Remote sensing techniques and GIS modeling for monitoring and assessing the littoral vegetation at Lake Constance

Submersed macrophytes are excellent bioindicators of the trophic state of a lake (SCHMIEDER 1997, LEHMANN & LACHAVANNE 1999). In large lakes, lake-wide investigations of submersed macrophytes are time consuming and expensive (ScHMIEDER & LEHMANN 2004). Consequently, there is often a low frequency of such investigations, generating a need for time saving methods o f for monitoring and assessment of lake shore vegetation. Against this background, the EFPLUS ( development of automatable remote sensing processes to effectively support planning schemes for lake shore areas) project was performed in 2002-2005 on the Lake Constance littoral zone. The first objective was to provide reliable and ecologically interpretable information on submersed and emersed macrophyte structures from automated and transferable remote sensing processes. The second objective was to aggregate this information into capable indices of water and habitat quality for decision support in planning procedures.