Change in area of Ebinur Lake during the 1998–2005 period

Ebinur Lake is located in a typical arid region in the north‐west of China. It is an area with the lowest elevation in the Junggar Basin in the Province of Xinjiang. Recent monitoring indicates that the lake surface area has increased. To obtain a continuous record of the change in lake area, a radiometric analysis of SPOT/VEGETATION (VGT) imagery was carried out based on methodology developed for regional lake area mapping. Two indices, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), were selected to identify the water body of Ebinur Lake. The indices are calculated based on the spectral reflectances in the red and near infrared bands of VGT sensor. If the NDVI is less than a critical value (0) and if the NDWI is larger than a critical value (0), the pixel is flagged as a water body. Validation indicates that the methodology to identify water bodies based on multi‐spectral VGT data is applicable in our study area achieving an overall accuracy of 91.4%. Independent monitoring results elicit that the lake surface area was at its lowest in 1998. The yearly average surface area is about 503 km². The lake area increased to 603 km² during 1999. In the period 1999–2001 the area changes are marginal. A large area increase occurred from 2001 to 2002 till the lake area reached a surface area of 791 km². The lake area peaks to 903 km² in 2003 and subsequently decreased to areas of 847 km² in 2004 and 746 km² in 2005. Similar area change dynamics are observed when applying the remote sensing based technique. Seasonally, the typical dynamics elicit a larger surface area in spring and winter and a smaller one during summer.     

Frontal changes in the Manimahesh and Tal Glaciers in the Ravi basin,Himachal Pradesh,northwestern Himalaya (India), between 1971 and 2013

The Manimahesh and Tal Glaciers are located in the Budhil fifth-order sub-basin of the Ravi, Himachal Himalaya, Northwestern Himalaya (India). These glaciers were analysed using high- (Corona KH-4A) to medium- (Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI, ASTER) spatial resolution satellite data between 1971 and 2013, along with extensive field measurements (2011–2014) of frontal changes. The results show that the Manimahesh and Tal Glaciers retreated by 157 ± 34 m (4 ± 1 m year^–1) and 45 ± 34 m (1 ± 1 m year^–1), respectively, whereas, the total area lost is estimated at 0.21 ± 0.01 km² (0.005 km² year^–1) and 0.010 ± 0.003 km² (0.0002 km² year^–1), respectively, between 1971 and 2013. The rate of retreat is significantly lower than that previously reported. Our field measurements (2011–2014) also suggest a retreating trend and validate the measured glacier changes using remotely sensed temporal data.     

Changes in the glaciers of Chandra–Bhaga basin,Himachal Himalaya,India, between 1980 and 2010 measured using remote sensing

This study reports the glacier changes of Chandra–Bhaga basin, northwest Himalaya, India, from 1980 to 2010. Satellite remote-sensing data from the Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) and Thematic Mapper (TM), the Linear Imaging Self Scanning Sensor (LISS) and Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) of the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) series, and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM) were used to study the changes in glacier parameters such as glacier area, length, snout elevation, and the impact of glacier topographical parameters (glacier slope, aspect, and altitude range) on the glacier changes. It was found that the total glaciated area had shrunk to 368.2 km² in 2010 from 377.6 km² in 1980, a loss of 2.5%. The average position of glacier terminuses retreated by 465.5 ± 169.1 m from 1980 to 2010 with an average rate of 15.5 ± 5.6 m year^?1. The decadal scale analysis showed that the average rate of retreat had increased the most in the recent decade. A moraine-dammed lake located in the study region was found to have expanded in area from (0.65 ± 0.01) km² in 1980 to (1.26 ± 0.03) km² in 2010. Glaciers with steep slope and less altitude range have lost more area than the glaciers having gentle slope and greater altitude range.     

