Future Prospects and Challenges for River Scientists and Managers - Fluvial Remote Sensing for Science and Management - page 420

Raw Imagery Raw Topography

External Data

Web-based Interface
and FRS* tools

- Discharge
- Water/habitat characters
- Living communities
- etc.

- Channel Geometry
- Bathymetry
- Substrate
- Water characters
- Flow Velocity
- Riparian vegetation
- etc.

Visualising
Analysing
Archiving
Sharing

Science and Decision Support

- Characterising river corridors

-

Re-testing classic river science theories

- Planning and targeting management efforts

-

Monitoring river systems

-

Predicting costs, sensitivity and evolution

Figure 19.1 Flow chart describing future
fluvial remote sensing framework for
supporting management decisions and
scientific challenges.

-

Early warning of hazards

* FRS : Fluvial Remote Sensing

In closing, we propose the following flow chart describ-
ing what we perceive as an idealised future state for fluvial
remote sensing (Figure 19.1). At the core of the flowchart
is the idea that fluvial remote sensing will be adopted by a
very wide user group of non-remote-sensing-specialists in
a trajectory similar to that of traditional remote sensing.
The history of western science, going as far back as Da
Vinci and other Renaissance thinkers, has clearly shown
that our ability to understand and conceptualise physical
phenomena is linked to our ability to measure them.
Fluvial remote sensing therefore offers us an enormous
opportunity to push river sciences forward by funda-
mentally changing our perception and by allowing us
to thoroughly investigate river catchments in a manner
which was previously impossible. We therefore hope that

this volume will serve as a useful reference and encourage
new users to adopt these methods in order to further their
respective fields of investigation.

References

Alber, A. and Piegay, H. 2011. Spatial aggregation procedure
for characterizing physical structures of fluvial networks:
applications to the Rh one basin. Geomorphology . 125(3):
343-360.
Benda, L., Poff, N.L., Miller, D., Dunne, T., Reeves, G., Pess, G.,
and Pollock, M. 2004. The network dynamics hypothesis:
How channel networks structure riverine habitats. Bioscience ,
54 (5), 413-427. 10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0413:tndhhc]
2.0.co;2.