Land Use Changes and Volumetric Processes in the Tinto Salt-marshes

Abstract

The Tinto Marshes is a natural area located at the mouth of the Tinto's river (Huelva, Spain), being, in size, the third largest wetland in the province of Huelva after Donana and Odiel salt-marshes. Due to its special topography, as they are characterized as salt-marshes, their characterization, both altimetric and volumetric, is quite complex. In this research, Landsat TM and ETM satellite images from the United States Geological Service (USGS) were analyzed for a period of 35 years, which were examined and classified in a certain period of time in order to characterize the dynamic changes (floods and land use changes) in the Tinto Tidal Marshes. The erosion phenomena were studied and analyzed through the use of different DEM and UAV data. All data were integrated into a GIS. Results shown how the forest fires and the oak decline of Quercus are the two processes that accelerate the conversion of forest stands in scrub areas or pastureland. Moreover, the ecological preservation of the Tinto salt-marshes results in a similarity of the volumetric change processes produced in the study periods. Erosion processes are an immediate consequence of the low kinetic energy in the Tinto river and hence of the progressive increase of the negative rate of eroded soil.