ORIGINAL PAPER Monitoring coastal wetland communities in north-eastern NSW using ASTER and Landsat satellite data Clement Elumpe Akumu • Sumith Pathirana • Serwan Baban • Danny Bucher Received: 29 July 2009 / Accepted: 23 January 2010 / Published online: 11 February 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract The coastal wetland communities of north-eastern New South Wales (NSW) Australia exist in a subtropical climate with high biodiversity and are affected by anthropogenic and natural stressors such as urbanization and climate change. The aim of the research is to map and monitor the coastal wetland communities in north eastern NSW using satellite data. Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflectance Radiometer, Landsat ETM? and Landsat TM satellite imagery of Novem- ber 2003, June 2001 and September 1989 respec- tively were used to identify and monitor the wetland communities. Supervised classification was per- formed using the maximum likelihood standard algorithm. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was produced and the health of the wetland vegeta- tion was evaluated. The wetland maps present significant changes in the coastal wetland communi- ties in the months of September 1989, June 2001 and November 2003. This information could be used by coastal wetland managers in order to enhance the management of these ecosystems. Keywords Wetland identification  Satellite data  Mapping and monitoring Introduction Wetland is considered in this research as an area with a shallow water body, fresh, brackish or saline, that floods permanently or temporally and sustains water- adapted plants and animals. Wetlands are important because they are a source of primary productivity; they provide habitats to wildlife; enhance water quality and provide an arena for recreation (Mortsch 1998). Wetland conservation is necessary because they are among the world’s most productive envi- ronments upon which countless species of plants and animals depend for survival (Ramsar 1971a). Due to the importance of wetlands; a global intergovern- mental treaty on wetland conservation was ratified on February 2nd 1971 known as the Ramsar Convention. The mission of the convention is ‘‘the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable devel- opment throughout the world’’ (Ramsar 1971b). Monitoring would be of important in wetland conservation because it allows us to determine whether these ecosystems have changed over time in terms of size, extent and quality. The use of satellite remote sensing approach to monitor wetlands C. E. Akumu (&)  S. Pathirana  D. Bucher Centre for Geoinformatics Research and Environmental Assessment Technology, School of Environmental Science and Management, Southern Cross University-Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia e-mail: cakumu10@scu.edu.au S. Baban University of Kurdistan-Hawler, Erbil, Iraq 123 Wetlands Ecol Manage (2010) 18:357–365 DOI 10.1007/s11273-010-9176-0