Remote sensing of wetlands in the prairie pothole region of North America

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dc.contributor.authorMontgomery, Joshua
dc.contributor.authorMahoney, Craig
dc.contributor.authorBrisco, Brian
dc.contributor.authorBoychuk, Lyle
dc.contributor.authorCobbaert, Danielle
dc.contributor.authorHopkinson, Christopher
dc.date.accessioned2025-07-22T23:04:19Z
dc.date.available2025-07-22T23:04:19Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.descriptionOpen access article. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) applies
dc.description.abstractThe Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America is an extremely important habitat for a diverse range of wetland ecosystems that provide a wealth of socio-economic value. This paper describes the ecological characteristics and importance of PPR wetlands and the use of remote sensing for mapping and monitoring applications. While there are comprehensive reviews for wetland remote sensing in recent publications, there is no comprehensive review about the use of remote sensing in the PPR. First, the PPR is described, including the wetland classification systems that have been used, the water regimes that control the surface water and water levels, and the soil and vegetation characteristics of the region. The tools and techniques that have been used in the PPR for analyses of geospatial data for wetland applications are described. Field observations for ground truth data are critical for good validation and accuracy assessment of the many products that are produced. Wetland classification approaches are reviewed, including Decision Trees, Machine Learning, and object versus pixel-based approaches. A comprehensive description of the remote sensing systems and data that have been employed by various studies in the PPR is provided. A wide range of data can be used for various applications, including passive optical data like aerial photographs or satellite-based, Earth-observation data. Both airborne and spaceborne lidar studies are described. A detailed description of Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) data and research are provided. The state of the art is the use of multi-source data to achieve higher accuracies and hybrid approaches. Digital Surface Models are also being incorporated in geospatial analyses to separate forest and shrub and emergent systems based on vegetation height. Remote sensing provides a cost-effective mechanism for mapping and monitoring PPR wetlands, especially with the logistical difficulties and cost of field-based methods. The wetland characteristics of the PPR dictate the need for high resolution in both time and space, which is increasingly possible with the numerous and increasing remote sensing systems available and the trend to open-source data and tools. The fusion of multi-source remote sensing data via state-of-the-art machine learning is recommended for wetland applications in the PPR. The use of such data promotes flexibility for sensor addition, subtraction, or substitution as a function of application needs and potential cost restrictions. This is important in the PPR because of the challenges related to the highly dynamic nature of this unique region.
dc.description.peer-reviewYes
dc.identifier.citationMontgomery, J., Mahoney, C., Brisco, B., Boychuk, L., Cobbaert, D., & Hopkinson, C. (2021). Remote sensing of wetlands in the prairie pothole region of North America. Remote Sensing, 13(9), Article 3878. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13193878
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10133/7082
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherMDPI
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Geography and Environment
dc.publisher.facultyArts and Science
dc.publisher.institutionAlberta Environment and Parks
dc.publisher.institutionCanada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation
dc.publisher.institutionDucks Unlimited
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Lethbridge
dc.publisher.urlhttps://doi.org/10.3390/rs13193878
dc.subjectPrairie pothole region
dc.subjectWetland
dc.subjectRemote sensing
dc.subjectMonitoring
dc.subjectClassification
dc.subjectEcology
dc.subjectWetland classification
dc.subjectPPR wetlands
dc.titleRemote sensing of wetlands in the prairie pothole region of North America
dc.typeArticle
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