Multitemporal assessment of the geomorphologic evolution of the Restinga of Marambaia,Rio de Janeiro,Brazil

The Restinga of Marambaia is an emerged sand bar located between the Sepetiba Bay and the South Atlantic Ocean, on the south‐east coast of Brazil. The objective of this study was to observe the geomorphologic evolution of the coastal zone of the Restinga of Marambaia using multitemporal satellite images acquired by multisensors from 1975 to 2004. The images were digitally segmented by a region growth algorithm and submitted to an unsupervised classification procedure (ISOSEG) followed by a raster edit based on visual interpretation. The image time‐series showed a general trend of decrease in the total sand bar area with values varying from 80.61 km² in 1975 to 78.15 km² in 2004. The total area calculation based on the 1975 and 1978 Landsat MSS data was shown to be super‐estimated in relation to the Landsat TM, Landsat ETM+, and CBERS‐2 CCD data. These differences can also be associated to the relatively poorer spatial resolution of the MSS data, nominally 79 m, against the 20 m of the CCD data and 30 m of the TM and ETM+ data. For the estimates of the width in the central portion of the sand bar the variation was from 158 m (1975) to 100 m (2004). The formation of a spit in the northern region of the study area was visually observed. The area of the spit was estimated, with values varying from 0.82 km² (1975) to 0.55 km² (2004).     

Quantifying scaling effects on satellite‐derived forest area estimates for the conterminous USA

We quantified the scaling effects on forest area estimates for the conterminous USA using regression analysis and the National Land Cover Dataset 30 m satellite‐derived maps in 2001 and 1992. The original data were aggregated to: (1) broad cover types (forest vs. non‐forest); and (2) coarser resolutions (1 km and 10 km). Standard errors of the model estimates were 2.3% and 4.9% at 1 km and 10 km resolutions, respectively. Our model improved the accuracies for 1 km by 0.6% (12 556 km²) in 2001 and 1.9% (43 198 km²) in 1992, compared to the forest estimates before the adjustments. Forest area observed from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 2001 1 km land‐cover map for the conterminous USA might differ by 80 811 km² from what would be observed if MODIS was available at 30 m. Of this difference, 58% (46 870 km²) could be a relatively small net improvement, equivalent to 1444 Tg (or 1.5%) of total non‐soil forest CO₂ stocks. With increasing attention to accurate monitoring and evaluation of forest area changes for different regions of the globe, our results could facilitate the removal of bias from large‐scale estimates based on remote sensors with coarse resolutions.     

Irrigated area mapping in heterogeneous landscapes with MODIS time series,ground truth and census data,Krishna Basin,India

Diverse irrigated areas were mapped in the Krishna River Basin (258,912 km²), southern India, using an irrigated fraction approach and multiple ancillary data sources. Unsupervised classification of a monthly time series of net difference vegetation index (NDVI) images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) over January–December 2002 generated 40 classes. Nine generalized classes included five irrigated classes with distinct NDVI time signatures: continuous irrigation, double‐cropped, irrigated with low biomass, minor irrigation, and groundwater irrigation. Areas irrigated by surface water began greening 45 days after groundwater‐irrigated areas, which allowed separation of surface and groundwater irrigation in the classification. The fraction of each class area irrigated was determined using three different methods: ground truth data, a linear regression model calibrated to agricultural census data, and visual interpretation of Landsat TM imagery. Irrigated fractions determined by the three methods varied least for the double‐cropped irrigated class (0.62–0.79) and rangeland (0.00–0.02), and most for the minor irrigated class (0.06–0.43). Small irrigated patches (<0.1 km²) accounted for more irrigated area than all major surface water irrigated areas combined. The irrigated fractions of the minor and groundwater‐irrigated classes differed widely by method, suggesting that mapping patchy and small irrigated areas remains challenging, but comparison of multiple data sources improves confidence in the classification and highlights areas requiring more intensive fieldwork.     

Near‐infrared discrimination of leafless saltcedar in wintertime Landsat TM

To test a hypothesis that leafless riparian canopies enable accurate multi‐spectral discrimination of saltcedar (Tamarix ramosissima Ledeb.) from other native species, winter Landsat TM5 data (16 November 2005) were analysed for a reach of the Arkansas River in Colorado, USA. Supporting spectroscopic analysis confirmed that saltcedar could not easily be discriminated from other riparian vegetation using TM5 data when in‐leaf, but bare branches could be easily distinguished due to much lower reflectance than other riparian cover. Use of TM Band 4 (B4) allowed differentiation of wintertime saltcedar into four qualitative density classes judged from high‐resolution low‐oblique aerial photography: high (76%–100%), medium (51%–75%), low (16%–50%), and none (0%–15%). Spectral overlap was removed from the B4 saltcedar classification using TM Band 5 (B5) thresholds to eliminate low‐reflectant wet areas and higher‐reflectant multi‐year darkened weed canopies. The accuracy of a classification algorithm that used B5 thresholds followed by a B4 density slice was judged against high‐resolution aerial photography as providing 98% discrimination of saltcedar cover from other riparian cover and about 90% discrimination of the qualitative density classes. Applying this method to the 2835 km² riparian corridor study area, 1298 km² (45.78%) was identified as containing saltcedar, with over 43% having medium or greater density.     

