Received: 27 December 2023 Accepted: 14 March 2024

DOI: 10.1002/hyp.15137

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Quantifying intra- and inter-annual dynamics of river-

floodplain connectivity and wetland inundation with remote
sensing and wavelet analysis

Hanwu Zheng 1,2 | Doerthe Tetzlaff 1,2,3 | Jonas Freymüller 1 |

Jana Chmieleski 4 | Akpona Okujeni 2,5 | Chris Soulsby 3

1
Ecohydrology and Biogeochemistry, Leibniz-
Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Abstract
Fisheries, Berlin, Germany
We used imagery from remote sensing (FORCE Time Series Analysis submodule
2
Department of Geography, Humboldt-
Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
(combining Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery) to derive spatially distributed times
3
Northern Rivers Institute, School of series (8 years) of NDWI data to infer patterns of floodplain inundation and river-
Geosciences, University of Aberdeen,
floodplain connectivity in two contrasting polders in the Lower Oder Valley National
Aberdeen, UK
4
National Park Lower Oder Valley, Schwedt/
Park. The upstream Polder A (14.4 km2) was extensively flooded for prolonged
Oder, Germany periods most winters. Wavelet analysis showed that this strong seasonality was pri-
5
Integrative Research Institute on marily driven by winter water levels in the river Oder that could enter and leave the
Transformations of Human-Environment
Systems (IRI THESys), Humboldt-Universität polder through two opened floodgates. Subsequent drainage was slow and aided by
zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany a pumping station. Inundation of the downstream Polder 10 (17.7km2) was lower and
Correspondence had less marked seasonality. This reflected the impact of flood attenuation by storage
Hanwu Zheng, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater in Polder A upstream, but also the greater connectivity (via 10 floodgates) to the
Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany.
Email: hanwu.zheng@igb-berlin.de Oder and a functional network of channels, which facilitated rapid drainage after
flood peaks. In Polder A, secondary periods of transient inundation could also occur
Funding information
Leibnitz Association Germany; China in response to local intense summer rainfall. Wavelet analysis also showed that
Scholarship Council; Einstein Stiftung Berlin; groundwater recharge in and around Polder A is primarily induced by floodwater,
Berlin University Alliance
whilst Polder 10 also reflects the influence of local rainfall-driven recharge. The flood
regimes of the two polders showed marked inter-annual variation, largely dependent
on flows from the upper Oder catchment. Understanding these patterns and pro-
cesses of inundation is important for both managing flows and sustaining valuable
wetland habitats within the National Park. Given projected climate change in eastern
Europe and possible management alterations to the flow regime of the Oder, the
potential implications for these habitats needs urgent attention.

KEYWORDS
floodplain, Oder river, remote sensing, river-floodplain connectivity, wavelet analysis, wetlands

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium,
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© 2024 The Authors. Hydrological Processes published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Hydrological Processes. 2024;38:e15137. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hyp 1 of 16

