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This data set provides a map of wetland extent, vegetation type, and dual-season flooding state of the entire lowland Amazon basin. As described in Hess et al. (2015), the classified image was derived from the Global Rain Forest Mapping Project (GRFM) Amazon mosaics (Rosenqvist et al 2000; Siqueira et al. 2002) acquired during Oct.-Nov. 1995 and May-June 1996, corresponding to the low-flood and high-flood seasons for much of the central Amazon. Hess et al. (2003) mapped wetland extent, vegetative cover, and flooding state for an 18 degree × 8 degree portion of the central Amazon using the dual-season GRFM mosaics. This study extends the previous wetlands mapping to report the first validated estimate of wetland extent, cover, and flooding for the lowland Amazon basin. A wetlands mask was created by segmentation of the mosaics and clustering of the resulting polygons; a rules set was then applied to classify wetland areas into five land cover classes and two flooding classes using dual-season backscattering values. The mapped wetland area of 8.4 × 105 km2 is equivalent to 14 % of the total basin area (5.83 × 106 km2) and 17% of the lowland basin (5.06 × 106 km2). The mapped flooding extent is representative of average high and low-flood conditions for latitudes north of 6 degrees S; flooding conditions were less well captured for the southern part of the basin. The wetlands map is provided in GeoTIFF format using two coordinate systems: unprojected (Geographic) with pixel size of 3 arcseconds, and Albers Conical Equal Area with pixel size of 100 m.
Hess et al. (Thu,) studied this question.