ON THE USE OF MULTI-FREQUENCY SAR DATA TO IMPROVE THE MONITORING OF INTERTIDAL FLATS ON THE GERMAN NORTH SEA COAST

摘要

We demonstrate that Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)rndata have great potential to improve an existingrnmonitoring system for intertidal flats and to complementrnthe classification of sediments, macrophytes, andrnmussels in the German Wadden Sea. Multi-satelliternSAR data acquired at different radar bands (L, C, and Xrnband, from ALOS PALSAR, from ERS SAR, Radarsat-rn2 and ENVISAT ASAR, and from TerraSAR-X ,rnrespectively) were used to analyse their potential forrncrude sediment classification on dry-fallen intertidalrnflats and for detecting benthic fauna such as blue musselrnor oyster beds. We show that both multi-satellite andrnmulti-temporal analyses provide valuable input for thernroutine monitoring of exposed intertidal flats on thernGerman North Sea Coast. In addition, we demonstraternthat high-resolution SAR is capable of detectingrnresiduals of historical land use in areas that were lost tornthe sea during major storm surges in the 13th and 17thrncenturies.