No abstract

Wetlands provide invaluable ecosystem services and contribute significantly to food security around the world. To maintain these functions, wetlands need to be protected from rapid transformation and overuse. Spatially-explicit information is required for sustainable wetland management. Development of wetland maps based on remote sensing requires a clear-cut definition of wetlands. This review was undertaken to improve the understanding of these habitats from a remote sensing perspective and to determine available wetland map layers for the East African countries of Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. This study includes three components: (1) a review of the availability and types of wetland definitions from the scientific literature record (including 245 separate references); (2) a systematic analysis of land use/land cover classifications and the conceptual approaches and spatial coverages of wetland classes for each system; and (3) a depiction of wetland layers and a discussion of their suitability for use in regional inventories. Our literature review shows that a standard definition of wetlands is not in use, and a specific definition of wetlands is not given in more than 40% of the reviewed remote sensing publications. Spatial information on East African wetlands is currently insufficient for use in regional wetland management. OPEN ACCESS

Abstract.Wetlands cover an area of approx. 18 Mio ha in the East African countries of Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, with still a relative small share being used for food production. Current upland agricultural use intensification in these countries due to demographic growth, climate change and globalization effects are leading to an over-exploitation of the resource base, followed by an intensification of agricultural wetland use. We aim on translating, transferring and upscaling knowledge on experimental test-site wetland properties, small-scale hydrological processes, and water related ecosystem services under different types of management from local to national scale. This information gained at the experimental wetland/catchment scale will be embedded as reference data within an East African wetland-catchment data base including catchment physical properties and a regional wetland inventory serving as a base for policy advice and the development of sustainable wetland management strategies.

Soil moisture is an important parameter that drives agriculture, climate and hydrological systems. In addition, retrieval of soil moisture is important in the analysis as well as its influence on these systems. Radar imagery is best suited for this retrieval due to its all-weather capability and independence from solar irradiation. Soil moisture retrieval was done for the Malinda Wetland, Tanza

Prof. Dr. Gunter Menz passed away on 9 August 2016 following a dramatic accident.[...]