Remote Sensing the Mekong

The Mekong Basin in Southeast Asia is one of the largest international river basins in the world. Its abundant natural resources are shared by six riparian countries and provide the basis for the livelihoods of more than 75 million people. However, ongoing socio-economic growth and related anthropogenic interventions impact the region’s ecosystems, and there is an urgent need for the monitoring of the basin's land surface dynamics. Remote sensing has evolved as a key tool for this task, allowing for up-to-date analyses and regular monitoring of environmental dynamics beyond physical or political boundaries and at various temporal and spatial scales. This book serves as a forum for remote-sensing scientists with an interest in the Mekong River Basin to present their recent basin-related works as well as applied case studies of the region. A broad range of sensors from high to medium resolution, and from multispectral to SAR systems, are applied, covering topics such as land cover/land use classification and comparison, time series analyses of climate variables, vegetation structure and vegetation productivity, as well as studies on flood mapping or water turbidity monitoring. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Remote Sensing.

Claudia Kuenzer is Head of the ‘Land Surface’ Department in the Earth Observation Centre at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). She has led several research projects on the Mekong region and published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and a book on the Mekong Delta.

Patrick Leinenkugel is Vice-Head of the ‘Land Surface Dynamics’ team in the Earth Observation Centre at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). He has contributed to multiple research initiatives in the Mekong Basin and has published several remote sensing studies for the region.

Stefan Dech is Director of DLR’s German Remote Sensing Data Center, and University Professor and holder of the endowed chair in remote sensing in the Department of Geography at Julius Maximilian University, Germany. He has co-authored numerous Mekong-related papers.