Sedimentary Environment Monitoring Using Satellite Remote Sensing on Tidal Flat in the West Coast of Korea

摘要

The west coast of the Korean Peninsula is famous for its large tidal range (up to 9 m) and vast tidal flats. Remote sensing has the potential to provide synoptic information of intertidal environments. To monitor sedimentary environments of tidal flat, it is necessary (i) to generate the intertidal DEM and measure both amount of sedimentation or erosion; (ii) to discriminate the distribution of surface sediments facies and biomass. Considering the relationship between the sedimentary facies and environmental factors including intertidal DEM, tidal channel networks, and surface remnant water, this study aims at enhancing the accuracy of sedimentary facies classification. In the inner tidal flat of Ganghwa tidal flat, it is relatively higher than outer tidal flat and intertidal channels and creeks were well developed on mud flats. In contrast, the surface topography is relatively smooth in the outer tidal flat and tidal channel density is poorly developed, where the sand flat was dominant. The overall accuracy of characterizing the Hwang-do surface sediment facies by maximum likelihood classification method was 86.2 %. These results demonstrate that high spatial resolution satellite imagery such as IKONOS coupled with knowledge of grain size, surface remnant water and tidal channel network can be effectively used to characterize the surface sedimentary facies.