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Use of remote sensing techniques to assess water storage variations and flood-related inflows for the Hawizeh wetland

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Abstract

High spatial and temporal resolution remote sensing data are becoming readily available. This has made the use of remote sensing to monitor and quantify spatiotemporal changes in surface waters feasible and efficient. In this paper, remote sensing techniques based on spectral indices were used to assess the changes in submerged areas and water storage in the Hawizeh marsh (south of Iraq) during the 2019 flood. Two water indices, the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), were used for this purpose. Water indices have been frequently utilized to detect water bodies because of their particular spectral properties in the visible and infrared spectrum. Non-measured flood-related flows into the marsh have also been estimated by applying the water balance approach. The accuracy assessment of the water areas extracted by the remote sensing indices showed an acceptable degree of reliability, which reflected positively on the water inflow calculations. As the Hawizeh is a transboundary marsh shared by Iraq and Iran, remote sensing techniques allowed for the estimation of difficult-to-measure inflows from the Iranian side. The results of the water balance revealed that the inflows from the Iranian side to the marsh during the 5 months of the flood made up approximately 41.2% of the total water volume entering the marsh. The study demonstrated the feasibility of using uncomplicated water extraction methods that depend on remote sensing data to monitor hydrological changes in the Hawizeh wetland that lack sufficient data.

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Data availability

Raw data were generated at the Centre for Restoration of Iraqi Marshlands and Wetlands, CRIMW. On request, the corresponding author Wisam Alawadi will provide derived data that support the findings of this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq

    Wisam A. Alawadi & Dina A. Yaseen

  2. Center for Restoration of Iraqi Marshes and Wetlands, Baghdad, Iraq

    Zahraa A. Hussain A. Raheem

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  1. Wisam A. Alawadi
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the preparation and design of this research paper. Wisam Alawadi and Zahraa A. collected the data and performed the analysis and calculation. Wisam Alawadi wrote the main manuscript text, and Dina A. prepared the figures and tables. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Wisam A. Alawadi.

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Alawadi, W.A., Raheem, Z.A.H.A. & Yaseen, D.A. Use of remote sensing techniques to assess water storage variations and flood-related inflows for the Hawizeh wetland. Environ Monit Assess 195, 1246 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11838-x

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