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Human‐impacted waters: New perspectives from global high‐resolution monitoring
Author(s) -
Ceola Serena,
Laio Francesco,
Montanari Alberto
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1002/2015wr017482
Subject(s) - streams , environmental science , scale (ratio) , temporal scales , spatial ecology , remote sensing , spatial distribution , water resources , satellite , physical geography , geography , environmental resource management , cartography , ecology , computer science , computer network , aerospace engineering , engineering , biology
Abstract The human presence close to streams and rivers is known to have consistently increased worldwide, therefore introducing dramatic anthropogenic and environmental changes. However, a spatiotemporal detailed analysis is missing to date. In this paper, we propose a novel method to quantify the temporal evolution and the spatial distribution of the anthropogenic presence along streams and rivers and in their immediate proximity at the global scale and at a high‐spatial resolution (i.e., nearly 1 km at the equator). We use satellite images of nocturnal lights, available as yearly snapshots from 1992 to 2013, and identify five distinct distance classes from the river network position. Our results show a temporal enhancement of human presence across the considered distance classes. In particular, we observed a higher human concentration in the vicinity of the river network, even though the frequency distribution of human beings in space has not significantly changed in the last two decades. Our results prove that fine‐scale remotely sensed data, as nightlights, may provide new perspectives in water science, improving our understanding of the human impact on water resources and water‐related environments.