Quantitative remote sensing of information indices for eco-water (layer): a case study at Maoergai area in the upper Minjiang River

摘要

Eco-water is defined as the water body closely related to the ground vegetation, including water conserved in the vegetation layer, the vegetation humus layer and the root soil layer. It is capable of precipitation interception and rivers or groundwater supplementation. This paper applies quantitative remote sensing method to experiments performed in the Maoergai area in the upper Minjiang River in China to examine properties, functions, spatial distribution patterns and transformation rules of the eco-water (layer). Based on the features of the eco-water and their reflection in the remotely sensed data, the information indices for the eco-water (layer) were identified, including the Modulus of Eco-water Conservation (MEC), the Modulus of Eco-water Runoff (MER), the Vegetation Moisture Content (VMC), the Soil Moisture Saturation (SMS) and the Soil Moisture Content (SMC). Limited by time, cost and available data, this paper mainly presents the methods for remote sensing information extraction, inversion model construction and quantitative estimation for the eco-water (layer). The consistency between the inverted resource quantity of the eco-water layer and the measured data suggest a valid vegetation-centred quantitative approach to study the eco-water (layer).