ENVISAT) for Addressing the Lack of Freshwater Ecosystems Management, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos
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Remote Sensing of Environment 112 (2008) 4131-4147 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Remote Sensing of Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rse DEM generation using ASAR (ENVISAT) for addressing the lack of freshwater ecosystems management, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos Noémi d'Ozouville a,⁎,1, Benoît Deffontaines b, Jérôme Benveniste c, Urs Wegmüller d, Sophie Violette a, Ghislain de Marsily a a Université Pierre et Marie Curie, CNRS UMR 7619, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France b Université Marne-la-Vallée, Laboratoire Géomateriaux et Géologie de l'Ingénieur, 5 Bd. Descartes, Champs-sur-Marne, F-77454 Marne-la-Vallée, Cedex 2, France c European Space Agency - ESRIN, via Galileo Galilei, casilla postale 64, 00044 Frascati (Rm), Italy d Gamma Remote Sensing, Worbstrasse 225, CH-3073 Guemligen, Switzerland ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Low relief oceanic islands often suffer from scarcity of freshwater resources. Remote sensing has proved to be Received 1 March 2007 an effective tool to generate valuable data for hydrological analysis and has improved the management of Received in revised form 29 January 2008 ecosystems and water. However, remotely sensed data are often tested over areas with existing validation Accepted 23 February 2008 databases and not always where the need is greatest. In this paper we address the need for topographical data to understand the hydrological system of Santa Cruz Island (Galapagos archipelago) so that Keywords: DEM generation management of freshwater ecosystems and resources can take place. No high resolution, high accuracy ENVISAT ASAR topographical data exist for Santa Cruz Island, and its growing population has created an urgent need for Interferometry water resource management and protection of unique and pristine ecosystems. Radargrammetry Inaccessible National Park land covers more than 97% of Galapagos territory, which makes the use of remote SRTM sensing methods indispensable. SRTM data was insufficient in terms of grid size (90 m) to carry out the Hydrology needed data analysis. We used ASAR data (ENVISAT) in VV polarization image mode for Digital Elevation Freshwater Model (DEM) generation, in order to extract drainage network, watersheds, and flow characteristics from a Management morpho-structural analysis. Galapagos archipelago Results show the high potential of these data for both interferometric and radargrammetric generation methods. Although interferometry suffered from low coherence over highly vegetated areas, it showed high precision over the rest of the island. Radargrammetry gave consistent results over the entire island, and details were enhanced by integrating the 90 m SRTM data as an external DEM. Accuracy of the SRTM and the combined radargrammetric/SRTM DEM was similar, with the radargrammetric having a finer pixel-based resolution (20 m). Validation of the extracted drainage networks and watersheds was carried out using ground-based field observations and comparison to mapped river networks visually extracted from aerial photographs and high resolution (1 m) satellite imagery available on GoogleEarth©. For the first time, watershed characteristics and flow paths were made available for an island of the Galapagos archipelago. Furthermore, the drainage network is shown to be strongly influenced by observed and extracted structural discontinuities. Having characterized freshwater flow, water balance calculations were carried out for Pelican Bay watershed, where urban areas, agricultural land and Galapagos National Park land are concomitant. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction and climate explain this condition, as the islands are made up mainly of basaltic lava flows which are impermeable but highly fractured. The Galapagos Islands, like many other volcanic oceanic islands Located on the Equator, yet surrounded by cool waters, the low (e.g. Won et al., 2006), suffer from lack of surface freshwater. Geology altitude Galapagos Islands receive much less rainfall than their tropical counterparts (e.g. La Réunion and Hawaii) and evaporation ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 1 44 27 51 22; fax: +33 1 44 27 51 25. from the land is very high. Although research in the field of E-mail addresses: [email protected] (N. d'Ozouville), evolutionary biology has been on-going since Darwin (1859), [email protected] (B. Deffontaines), [email protected] hydrology and even hydro-ecology have been very poorly studied in (J. Benveniste), [email protected] (U. Wegmüller), [email protected] the islands (Navarro Latorre et al., 1991), perhaps due to the apparent (S. Violette), [email protected] (G. de Marsily). 1 Work carried out as Young Graduate Trainee at European Space Agency, ESRIN, lack of surface freshwater. The Regional Plan for Galapagos (Ingala, Frascati, Italy. 