Lakes, Eyes of the Landscape. A Long Term Concept for Landscape Monitoring on Lake Catchment Area Base

Abstract

A fast and efficient monitoring concept for lake water quality and catchment area ecological status is under development in cooperation between the University of Technology Munich (TUM) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The aim of the monitoring system is to support regional to local authorities responsible for the implementation of international conservation guidelines, like the WFD, FFH, Ramsar, etc., or the control of national programs like KULAP in Bavaria. Lakes are assumed to be a sink for all pollutants in the catchments. By monitoring the ecological status of the lake the whole catchment is under observation. The input parameter for present status estimation should be derived from imaging spectroscopy data and cross checked with the status as predicted by GIS modelling. Discrepancies in results are expected to indicate a pollution source, which should be traced back to the origin. The concept requires both, the knowledge about bio-, geo-, chemical and physical processes of all contributing land cover types as well as the knowledge about radiation transport and surface/radiation interactions. Balancing the results of process modelling for the different fragments of the landscape the evaluation of the whole catchment area should be possible allowing the detection of pollution sources in the backyards of the lakes catchment. For supporting the RS data evaluations the simultaneous registration of hyperspectral and “on track” stereo data is proposed. The stereo data should deliver the recent surface model for an optimal rectification of the data and, in some cases, provide us with an anisotropy signature as additional information source.