Use of NOAA-AVHRR satellite images as a tool for coastal management; A case study of Ecuador's Bahia de Caraquez barrier spit

Abstract:

The use of modern techniques has been without doubt one of the main factors toward the achievement of serious plans regarding Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). A multi-temporal analysis of the land-use of one of the most sensitive areas in Ecuador, Bahia de Caraquez, has given interesting results which have been used to update a more complete coastal zone management plan in this area. In this estuary important mangrove reserves are located. Unfortunately, the lack of control of the activities taking place in the area (shrimp farming) has caused the deforestation of most mangrove-covered areas. A serious concern about the future of the estuary is taking place. Consequently, new techniques have been applied with good results and in this way more effective control and coastal management in the area is taking place. The use of NOAA-AVHRR satellite images to study changes in the land-use of the area and its surrounding was very useful to determine new patterns of human behavior. The multi-temporal analysis done in the area show some interesting results, although most of the images available for that area were too cloudy to consider these results 100% reliable. The comparison and classification of the images (supervised and un-supervised) was completed using as a reference GIS maps where the main activities were identified. Like this, a comparison between the images and the maps was possible and the results were enhanced enormously; although the overall result can not be considered successful, the techniques are quite useful. It is just a matter of quality and resources available in order to do further analysis in this topic. The results of this research after the analysis from the different sources and tools were: The main problem of this coastal zone is the great pressure on it (many activities are taking place in the area). This is causing problems as erosion and sedimentation, mainly related to mangrove deforestation and also degradation of soils in the area. A detailed vegetation cover classification (supervised classification) was not possible because of the low resolution of the images (1x1 km), cloud coverage, and the areas of interest are not so extensive related to the resolution of the images. The multitemporal analysis of the images did not give accurate results because of the same reason, although some changes can be observed and validated with the digital map from the GIS. The use of this modern tools GIS and remote sensing techniques is quite necessary and very useful when analysis like this place, since most of the information can be integrated into a whole unique system which can be updated as new information becomes available in the case of the GIS and also the remote sensing results in this case of the satellite images are completely compatible as an input source of the GIS. So these two tools can work together and like this facilitate the analysis.

Año de publicación:

2002

Keywords:

Fuente:

google

scopus