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Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are launching the second Special Issue of Remote Sensing to be released under the title “Remote Sensing in Agricultural and Environmental Water Monitoring and Impact Assessment”.

Due to global climate change and human activities, the frequency and intensity of extreme events, such as droughts and floods, have been increasing significantly in all world regions, with widespread consequences. Monitoring the distribution and variation patterns of drought and floods accurately and in a timely manner will help to address the grand challenges present, thereby enhancing food and water security, ecosystem services, and human living environments. Along with the rapid development of remote sensing technology, a number of satellite-based methods have demonstrated their potential to reflect water information and related disasters over large scales and across different spatial resolution. This Special Issue aims to present original and innovative research in applications of remote sensing in agricultural and ecological drought monitoring, soil moisture detection, flood and water resource extraction, and the impact assessment of water-related disasters. These papers will provide the readers of Remote Sensing with a wide range of examples of satellite data analysis, big data processing, information management and visualization, earth science, computer science, and new principles, methods, and models regarding water sensing and mapping.

Contributions may be related—but not limited— to the following topics:

Agricultural drought monitoring;
Drought impacts on crops;
Ecological drought monitoring;
Soil moisture detection;
Flood monitoring and its impacts;
Patterns of water resources;
The relationship between water-related disasters and climate change.

Prof. Dr. Shibo Fang
Prof. Dr. Simon Pearson
Prof. Dr. Edward Hanna
Prof. Dr. Lixin Dong
Dr. Yanru Yu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

17 pages, 6039 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatiotemporal Variation in Water Deficit- and Heatwave-Driven Flash Droughts in Songnen Plain and Its Ecological Impact

by Jiahao Sun, Yanfeng Wu, Qingsong Zhang, Lili Jiang, Qiusheng Ma, Mo Chen, Changlei Dai and Guangxin Zhang

Remote Sens. 2024, 16(8), 1408; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16081408 - 16 Apr 2024

Viewed by 310

Abstract

The phenomenon of flash droughts, marked by their fast onset, limited predictability, and formidable capacity for devastation, has elicited escalating concern. Despite this growing interest, a comprehensive investigation of the spatiotemporal dynamics of flash drought events within zones of ecological sensitivity, alongside their consequential ecological ramifications, remains elusive. The Songnen Plain, distinguished as both an important granary for commodity crops and an ecological keystone within China, emerges as an indispensable locus for the inquiry into the dynamics of flash droughts and their repercussions on terrestrial biomes. Through the application of daily soil moisture raster datasets encompassing the years 2002 to 2022, this investigation delves into the spatiotemporal progression of two distinct categories of flash droughts—those instigated by heatwaves and those precipitated by water deficits—within the Songnen Plain. Moreover, the ecosystem’s response, with a particular focus on gross primary productivity (GPP), to these climatic variables was investigated. Flash drought phenomena have been observed to manifest with a relative frequency of approximately one event every three years within the Songnen Plain, predominantly lasting for periods of 28–30 days. The incidence of both heatwave-induced and water deficit-induced flash droughts was found to be comparable, with a pronounced prevalence during the summer and autumn. Nevertheless, droughts caused by water scarcity demonstrated a more extensive distribution and a heightened frequency of occurrence, whereas those rooted in heatwaves were less frequent but exhibited a propensity for localization in specific sectors. The sensitivity of GPP to these meteorological anomalies was pronounced, with an average response rate surpassing 70%. This spatial distribution of the response rate revealed elevated values in the northwestern segment of the Songnen Plain and diminished values towards the southeastern sector. Intriguingly, GPP’s reaction pace to the onset of heatwave-driven flash droughts was observed to be more rapid in comparison to that during periods of water scarcity. Additionally, the spatial distribution of water use efficiency during both the development and recovery periods of flash droughts largely deviated from that of base water use efficiency. The insights from this study hold profound implications for the advancement of regional drought surveillance and adaptive management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing in Agricultural and Environmental Water Monitoring and Impact Assessment (Second Edition))

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