Earth Observatory-based Assessment of Spatial and Temporal trends in Inundation Extent in the Barotse Wetland,Western Zambia
type: CreativeWork
description: Climate change, construction of the Mongu-Kalabo Road coupled with increased mining activities in the upper catchment of the Barotse Wetland could alter the inundation extent dynamics and impact the flood dependent ecosystem. There is very little information available in public domain on inundation extent dynamics of the wetland. This study investigated trends in inundation extent in the Barotse Wetland in Western Zambia. The study methods included statistical analysis of inundation extent time series generated with the Desert Flood Index from MODIS satellite imagery, in-situ hydrological and climatological time series, and land cover change assessment with Landsat imagery. Variations in inundation extent were analysed with the one-way Repeated Measure Analysis of Variance test. The Mann-Kendall trends test was used to characterise trends in inundation extent, hydrological and climatological time series. The Pearson r and the Paired t test were used to analyse correlations between hydrological and climatological time series. The Pettit test was used to test for homogeneity in the time series. Land cover change statistics were derived from the Maximum Likelihood algorithm classified maps which were validated with ground truthing data. The results show that across the period 2003 to 2013 there were significant variations in inundation extent with the F-Ratios (27.21 and 15.73) greater than the F-critical values (2.35 and 2.17) and p-values <0.05 in the ascending/peak and descending periods respectively. In the same period inundation extent showed a significant (p value <0.05) rising trend with a Mann-Kendall Z statistic of 1.87. A very strong correlation, with coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.91, between inundation extent and discharge was observed. From 1984 to 2015 the change in forest cover was observed at 9.78 percent with an annual rate of decrease of 0.32 percent. Overall, the Mann-Kendall trend test showed significant declining trends in mean annual disch…
abstract: Climate change, construction of the Mongu-Kalabo Road coupled with increased mining activities in the upper catchment of the Barotse Wetland could alter the inundation extent dynamics and impact the flood dependent ecosystem. There is very little information available in public domain on inundation extent dynamics of the wetland. This study investigated trends in inundation extent in the Barotse Wetland in Western Zambia. The study methods included statistical analysis of inundation extent time series generated with the Desert Flood Index from MODIS satellite imagery, in-situ hydrological and climatological time series, and land cover change assessment with Landsat imagery. Variations in inundation extent were analysed with the one-way Repeated Measure Analysis of Variance test. The Mann-Kendall trends test was used to characterise trends in inundation extent, hydrological and climatological time series. The Pearson r and the Paired t test were used to analyse correlations between hydrological and climatological time series. The Pettit test was used to test for homogeneity in the time series. Land cover change statistics were derived from the Maximum Likelihood algorithm classified maps which were validated with ground truthing data. The results show that across the period 2003 to 2013 there were significant variations in inundation extent with the F-Ratios (27.21 and 15.73) greater than the F-critical values (2.35 and 2.17) and p-values <0.05 in the ascending/peak and descending periods respectively. In the same period inundation extent showed a significant (p value <0.05) rising trend with a Mann-Kendall Z statistic of 1.87. A very strong correlation, with coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.91, between inundation extent and discharge was observed. From 1984 to 2015 the change in forest cover was observed at 9.78 percent with an annual rate of decrease of 0.32 percent. Overall, the Mann-Kendall trend test showed significant declining trends in mean annual disch…
author: Zimba, Musonda Henry
language: en
keywords: Floodplain forest ecology--Barotse Wetlands, Baroste Wetlands--Environmental conditions.
date published: 2017
date modified: 2026-07-27T22:07:08Z
provider: University of Zimbabwe
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Zambia