Environmental Monitoring and Environmental Restoration for the Arid Lands and Wetlands

Dear Colleagues,

Arid lands and wetlands are among the most fragile ecosystems as they are vulnerable to climate change and human disturbances. However, they have received less attention in recent decades. Wetlands, occurring between terrestrial and aquatic environments, provide crucial ecosystem services for human beings and wildlife. However, because of climate change and intensified anthropogenic activities, wetlands have been substantially degraded or have disappeared. While arid lands are sparsely vegetated with low annual productivity, their services to more than two billion people include significant crop production and forage for wildlife and domestic livestock. They have been identified as an important player in global trends and variability in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. Thus, the environmental monitoring of and environmental restoration for arid lands and wetlands through remote sensing technologies are necessary to better evaluate the evolution of ecosystems (positive or negative) and carry out corresponding protection and management countermeasures.

This Topic, “Environmental Monitoring and Environmental Restoration for the Arid Lands and Wetlands”, aims to capture the recent advancements in the applications of remote sensing and big geospatial data in the monitoring and restoration of global or regional arid land and wetlands. Potential topics include (but are not limited to) the following: (i) automatic and accurate mapping algorithms of remote sensing (e.g., deep learning and object-oriented classification methods) for the monitoring of arid land and wetlands; (ii) tracking of spatial‒temporal dynamics of arid land and wetlands, and (iii) identification of major driving factors for the gains and losses of arid land and wetlands, such as climate, land use, population, restoration activities, and socioeconomic.

Dr. Xinxin Wang
Dr. Yongchao Liu
Prof. Dr. Jie Wang
Dr. Xiaocui Wu
Topic Editors