AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Editors' Highlight

Modeling large-scale inundation on the Amazon River's seasonally flooded wetlands

Flood inundation dynamics for large remote floodplains are critical for understanding hydrological and biogeochemical processes in these important ecosystems. In particular, the Amazon River watershed, whose discharge comprises about 20% of total continental runoff, experiences seasonal heavy floods, affecting processes such as plant productivity, heavy metal accumulation, nutrient dynamics, and the carbon cycle. However, the remoteness of Amazon floodplains and wetlands makes studying these locations difficult. Wilson et al. (2007) used topographic data from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission to model floodplain inundation on a section of the central Amazon. They then compared model results with sparsely available flood gauge data and satellite-derived estimations of actual inundation extents. The authors found that their model is fairly accurate at high water levels but that accuracy drops at low water levels due to initial model parameters and errors in the topographic data used. Nonetheless, they noted that through using their method, predictions of floodplain dynamics can be used as quantitative inputs into biochemical and geomorphic studies requiring detailed hydrodynamic information.

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