Mapping hydroperiod with L-band SAR time-series to identify permanent and ephemeral arid wetlands

In the semi-arid and arid zones of the world, water is a scarce commodity and operational monitoring with satellite imagery is a high priority for many governments. Current image acquisition and analysis protocols for mapping water in Australia only exist using optical platforms. This has largely been due to the lack of alternative wavelength satellite data covering the 7,682,300km
²
of our continent, 70% of which is arid or semi-arid.