SENSITIVITY OF THE SUDD WETLAND TO CLIMATE AND HUMAN IMPACTS USING SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING

Today’s existential crisis of climate change not only affects temperature, changing of sea levels, and ice present, but it impacts the hydrologic cycle. Anthropogenic methods such as irrigation for economic and agricultural needs, contamination of water systems, and urbanization put large amounts of stress on the hydrologic cycle; due to increased populations, expanding urbanization, deforestation, and industrialization. Altering the two main climate constituents, precipitation and temperature, will upset the balance of regions around the world that could lead to serious impacts on natural and human systems. The study area, Sudd Wetlands South Sudan, East Africa, that is focused on in this project is in the Nile River drainage basin, which extends from the northern borders of Tanzania to the mouth of the Nile River in Egypt where it flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Sudd is the largest wetland system in Africa and one of the largest tropical wetlands in the world. With it being the largest wetland, the diversity of flora and fauna are prevalent to the dynamics of the wetland and region. Inflow to the Sudd comes from the Bahr el Jebel, upstream region of the White Nile. Climate and human impact in this region potentially affects the influx to the Sudd and the wetland. Due to the geography, inaccessibility, and continuous conflicts unsettling the region, the wetland has not seen many in-situ studies performed. The rapid development of technology and scientific innovations have allowed for scientists to have the ability to observe from afar using satellite remote sensing. Climate data has been complied over spans of decades that is available and will be interpreted to develop trends. Temperature and rainfall data will be analyzed from regions upstream from the Sudd in order to observe how the wetland responds to variation in the climate. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data will be used to project the changes in size of the wetland to see its response to upstream influence by climate parameters.