Changes in agricultural cropland areas between a water-surplus year and a water-deficit year impacting food security,determined using MODIS 250 m time-series data and spectral matching techniques,in the Krishna River basin (India)

The objective of this study was to investigate the changes in cropland areas as a result of water availability using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 250 m time-series data and spectral matching techniques (SMTs). The study was conducted in the Krishna River basin in India, a very large river basin with an area of 265 752 km² (26 575 200 ha), comparing a water-surplus year (2000–2001) and a water-deficit year (2002–2003). The MODIS 250 m time-series data and SMTs were found ideal for agricultural cropland change detection over large areas and provided fuzzy classification accuracies of 61–100% for various land‐use classes and 61–81% for the rain-fed and irrigated classes. The most mixing change occurred between rain-fed cropland areas and informally irrigated (e.g. groundwater and small reservoir) areas. Hence separation of these two classes was the most difficult. The MODIS 250 m-derived irrigated cropland areas for the districts were highly correlated with the Indian Bureau of Statistics data, with R ²-values between 0.82 and 0.86.

The change in the net area irrigated was modest, with an irrigated area of 8 669 881 ha during the water-surplus year, as compared with 7 718 900 ha during the water-deficit year. However, this is quite misleading as most of the major changes occurred in cropping intensity, such as changing from higher intensity to lower intensity (e.g. from double crop to single crop). The changes in cropping intensity of the agricultural cropland areas that took place in the water-deficit year (2002–2003) when compared with the water-surplus year (2000–2001) in the Krishna basin were: (a) 1 078 564 ha changed from double crop to single crop, (b) 1 461 177 ha changed from continuous crop to single crop, (c) 704 172 ha changed from irrigated single crop to fallow and (d) 1 314 522 ha changed from minor irrigation (e.g. tanks, small reservoirs) to rain-fed. These are highly significant changes that will have strong impact on food security. Such changes may be expected all over the world in a changing climate.     

Characterizing changes in grassland desertification based on Landsat images of the Ongniud and Naiman Banners,Inner Mongolia

Desertification is treated as an important and critical environmental hazard. In the face of increasingly serious grassland desertification, China has made great efforts to combat desertification and a series of key national ecological projects has been launched. However, accurate, timely, and effective monitoring and assessment are required to determine whether these projects work well. The Horqin sandy land represents the largest area of sandy land in China. In this article, the Naiman and Ongniud Banners were studied because these contain the main desertified grassland in Horqin. Next, a desertification classification and grading system was designed for the Horqin sandy land after conducting fieldwork. Based on spectral mixture analysis (SMA) and decision-tree methods, we interpreted Landsat Thematic Mapper/Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus/Operational Land Imager (TM/ETM+/OLI) images of the study area from four years: 1985, 1992, 2001, and 2013. Overall, the following results were obtained. The total area of desertified grassland in the Naiman and Ongniud Banners increased from 5979 km² in 1985 to 9195 km² in 1992 (an increase of 53.79%) and then decreased to 7828 km² in 2001 and to 6023 km² in 2013. The changes in the areas of desertified grassland with various degrees of desertification displayed the same trends as that of the total desertified grassland area. The severely desertified grassland expanded from 1872 km² in 1985 to 3723 km² in 1992 before shrinking to 2189 km² in 2013. The annual rates of expansion of desertified grassland during the periods 1985–1992, 1992–2001, and 2001–2013 were 7.68%, ?1.65%, and ?1.92%, respectively, and the corresponding expansion rates of severely desertified grassland were 14.12%, ?3.48%, and ?1.19%, respectively. Both the desertified grasslands and the areas with various degrees of desertification displayed significant expansion during the period 1985–1992. Since 1992, this trend has reduced. During the study period, the changes in temperature and precipitation did not benefit the reversal of grassland sandy desertification. Furthermore, the growing population and expansion of livestock production and farming inhibited such reversal. However, the results presented in this article suggest that a reversal in grassland sandy desertification has been occurring since 1992. The results indicate that ecological engineering measures have helped reverse desertification and have promoted the restoration of grassland vegetation.     

