Uncertainty in biogeomorphological assessments of lowland river floodplains resulting from landcover classification errors

Abstract

Landcover maps provide essential input data for a sequence of models used to quantify the hydrodynamics and ecology of lowland rivers and their floodplains. Hydrodynamic models provide estimates of peak water levels and sediment deposition while ecological models characterize habitat suitability, biodiversity (Lenders et al., 2001; Schipper et al., 2008) and ecosystem services (Nelson et al., 2009). Such models are routinely used in the environmental impact assessment of landscaping measures that aim to reduce the flood risk and improve the ecological quality of the river area (Van Stokkom et al., 2005; Samuels et al., 2006). In general, however, the impact of landcover classification errors on hydrodynamic and ecological model output has hardly been quantified. Our main objective is to assess the ncertainty in biogeomorphological modeling of a lowland river depending on the classification accuracy of landcover maps.