Monitoring wetland extent and dynamics in the Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam, using space-based radar remote sensing

A range of spaceborne radar images are acquired over a tropical catchment containing a large floodplain wetland in Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam. The images, which are a combination of ERS and JERS SAR over the period 1992 to 2000, are focussed on the wet season in each year while more frequent sampling is available throughout 1999-2000. These data are being used to delineate the area of the wetland and, by superimposing on a digital elevation model, the volume of water in the wetland at the time of each image acquisition. This provides temporal estimates of maximum flood extent since 1992 and for 1999-2000 the seasonal variation in wetland extent (i.e. the hydroperiod). The remote sensing derived estimates are compared with meteorological records for the area, and with limited in-situ measurements of water depth. The work is extended to include JERS acquisitions, in order to (i) extend the record of wetland extent, and (ii) compare estimates of wetland extent acquired with C-band and L-band sensors