Mapping forest disturbance across the China–Laos border using annual Landsat time series

The China–Laos border area is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots and has undergone unprecedented social and economic shifts related to extensive land conversion to cash plantations in recent decades. However, spatially and temporally detailed information on land conversion and forest disturbance does not exist in this area. The aim of this study is to map and analyse spatiotemporal changes in forest disturbance from 1991 to 2016 along the China–Laos border using annual Landsat time series images. Landsat-based Detection of Trends in Disturbance and Recovery (LandTrendr), based on a temporal segmentation algorithm, was used with the Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index (ARVI) as a disturbance index in this study. The results show that the overall accuracy of forest disturbance is 89.72% ± 0.67% and that the estimated forest disturbance area between 1991 and 2016 reaches 4366.14 km² ± 887.17 km² (at the 95% confidence interval). This accounts for 16.73% of the total area of forest cover in 1991, which is based on the error-adjusted estimator of area. The trend in the forest disturbance area increased from 1991 to 1995 and then continued downward. The forest disturbance area across the China–Laos border is closely related to global rubber prices as well as the policies and economies of the two countries and cooperation between China and Laos. Compared to Laos, the percentage of disturbed forest area is higher within China, except for some individual years (e.g., 1998–1999, 2004–2005, 2009 and 2016). The average annual disturbed forest area is 98.44 km² (0.76%) within China and 69.49 km² (0.53%) within Laos. Large disturbed patches are much more common within China than within Laos. This study highlights the merit of using dense Landsat time series for mapping the human-induced processes of forest disturbance in tropical areas, and the role of economic globalization and regional geopolitics in cross-border forest management.     

Using MODIS images to examine the surface extents and variations derived from the DEM and laser altimeter data in the Danjiangkou Reservoir,China

We used publicly available digital spatial datasets to study the area extents and their horizontal variations of two water bodies within the Danjiangkou Reservoir, China. Between 2003 and 2005, the water levels varied from 140 to 149 m above mean sea level as measured by the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS). Detailed procedures to derive the horizontal extents and variations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM) coupled with GLAS data and to verify the extents and variations spatially were provided. For the water bodies on the north and west, the surface water extents derived from four MODIS images varied between 174 and 218 km² and from 96 to 135 km², respectively. The extents by inundating the DEM using the GLAS data were 178–212 km² for the water body on the north and 104–118 km² for the water body on the west. The spatial verifications of surface water extents derived from the MODIS images versus DEM coupled with GLAS data agreed 83–93%. Within the ring areas between water/land boundaries at elevations of 140 and 147 m, and 140 and 149 m, the spatial agreement was 52–75%.     

The use of remote-sensing techniques to monitor dense reservoir networks in the Brazilian semiarid region

Reservoirs are the main water source in the Brazilian semiarid region, especially in the crystalline-geology watersheds, forming high-density reservoir networks (HdRN). However, in most cases, the construction of these reservoirs has been done without technical supervision. The objective of this work was to map and evaluate the spatial distribution of the 25,000 km² Orós Reservoir Basin (ORB) HdRN, in semiarid Brazil, with the help of remote-sensing tools associated with geographic information systems (GIS). Using LANDSAT 5 images of the end of the 2011 rainy season of the ORB, the remote-sensing technique allowed the identification of 6002 polygons, which corresponded to only 4717 reservoirs (implying a misidentification of 21%). Between 2002 and 2011, a 17.5% increase (and 1.81% annual increase) in the number of reservoirs in the basin was observed, still lower than the annual increment from 1970 to 2002, when an average increase of 2.64% per year was observed, in other studies. The perimeter of the reservoirs ranged from 0.250 to 560 km and the individual water surface area ranged from 0.004 to 195.0 km², resulting in a total surface of 465.0 km². Analysing the surface area of the strategic reservoirs, results showed that the estimation of the surface area (from remote sensing with manual polygon adjustment) yielded values very close to those of the on-site monitored areas, with R² = 0.99 and normalized difference index ranging from ?0.02 to +0.09. The reservoir density in the ORB in 2011 was 0.19 reservoirs km^–2, higher than the recommended optimum density of 0.15 reservoirs km^–2 basin. Analysis of reservoir density by municipality recorded values ranging from 0.02 to 0.40 reservoirs km^–2. The sedimentary-geology municipalities presented a reservoir density on average 80% lower than the that of the crystalline-geology municipalities, indicating a strong relationship between geology and reservoir density. Neither population density nor rainfall explained the spatial distribution of reservoirs within the basin, both yielding R² lower than 0.1. This remote-sensing survey of reservoirs demonstrated two major flaws: the misidentification of shadows as reservoirs and the inability to identify the presence of macrophytes, which negatively affected the number and surface area of the target reservoirs. Despite these problems, remote sensing has been shown to be a technique of great potential in the planning and management of water resources in regions with dense reservoir networks.     

