Integrated-ecological-assessment-of-biophysical-wetland-habitat-in-water-catchments

ecologicalmodelling214(2008)411–420availableatwww.sciencedirect.comjournalhomepage:www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolmodelIntegratedecologicalassessmentofbiophysicalwetlandhabitatinwatercatchments:Linkinghydro-ecologicalmodellingwithgeo-informationtechniquesDeminZhoua,b,∗,HuiliGonga,ZhaoliLiubaKeyLabofResource,EnvironmentandGISinBeijing,CapitalNormalUniversity,55WeishanRoad,Beijing100037,PRChinabKeyLabofWetlandEcologyandEnvironment,NortheastInstituteofGeographyandAgro-ecology,ChineseAcademyofSciences,130012,PRChinaarticleinfoArticlehistory:Received22October2007Receivedinrevisedform10March2008Accepted12March2008Publishedonline21April2008Keywords:Hydro-ecologicalmodelRemotesensingGeographicalinformationsystemWetlandFloodplainabstractWetlandhydro-ecologyisakeyresearchfieldforecologists,hydrologistsandwetlandinvestigatorstoquantifytherelationshipbetweenwetlandecologicalpatternsandhydrologicalmechanisms.Existenceandfunctioningofwetlandsiscrucialforadjacentterrestrialandaquaticecosystems.Hydro-ecologicalresearchpromotesbothprotectionandrestorationofhealthynaturalwetlandsbyfurtherunderstandingthebiophysicalcharacteristicsofwetlandhabitats.Thisstudyestablishesawetlandhydro-ecologicalmodelwiththemethodologicalsupportfromgeographicinformationsystem(GIS)andremotesensing(RS).Itconceptualisesacause–effectchaininterfacefromtherealwetlandecosystem.GISandcomputermodellingmethodsareusedtogeneratethehydrologicalindicatorsbasedonaDigitalElevationModel(DEM).Byinterpretingmulti-temporalRSimages,weproducewetlandclassificationinformationandvariouslandscapeindices.Bothhydrologicalandlandscapeindicatorsareusedtointegratethehydro-ecologicalanalysiswithsomemultidisciplinaryanalysismethods.Fortheapplicationofthewetlandhydro-ecologicalmodel,wepresentacasestudyinaninlandfloodplainwetlandwithinthescaleofacatchment.ThestudysiteistheHongheNationalNatureReserve(HNNR),aRamsar-designatedsiteontheSanjiangPlaininNorth-eastChina.Themulti-temporalLandsatTM7imagesandaDEMofthestudyareaatfinerscaleareusedtogenerat