Remote sensing of plant communities as a tool for assessing the condition of semiarid Mediterranean saline wetlands in agricultural catchments

- Wetland plants coverage was estimated under a range of watershed hydrological condition.
- Multivariate and regression analysis was performed to seek indicator plant communities.
- Remote sensing of plant communities was performed using an airborne sensor.
- Wetland condition was assessed over a whole region using fieldwork and remote sensing.
- Our methodology is cost effective for regional wetland assessment and monitoring.

Semiarid Mediterranean saline wetlands are unique ecosystems sheltering high biodiversity. In the last decades, the expansion of irrigated lands has led to hydrological imbalances in Mediterranean catchments, causing wetland degradation. Vegetation composition assessment is considered an important tool for evaluating wetland ecological condition and can be mapped using remote sensing. This study aims to develop a condition index based on plant community composition suitable for semiarid Mediterranean saline wetlands, as well as to test the applicability of airborne multispectral remote sensors for discriminating plant communities. Characteristic plant communities of 12 wetlands were identified by means of ordination and classification analysis of plant taxa cover percentages obtained through fieldwork sampling. An index for assessing wetland ecological condition was developed based on the relationship between wetland plant community composition and watershed hydrological condition. Selected wetland plant communities were then mapped by means of remote sensing techniques using random forest algorithm for supervised classification of airborne images. Following this methodology, remote sensing served as a tool for wetland condition assessment at a regional scale.