Author(s): Satoru Sugio; Kunitoshi Watanabe

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Keywords: Vegetation destruction; Vegetation restoration; Vegetation index; Aerialphotographs

Abstract: The vegetation on a sand bar is strongly dependent on secure flood control and conservation of the river environment, which are therefore extremely important in watershed management. We investigated how the vegetation and topographical features of the sand bar of the Kita River, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, have changed over the past 38 years. The changes that have occurred since 1967 were determined from 12 aerial photographs. Firstly, through the topographical changes and grain size analysis, the developing process of the sand bar due to the past floods was clarified. Secondly, this paper proposed a new index for determining the vegetation coverage and the abundance of vegetation on a sand bar, and described a method for elucidating past changes. The proposed vegetation index was then examined to qualitatively analyze the relationship between the vegetation and scale of flooding. From the simulated results, the history of vegetation destruction and restoration on the sand bar of the Kita River over the past 38 years was clarified.

DOI:

Year: 2005