10-m-resolution tidal flat map of China’s mangrove distribution area for 2017 derived from multi-temporal SAR images

Tidal flat maps are necessary for managing, protecting, and restoring coastal ecosystems. Most of the existing tidal flat mapping approaches that are dependent on modelled tidal elevations, suffer high uncertainty over offshore, especially over areas where the tidal conditions have been changed by human-made structures and anthropogenic impacts.

Meanwhile, these approaches separate the tidal flats in estuaries by a coastal distance rather than actual distance of saltwater intrusion. We propose a tidal flat mapping approach, using a new method to avoid the dependence on tidal elevations. The proposed approach synthesizes large-area satellite observations over a time period, to acquire the high and low tidal datum, and then classifies land and water under each tidal datum utilizing an adaptive binary classifier.