2002) mentions potable water and water for irrigation, but does not 0034-4257/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2008.02.017 4132 N. d'Ozouville et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 112 (2008) 4131-4147 address the lack of data and studies or the protection of freshwater a deep well tapping into the brackish basal aquifer and a low-outflow ecosystems. Contamination of groundwater resources from lack of a highland spring at the base of a scoria cone (Fig. 1). To date, neither sewage and water treatment system and leaking septic tanks in Puerto freshwater ecosystems nor water resources are being managed. The Ayora (main town of Santa Cruz Island) has been known for over growing pressure on the local ecosystems from socio-economic 20 years (Ingala et al., 1989) and has worsened over the years. The development (tourism industry and population growth rate of 6% aquatic ecosystems known to the island are: i) summital swamps, annually) has forced the local authorities to seek an integrated semi-permanent surface ponds and semi-permanent streams for management system (d'Ozouville & Merlen, 2007). However, this freshwater ecosystems and ii) open coastal fractures known as grietas objective is unattainable without knowledge of the dynamics and and coastal back-beach lagoons for brackish ones. At the beginning of construction of the hydrological system (watershed boundaries, catch- our study, in 2003, the exploited water resources included: the grietas, ment areas, reserves, and residence times). Freshwater ecosystems were Fig. 1. Location map of Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos. Inset shows the position of the Galapagos archipelago in the Eastern Pacific and of Santa Cruz island within the archipelago. The whole island consists of Galapagos National Park land except the urban areas and agricultural zone. Permanent water resources are indicated. The lower inset shows the rapid development of the main town of Puerto Ayora (1963, 1985, 2006). The white outline marks the outer limits of the town. Road, tracks, agricultural zone, urban areas and coastline from Charles Darwin Foundation-Galapagos National Park Service (FCD-SPNG) GIS. N. d'Ozouville et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 112 (2008) 4131-4147 4133 taken into consideration for the first time in the New Management Plan funds to carry out freshwater management related projects. It is a of the Galapagos National Park in 2005. Here we propose to consider a volcanic island culminating at 855 m a.s.l. (meters above sea level), as freshwater ecosystem as a dynamic entity, where the quantity and type shown in this study. The oldest lavas of the island are dated at 1 to 3 Ma of rainfall play a major role in generating runoff and interlinking the (million years) (Bow, 1979) and the most recent lavas are younger than individual small freshwater ecosystems: feeding swamps and ponds, 250,000 to a couple thousand years (Bow, 1979). The low-lying coastal semi-perennial streams, and recharging the basal aquifer. apron gradually steepens to reach the summit area where the Based on the literature, the horizontal resolution of the two predominant feature is the alignment of volcanic cones along east– existing Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) for Santa Cruz was west normal faults. Large pit craters (greater than 100 m diameter and considered too coarse for hydrological modeling (Endreny et al., 100 m depth) are also aligned along this direction on the upper northern 2000; Garbrecht & Martz, 1999; Valeriano et al., 2006; Walker et al., flank. Distinctive tectonic features such as fault scarps and horst–graben 1999). The aim was therefore to generate a 20 m horizontal resolution structures are visible in the north-eastern and southern lowlands. DEM with 15 m vertical accuracy showing considerable improvement Heavy rainstorms occur during the hot season from January to on the existing data sets. The inter-relationship between the derived June. During the “garúa” season from July to December an inversion data and management issues is characterized at a local level within layer sets in above 300 m a.s.l. The moisture-laden air condenses in the Pelican Bay watershed. This watershed was chosen because it contact with the vegetation giving rise to humid conditions. Annual encompasses Galapagos National Park land, agricultural land and the rainfall varies from 300 mm at the coast to 1500 mm at 630 m a.s.l. most densely populated area. It represents a prime site where (Huttel, 1995). Inter-annual variations can be striking with years with freshwater ecosystem management needs to be achieved. The work no rainfall in the coastal areas and exceptional El Niño years when was carried out in collaboration with local authorities in charge of precipitation can be more than quadruple (Snell & Rea, 1999). The regional planning (Ingala), water distribution (Municipality), ecosys- vegetation distribution on the island is related to the hydrometric tem protection (Galapagos National Park Service), and research potential from the arid coastal zone through a transitional-wet zone to (Charles Darwin Research Station). the very humid summit area. The maximum vegetation height in DEMs have become a vital source of topographical data for dense areas is 10 m. In the agricultural zone, sparsely distributed scientific investigations such as hydrological studies.