Monitoring the Coastal Environment Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

Abstract

The coastal zone has been of importance for economic development and ecological restoration due to their rich natural resources and vulnerable ecosystems. Remote sensing techniques have proven to be powerful tools for the monitoring of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere on a global, regional, and even local scale, by pro‐ viding important coverage, mapping and classification of land cover features such as vegetation, soil, water and forests. This chapter introduced the methods for mon‐ itoring the coastal environment using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Case studies of port expansion monitoring in typical coastal regions, together with the coastal environment changes analysis were also presented. Coastal zones are important for economic development and ecological restoration due to their rich natural resources and vulnerable ecosystems. Remote sensing tech‐ niques have been shown to be powerful tools in the monitoring of the Earth’s sur‐ face and atmosphere on global, regional, and local scales. These techniques provide important coverage and mapping and help classify land cover, such as vegetation, soil, water, and forests. The main objectives of this chapter are (1) to introduce the state-of-the-art techniques on monitoring coastal environments using remote sens‐ ing and geographic information systems (GIS), including landscape classification, automatic classification and change detection on regional scale, and objective-based classification on local scale, and (2) to present case studies of coastal environment monitoring, including Zhan Jiang Port in the stage of specialization, Gwadar Port and Djibouti Port in the expansion stage, and Ilichevsk Port in the stable stage