Inundated wetland dynamics over boreal regions from remote sensing: the use of Topex‐Poseidon dual‐frequency radar altimeter observations

This study presents a first attempt to estimate the extent and seasonality of northern wetlands using radar altimeter satellite observations. The sensitivity of the Topex‐Poseidon dual‐frequency radar altimeter to detect inundation is investigated and compared with passive and active microwave satellite measurements along with a land surface climatology database. The C band backscatter altimeter signal clearly tracks passive microwave emissivity observations of wetlands and is able to detect small flooded areas. Because of the nadir incidence angle, the radar altimeter also shows more capability to detect wetlands than the C band scatterometer. Monthly flooded areas are calculated by estimating flooded pixel fractional coverage using the altimeter C band backscatter magnitude and a linear mixing model with dual‐frequency altimeter backscatter difference, C–Ku, to account for vegetation effects. Because of the Topex‐Poseidon satellite spatial coverage, the results are given only from 40° N to 66° N. This region nevertheless represents more than 30% of world's inundated surfaces during the summer. A direct validation of the inundated extent is unfortunately impossible on a large scale, due to the scarcity of quantitative observations. As a consequence, the results are evaluated by comparison with other existing estimates. Radar altimetry estimates, comprising natural wetlands and river/lakes, indicate a maximum inundated area of 1.86×10⁶ km² for July 1993 and 1994 as compared with 1.31×10⁶ km² from passive microwave technique and ～2.10×10⁶ km² from climatology dataset. The wetland seasonal variability derived from the altimeter and passive microwave techniques agrees well. These promising results could soon be applied to the ENVISAT dual‐frequency radar altimeter that will provide a better survey of global inundated surfaces thanks to its much more complete spatial coverage.     

The application of a binary division procedure to the classification of forest subcategories using MODIS time-series data during 2000–2010 in China

Forests account for more than 23% of China’s total area. As the most important terrestrial ecosystem, forests have tremendous ecological value. However, it remains difficult to classify forest subcategories at the national scale. In this study, a newly developed binary division procedure was used to categorize forest areas, including their spatiotemporal dynamics, during the period 2000–2010. Time-series images acquired using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), together with auxiliary data on land use, climate zoning, and topography, were utilized. Hierarchical classification and zoning were combined with remote-sensing auto-classification. Based on the forest extent mask, the state-level forest system was divided into four classes and 18 subcategories. The method achieved an acceptable overall accuracy of 73.1%, based on a comparison to the sample points of China’s fourth forest general survey data set. In 2010, the total forest area was 1.755 × 10⁶ km², and the total area of and shrubs was 4.885 × 10⁵ km². The total area of woodland increased by 2536.25 km² during the decade 2000–2010. The shrub subcategories exhibited almost no change during this time period; however, significant changes in forest area occurred in the mountainous region of Northeast China as well as in the hilly regions of Southern China. The main transformations took place in cold-temperate and temperate mountainous deciduous coniferous forest, subtropical deciduous coniferous forest, subtropical evergreen coniferous forest, and temperate and subtropical deciduous broadleaved mixed forests. The binary division procedure proposed herein can be used not only to rapidly classify more forest subcategories and monitor their dynamic changes, but also to improve the classification accuracy compared with global and national land-cover maps.     

