ENVIRONMENTAL- AND CLIMATE CHANGE RELATED TRENDS IN RIVER DELTAS – EXAMPLES FROM THE MEKONG KUENZER Claudia1, HUTH Juliane1, GEBHARDT Steffen1, LEINENKUGEL Patrick1, LAM DAO Nguyen2, DECH Stefan1 1
German Remote Sensing Data Centre, DFD, of the German Aerospace Centre, DLR, Germany 2 GIS and Remote Sensing Research Center, HCMIRG, VAST, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] River Deltas belong to the most vulnerable ecosystems on Earth and are especially susceptible to climate change related changes in sea level, as well as environmental changes resulting from increasing pressure due to economic growth. The Mekong Delta in Vietnam is not only the rice bowl of the country, but also serves as the major supplier of protein for the local population, which is not only involved in agriculture, but also intensive fishery and aquaculture. Due to economic growth, population pressure and heterogeneous landuse planning processes the Mekong Delta experiences rapid urban sprawl, the conversion of natural wetland habitats or rice growing areas into aquaculture, pollution of water resources, and coastal degradation processes mostly affecting mangrove belts. Climate Change induced sea level rise leads to increased coastal erosion, salt water intrusion further inland into the delta, the salinization of soils and aquifers and the increase of extreme events, such as severe floods and droughts. Remote Sensing provides an optimal tool to map and monitor landcover and landuse development, urban sprawl, water constituents, flood and drought situations, and habitat changes. We provide an overview of the relevant processes in the Mekong Delta based on the analyses of data from sensors such as TerraSar-X, Envisat ASAR, RapidEye, Landsat, Spot and MODIS. Most of the methodological approaches developed for information retrieval are designed in a semi- to full automatic manner and will briefly be presented as well.
