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Spatial Relations Between Floodplain Environments and Land Use – Land Cover of a Large Lowland Tropical River Valley: Pánuco Basin, México

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Abstract

Large lowland river valleys include a variety of floodplain environments that represent opportunities and constraints for human activities. This study integrates extensive field observations and geomorphic data with analysis of satellite remote sensing data to examine spatial relations between land use/land cover (LULC) and floodplain environments in the lower Pánuco basin of eastern Mexico. The floodplain of the lower Pánuco basin was delineated by combining a digital elevation model with a satellite image of a large flood event. The LULC was classified by combining a hybrid classification strategy with image stratification, applied to 15-m-resolution ASTER data. A geomorphic classification of floodplain environments was performed using a dry-stage image (ASTER data) and a 1993 Landsat image acquired during a large flood event. Accuracy assessment was based on aerial photographs (1:38,000), global positioning satellite ground-truthing, and a Landsat 7ETM+ image from 2000, which resulted in an overall accuracy of 82.9% and a KHAT of 79.8% for the LULC classification. The geomorphic classification yielded 83.5% overall accuracy, whereas the KHAT was 81.5%. LULC analysis was performed for the entire floodplain and individually within four valley segments. The analysis indicates that the study area is primarily utilized for grazing and farming. Agriculture is primarily associated with coarse-grained (sandy/silty) natural levee and point bar units close to the river channel, whereas cattle grazing occurs in distal and lower-lying reaches dominated by cohesive fine-grained (clayey) deposits, such as backswamps. In the Pánuco valley, wetlands and lakes occur within backswamp environments, whereas in the Moctezuma segments, wetlands and lakes are associated with relict channels. This study reveals considerable variation in LULC related to spatial differences in floodplain environments and illustrates the importance of considering older anthropogenic influences on the landscape. The research design should be applicable for other large lowland coastal plain river valleys where agriculture is a major component of the floodplain landscape.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the processing of the DEM provided by Melba M. Crawford and Larry Teng (Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin), Field and laboratory assistance was also provided by Franklin T. Heitmuller, Sean White, Amy Neuenschwander, and Augustine Avwunudiogba from the Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Texas at Austin, and Humberto Reyes-Hernandez from the Universidad Nacional Autónomica de Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City. We are grateful to the ranchers, farmers, and residents of the Pánuco–Moctezuma valley who during the past several years have provided information on land-use practices and granted permission to access field sites for surveying, sampling floodplain deposits, and ground-truthing satellite imagery. We also would like to thank our reviewers Dr. Leal A. K. Mertes at University of California–Santa Barbara and Stephen E. Walsh at Michigan State University for insightful comments. The ASTER data are distributed by the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC), located at the Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) data center. Funding provided by an Interdisciplinary Research Initiative from the Vice President for Research and Provost’s office and a Mellon Foundation Award From the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712-1098, USA

    Paul F. Hudson

  2. German Remote Sensing Data Center, German Aerospace Center, Oberpfaffenhofen 82234 Wessling, Germany and Remote Sensing Unit, Department of Geography, University of Würzburg, 97074, Würzburg, Germany

    René R. Colditz

  3. Instituto de Investigaciones Humanísticas, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, S.L.P., 78280, México

    Miguel Aguilar-Robledo

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  1. Paul F. Hudson
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Correspondence to Paul F. Hudson.

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Hudson, P.F., Colditz, R.R. & Aguilar-Robledo, M. Spatial Relations Between Floodplain Environments and Land Use – Land Cover of a Large Lowland Tropical River Valley: Pánuco Basin, México. Environmental Management 38, 487–503 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-003-0157-4

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