Lightning activity over India: a study of east–west contrast

This article presents a study of east–west regional contrast in lightning activity over India (8°N–35°N, 68°E–98°E) using monthly satellite-based lightning flash grid (0.5° × 0.5°) data for a period of 10 years (1998–2007). On the premise of nearly equality to land mass location for the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), India is divided in two regions – eastern and western – spanning the 79°E longitude line. The spatial variation of the east–west contrast shows that lightning flash rate density is higher over east-northeast India (30 flashes km^?2 year^?1). The lower elevation of the eastern region is an important factor in maintaining a maximum surface temperature contrast in regard to influencing the development of strong convection and thunderstorms, and hence high flash rate density. The results suggest that the hot and humid extensive land region of the ITCZ in the eastern region is more likely to lead to the development of thunderstorms and high flash rate density.     

Spatio-temporal distribution of burned areas by ecoregions in Mexico and Central America

Fire activity in Mexico and Central America, and its associated emissions, has impacts across multiple scales. On the local-to-regional scale, fire activity impacts land use, productivity, and biodiversity. On the regional-to-global scale, fire activity impacts hydrological, biogeochemical, and atmospheric processes. A consistent, reliable, large-scale characterization of the spatial and temporal distribution of fire burned area is required to assess its environmental impacts and to support natural resources’ management. The spatial and temporal distributions of fire burned areas in ecoregions of Mexico and Central America are evaluated in this study for the period 2001–2014, using the satellite Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MCD45 Burned Area data set. The methodology combines the 500 m burned area product with a MODIS land cover product and a map of North American land cover to calculate the spatiotemporal variability of fire activity as a function of land-use type.

The total burned area over Mexico and Central America over the period 2001–2014 was found to be 614,243.5 km², but with significant interannual variability over the 14 years included in the study. Indeed, the minimum burned area over the period was 9892.25 km² in 2014 and the maximum was 37,669.50 km² in 2011, a fourfold increase. Burned areas were found to be concentrated in northern Mexico and on the Pacific coast, mainly from October to June. Agricultural burned areas accounted for 37% and 43% of total detected burns in Mexico and Central America, respectively. The largest extent of burned surface occurs in May for most land-cover types. The maximum density of burned areas occurred in the tropical dry forests ecoregion during the dry season. Both in Mexico and Central America, burned area anomalies have significant anti-correlation with precipitation anomalies.     

Coastline evolution monitoring and estimation—a case study in the region of Nouakchott,Mauritania

Since the construction of a harbour, Port de l'Amitié, an important importation gate for Nouakchott, northwestern Africa in 1987, the previous coast dynamic equilibrium has been destroyed and thus a significant littoral geomorphologic change has occurred, which has produced a severe degradation of the littoral and urban environment. This research is focused on coastline evolution monitoring and its potential change estimation by remote sensing techniques using multi‐temporal Satellite pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) images and Markov chain analysis. It is the objectives of the study to measure and estimate the coastal current hydrodynamics, coastline evolution rates, harbour life‐span and to provide useful reference for the local authorities to make decisions for their future coastal management. The results show that the north beach of the harbour has extended by 0.92 km² (92 ha) from 1989 to 2001 and the accretion will probably reach its maximum limit in about 13 years±6 months (in 2014–2015) while the harbour will gradually arrive at the end of service. The south sandbar has been eroded by 1.34 km² (134 ha) and the coastline has retreated landwards by 362 m at the maximum point. Another 0.91 km² of land will be eroded in the next 10 years from 2001 to 2011. This erosion has caused several inundations to the suburb and urban areas, provoking a deterioration of the urban environment.     

Satellite-sensed tropospheric NO2 patterns and anomalies over Indus,Ganges, Brahmaputra,and Meghna river basins

