Realizing the Dead Sea Lakes Region in Rote Islands to be a geopark using multidisciplinary spatial information approach

Abstract

Rote Ndao Regency is the southernmost region of Indonesia bordering Australia and Timor Leste. This regency has varieties of unique and endemic geology, biodiversity and inland waters. The regency has some 80 lakes where around 20 are saltwater lakes. The salinity of these lakes exceeds the salinity of seawater. The majority of these saltwater lakes are located in the Dead Sea Lake Region of Rote islands. Geologically, the islands have mixed deformations that move vertically and horizontally and are lifted partially from the Australian continent. The biodiversity in this region is also unique as there is a Roti snake-necked turtle that enters endangered animals. There are also unique mangroves conditions that live far from water sources due to vertical deformation. Rote Ndao also has areas of peat coal that are mixed with saltwater areas, freshwater areas, and brackish water areas. Remote sensing can be used to help effectively and efficiently in geological, biodiversity and inland waters mapping. This study aims to inform the related spatial information of the frontier region of Rote Ndao with the use of multidisciplinary remote sensing to realize Geopark. This multidisciplinary approach in remote sensing applications is used to obtain spatial information based on geo-biophysical and classification parameters. Data used in the form of ∼ 65-70% remote sensing data and ∼30-35% non-remote sensing data. Remote sensing data in the form of Landsat, Sentinel, WorldView-2, Planet, Grace, Goce, Champ, and others. This multidisciplinary approach includes remote sensing, geodesy, geology, limnology, biodiversity, water resources, forest conservation, and geo-informatics. The uniqueness of geology and biodiversity in the Dead Sea Lake Region of Rote is expected to make this region become a Geopark.