remote sensing Article Evaluation of Approaches for Mapping Tidal Wetlands of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays Brian T. Lamb 1,2,* , Maria A. Tzortziou 1,3 and Kyle C. McDonald 1,2,4 1 Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The City College of New York, City University of New York, New York, NY 10031, USA;
[email protected] (M.A.T.);
[email protected] (K.C.M.) 2 Earth and Environmental Sciences Program, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY 10016, USA 3 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA 4 Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 1 July 2019; Accepted: 3 October 2019; Published: 12 October 2019 Abstract: The spatial extent and vegetation characteristics of tidal wetlands and their change are among the biggest unknowns and largest sources of uncertainty in modeling ecosystem processes and services at the land-ocean interface. Using a combination of moderate-high spatial resolution ( 30 meters) optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite imagery, we evaluated several ≤ approaches for mapping and characterization of wetlands of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. Sentinel-1A, Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR), PALSAR-2, Sentinel-2A, and Landsat 8 imagery were used to map wetlands, with an emphasis on mapping tidal marshes, inundation extents, and functional vegetation classes (persistent vs. non-persistent). We performed initial characterizations at three target wetlands study sites with distinct geomorphologies, hydrologic characteristics, and vegetation communities.