This study presents trends, seasonality, hot spots, and anomalies of tropospheric NO₂ pollution over four basins of Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers in South Asia using observations from Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on-board Aura satellite during 2004–2015. For the first time this area, a highly populated and industrialized region with significant emissions of air pollutants, has been discussed collectively. OMI data reveal significantly elevated NO₂ column over the region averaged at (1.9 ± 0.1) × 10¹⁵ molecules cm^–2 (average ± standard deviation of observations) with an increase of 21.12% (slope (0.036 ± 0.004) × 10¹⁵ molecules cm^–2, y-intercept (1.705 ± 0.024) × 10¹⁵ molecules cm^–2, R² = 0.92) during the study period. According to MACCity anthropogenic emissions inventory transportation, energy, residential, and industrial sectors are the major contributors of high NO_x emissions. NO₂ pollution hot spots are identified and their tendencies have been discussed. The hot spots of megacities Lahore (Pakistan) and Dhaka (Bangladesh) are found to be strengthening and expanding over the time. Eastern Ganges Basin shows the highest NO₂ concentration at (2.63 ± 0.22) × 10¹⁵ molecules cm^–2 and growth rate of 3.22% per year mainly linked to power generation, fossil fuel extraction, mining activities, and biomass burning. NO₂ over Indus–Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna Basin exhibits seasonal maximum in winter and minimum in monsoon. The highest seasonality is found over Meghna Basin due to large variations in meteorological conditions and large-scale crop-residue burning. Some anomalies in NO₂ levels have been detected linked to intense crop-residue burning events. During these anomalies, exceptionally high levels of daily NO₂ reaching up to 76.23 × 10¹⁵ molecules cm^–2 have been observed over some places in Indus and Meghna Basins.     

Landscape changes of the Ejin Delta in the Heihe River Basin in Northwest China from 1930 to 2010

The Heihe River Basin is located in the arid and semi-arid region of Northwest China; during the past 80 years, this basin has experienced water resource competition between irrigation agriculture and ecological demand in its middle and lower reaches, respectively. The land cover of the Ejin Delta in the lower reaches of the Heihe River Basin was interpreted and analysed for four different periods using a map created by Dr Sven Hedin in the 1930s, Corona satellite images taken in 1961, and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images taken in 2000 and 2010. Overall, the results show that (1) the coarse resolution of the 1930s map increased the uncertainty of analysis in the study area and (2) the river area in the Ejin Delta decreased by 91.0% from the 1930s to 2000. In addition, two major terminal lakes, Gaxun Nuur Lake and Sogo Nuur Lake, dried up in 1961 and 1992, respectively, and the area of Populus euphratica decreased by 76.1% from the 1930s to 2000. Most reeds were overtaken by shrubs between the 1930s and 1961, which caused the area of reeds to decrease from 3481 to 1332 km² and the area of shrubs to increase from 805 to 2795 km². From the 1930s to 2000, the desert and alkaline land areas increased by 42.2% and 52.4%, respectively. (3) After the water transfer project was implemented in 2000, the area of Sogo Nuur Lake recovered to 40.58 km² by 2010. The areas of Populus euphratica, shrubland, and reedland showed a recovering trend, with increases of 4.5%, 6.5%, and 43.5%, respectively, by 2010. The desert and alkaline land areas decreased by 4.2% and 15.2%, respectively, by 2010. The area of cultivated land increased from 25 km² in 1961 to 85 km² in 2000 and rapidly approached 160 km² in 2010. These changes over time indicated that the ecological habitat in the Ejin Delta deteriorated between the 1930s and 2000. However, the water transfer project effectively changed the degradation trend.     

Evaluation of MODIS derived perpendicular drought index for estimation of surface dryness over northwestern China

In this paper, drought status of northwestern China is evaluated using the Terra–Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data with a newly developed method called perpendicular drought index (PDI), which is defined as a line segment that is parallel with the soil line and perpendicular to the normal line of soil line intersecting the coordinate origin in the two‐dimensional scatter plot of red against near infrared (NIR) wavelength reflectance. To validate the PDI in macroscale applications, quantitative evaluation of drought conditions in Ningxia, Northwestern China is carried out by comparing the PDI with one of the well‐known drought indexes, namely, temperature‐vegetation index (TVX). Linear regression between ground‐measured soil moisture data and the PDI and the TVX was made. Results show that satellite based PDI and TVX has significant correlation with 0–20 cm averaged soil moisture obtained over the meteorological observing stations across the whole study area. The highest correlation of R ² = 0.48 for the PDI and R ² = 0.40 for the TVX is obtained when compared with average soil moisture from 0 to 20 cm soil depth. According to the drought critical values defined by soil hydrologic parameters including soil moisture, wilting coefficient and field moisture capacity, the PDI based drought guidelines are established, and then the drought status in the study area is evaluated using the PDI. It is evident from the results showing the spatial distribution of drought in northwestern China that the PDI is highly accordant with field drought status.