaters of the Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Indus Rivers, Tibetan Plateau based on the adapted LandTrendr model

Marsh wetlands present a rich variety of ecosystem goods and services, including important carbon sinks, of great significance to changes in the global environment. However, seasonal responses of marsh wetlands remain understudied and poorly understood. Therefore, this study adapted the Landsat-based Detection of Trends in Disturbance and Recovery (LandTrendr) model using field and Landsat data during 1990–2017 to identify the seasonal and spatial variations in marsh wetlands in the headwaters of the Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Indus Rivers (HBGIR) and analyze the drivers of their spatiotemporal changes. The spatiotemporal change in the marsh wetlands was divided into the three stages of expansion (1990–1998), retreat (1998–2004), and stability (2004–2017). The marsh wetland area showed an increasing trend before 1998 and a stable and slightly increasing trend after 2004. The expansion area of the marsh wetlands was located in the reserves of Shiquanhe and Manasarovar and their surrounding areas. The marsh wetlands were subjected to the largest expansion in summer (114.45 km2), followed by spring (80.45 km2). The expansion of the marsh wetlands in summer was mainly driven by snow depth and temperature, with the strongest interaction factor of 0.6 between them. However, the retreat of the marsh wetlands was driven by the expansion of construction and cultivated lands in the HBGIR. Finally, the LandTrendr model modified in this study was useful for improving the change-detection accuracy of the marsh wetlands. This study provides an important theoretical basis for wetland protection and management for the Tibetan Plateau.