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Measuring Floodplain Inundation Using Diel Amplitude of Temperature
Jorge E Celi1,2, Stephen K Hamilton2,3
1Grupo de Investigación de Recursos Hídricos y Acuáticos, Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, Tena 150150, Ecuador.
Measuring floodplain inundation is difficult. This study shows that temperature damping can indirectly indicate water levels in remote areas, especially in tropical regions.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Hydrology
- Sensor Technology
Background:
- Assessing inundation in large, remote floodplains is challenging and expensive.
- Damping of diel temperature amplitude (DAT) by water offers an indirect inundation indicator.
- This study validates DAT-based inundation assessment against direct water level measurements.
Discussion:
- The DAT method's efficacy varied across tropical, subtropical, and temperate floodplains.
- Humid, vegetated areas presented greater challenges due to smaller air temperature DATs.
- Drier, less vegetated areas showed clearer temperature damping under water.
Key Insights:
- The indirect temperature method is more effective in tropical floodplains.
- Calibration with direct measurements is crucial to establish ecosystem-specific DAT thresholds for submergence.
- Temperature damping provides a cost-effective inundation duration indicator for remote floodplain studies.
Outlook:
- Future research may focus on developing direct, inexpensive submergence sensors (e.g., resistivity-based).
- Continued refinement of indirect methods like DAT holds promise for large-scale floodplain monitoring.
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