TITLE:
Towards Sustainable Land Uses within the Elbe River Biosphere Reserve in Lower Saxony, Germany by Means of TerraSAR-X Images
AUTHORS:
Dalia Farghaly, Emad Elba, Brigitte Urban
KEYWORDS:
Elbe River, Floods, Land Use, SAR, TerraSAR-X, Decision-Tree, Object-Based Classification, Risk Maps
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.4 No.3,
March
31,
2016
ABSTRACT: Floods are
one of the major hazards worldwide. They are the source of huge risks in rural and
urban areas, resulting in severe impacts on the civil society, industry and the
economy. The Elbe River has suffered from many severe floods during recent decades.
In this study, the zones flooded during 2011 were analyzed using TerraSAR-X images
and a digital elevation model for the area in order to identify possible ways to
mitigate flood hazards in the future, regarding sustainable land-use. Two study
areas are investigated, around the Walmsburg oxbow and the Wehningen oxbow. These
are located between Elbe-Kilometer (505-520) and (533-543), respectively, within
the Lower Saxonian Elbe River Biosphere Reserve. Those areas are characterized by
several types of land use, with agricultural land use being predominant. The study
investigated the possibility of using a Decision-Tree object-based classifier for
determining the major land uses and the extent of the inundation areas. The inundation
areas identify for 2011 submerged some agricultural fields that must be added to
existing flood risk maps, and future cultivation activities there prevented to avoid
the possible economic losses. Furthermore, part of the residential area is located
within the high flood zone, and must be included in risk maps to avoid the possible
human and economic losses, to achieve sustainable land use for the areas studied.