title: Damage and recovery assessment of the Philippines' mangroves following Super Typhoon Haiyan.
abstract: We quantified mangrove disturbance resulting from Super Typhoon Haiyan using a remote sensing approach. Mangrove areas were mapped prior to Haiyan using 30m Landsat imagery and a supervised decision-tree classification. A time sequence of 250m eMODIS data was used to monitor mangrove condition prior to, and following, Haiyan. Based on differences in eMODIS NDVI observations before and after the storm, we classified mangrove into three damage level categories: minimal, moderate, or severe. Mangrove damage in terms of extent and severity was greatest where Haiyan first made landfall on Eastern Samar and Western Samar provinces and lessened westward corresponding with decreasing storm intensity as Haiyan tracked from east to west across the Visayas region of the Philippines. However, within 18months following Haiyan, mangrove areas classified as severely, moderately, and minimally damaged decreased by 90%, 81%, and 57%, respectively, indicating mangroves resilience to powerful typhoons.
authors.affiliation: InuTeq(1), Sioux Falls, SD 57198, USA. Electronic address: Jordan.Long.ctr@usgs.gov.
authors.forename: Jordan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: U.S. Geological Survey EROS Center, Sioux Falls, SD 57198, USA.
authors.forename: Chandra
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Giri
authors.affiliation: Zoological Society of London, 48 Burgos Street, La Paz, 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines.
authors.forename: Jurgenne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Primavera
authors.affiliation: Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4RY, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Mandar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trivedi
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D055867:Cyclonic Storms; D004777:Environment; D010679:Philippines; D053833:Wetlands
keywords: Landsat; Mangrove disturbance; NDVI; Philippines mangrove; Super Typhoon Haiyan; eMODIS