Remote sensing technology: Recent advancements for mangrove ecosystems

Abstract

Mangroves are considered to be a unique component of coastal zones in the tropical and sub-tropical regions. They not only play critical roles in fulfilling important socio-economic benefits to coastal communities, but also in ensuring sustainability of coastal ecosystems. Despite the important aspects of their roles, habitat destruction continues to be a major threat due their conversion into other types of land uses. For the last two decades, the use of remote sensing techniques for a variety of mangrove analyses have been reported by many authors. These applications are essential for mangroves as they often involve an extensive area because more often accessibility and larger topographic maps are not available for detailed mapping. General conclusions are that the newer generations of data (i.e., very high resolution [VHR], hyper spectral and synthetic aperture radar [SAR]) and techniques have improved the accuracy in characterizations of mangroves over the traditional remote sensing systems. This chapter reviews recent advancements in remote sensing for mangroves with a particular emphasis on data, techniques and their applications. Results of experiment and investigation for mangrove assessments are reported. Several new approaches and novel applications of recent techniques are also highlighted. In addition, several constraints of the use of remote sensing applications for mangrove monitoring are identified. Finally, future opportunities of data and techniques for mangrove assessments are described.