Estimation of dune celerity and sand flux in part

Authors: Lydia Sam Nidhi Gahlot B G Prusty

Publish Date: 2013/12/17

Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 4-

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Abstract

The main objectives of this study were to estimate the dune celerity and sand flux in an arid environment Gadra in Barmer District in Thar Desert Rajasthan India using multitemporal remote sensing data Dunal shift estimation and interdunal space estimation which are crucial for calculating sand flux were also performed We applied this method to two Cartosat1 scenes stereopairs of years 2010 and 2011 Coregistration of Optically Sensed Images and Correlation was utilized to meet the above mentioned objectives The mean dune shift for the study area for a year was estimated to be 125 m Mean dune celerity was estimated as 00034 m/day or 124 m/year Mean sand flux was estimated to be 00156 or 569 m3/m/year Based on the results of the dune migration pattern the coregistration accuracy was found to be 070 pixels wherein the pixel resolution of input data was 250 m This indicates that the root mean square error RMSE is about 160 m However our results demonstrated that dune celerity is 124 m per annum which is within the RMSE level of the analysis Therefore this corroborates with the results that during the approximately 1year time period there is no apparent movement of the sand dunes in the study areaWe would like to thank the Defence Terrain Research Laboratory DRDO for granting access to Cartosat1 data and USGS for free access to SRTM image library We thank Dr Pieter Vermeesch UCL London for the discussion and suggestions regarding technical issues and Mr Anshuman Bhardwaj DRDO for his patient help and support We also thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments which were insightful and beneficial

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