https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.15137

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1 | I N T RO DU CT I O N
Large floodplains and associated wetlands are important landscape
features forming rich, contrasting habitats that sustain high levels of
both plant and animal biodiversity (Holgerson et al., 2019). They are
inundated when river flows exceed channel capacity, connecting the
floodplain to both the river and upstream catchment (Globevnik
et al., 2020). A variety of ecosystem services are provided by hydro-
logical processes on floodplains (Funk et al., 2021), such as flood alle-
viation, improved water quality, deposition of nutrients and carbon
sequestration and so forth. (Felipe-Lucia et al., 2014; Posthumus
et al., 2010). These services are influenced by the marked spatial gra-
dients and temporal variations in wetness in floodplains, which in turn
are primarily sustained by the dynamics of river-floodplain connectiv-
ity processes, which may also involve complex river-aquifer interac-
tions (Czuba et al., 2019). Generally, a lower frequency and longevity
of connectivity will occur under a drier climate (Karim et al., 2016) and
both climate and land use change affect a floodplain's capacity for
delivering multiple ecosystem services (Gaglio et al., 2019).
In this context, the dynamics of river-floodplain connectivity have
been extensively studied and the important role of hydrological pro-
cesses in floodplains on the delivery of sediments and nutrients, vege-
tation cover and river flow regimes have been demonstrated
(Wohl, 2021). Previously, to quantify carbon balances as well as sedi-
ment and nutrient exchange, water storage within floodplains and the
associated inundation area have been analysed by remote sensing and
GIS techniques (Alsdorf et al., 2010; Townsend & Walsh, 1998). Dif-
ferent hydrological connectivity indices have been used to describe
exchanges and connections between rivers and floodplains (Liu
et al., 2020b). Furthermore, the dynamics in river-floodplain systems
under different wetness scenarios have been analysed via hydrological
models or coupled hydrological/hydraulic models (e.g., Czuba
et al., 2019; Tull et al., 2022). The relationships between the degree of
alteration of hydrological behaviour of floodplains and climatic and
anthropogenic controls have been revealed accordingly (Gaglio
et al., 2019; Goswami et al., 2021; Mohanty & Simonovic, 2021).
Many large floodplains have been heavily modified by human
activities with drainage and flood protection work common to allow
exploitation of fertile floodplain soils for agriculture or building on
large areas of flat land for urban and industrial development
(Nakamura et al., 2006; Tockner et al., 2010). The European Topic
Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC/ICM)'s technical
report assessing floodplain conditions in Europe reported that only
10%–30% of the floodplains remain in natural conditions, and most of
them are experiencing extensive reduction, structure degradation and
process alteration. Thus, conservation of remaining floodplains is
urgent and in many areas restoration of river-floodplain connectivity
is an important management goal to re-instate natural flood storage
functions as part of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for downstream
flood alleviation (Jakubínský et al., 2021). Concerns over potential cli-
mate change impacts on river flows and the need for building resil-
ience in floodplain management provide another urgent impetus for
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ZHENG ET AL.
an improved process understanding. However, better characterization
of the dynamics of river-floodplain interactions remains challenging as
large floodplains covering extensive areas make adequate spatially-
distributed hydrological monitoring difficult (Tan et al., 2019). Further,
marked inter- and intra-annual variations in hydroclimate and river
flow regimes mean that long-term assessments of inundation patterns
and floodplain storage are needed to inform management (Gaglio
et al., 2019) but are often unavailable.
Increasingly, remote sensing (RS) products provide larger scale
insights into floodplain dynamics (Schultz & Engman, 2012), which are
difficult to monitor on the ground. Technological advancements mean
that lengthy time series are now available for many RS products that
can be ground-truthed against real data (e.g., river levels, groundwater
levels, etc.) (Huang et al., 2018). Previously, RS has been employed to
estimate the inundation area and storage in floodplains, to classify
landscape features or to detect changes in floodplains (Sajjad
et al., 2020; Schumann et al., 2019). Similarly, improved methods for
analysing concurrent hydrological time series allow potential process-
linkages to be identified (Cui et al., 2019). In this regard, wavelet anal-
ysis has proved useful in exploring short- and long-term variations in
hydrological data and to assess coherence and process coupling
(Labat, 2005). However, few studies have used wavelet analysis to
investigate connections in river-floodplain systems and utilize their
potential. Exceptions include (Regier et al., 2021) who identified
short-term connectivity in a tidal creek-floodplain system using wave-
let coherence analysis. Likewise, the temporal variations of river-
floodplain connections and the driving factors have been analysed
through observations or simulations (Karim et al., 2016; Liu
et al., 2020b), but few analyses have been conducted to understand,
at which frequency scales these variations occur or the driving factors
are strongest.
To address this research gap, in this study, we focus on the Lower
Oder Valley National Park (LOVNP) on the German-Polish border.
This comprises a large river-floodplain system, spanning 50 km along
an international boundary, which experiences controlled flooding and
is managed by a series of polders with floodgates. The area has been
subject to extensive historic management to drain the floodplain for
agriculture and to improve navigation for shipping in the river Oder.
However, the area is now a National Park and focused on conserva-
tion, sustainable land management and the promotion of ecotourism.
This has involved maintaining a diversity of wetland habitats in the
face of increased impacts of climate change and potential river man-
agement changes upstream (Ministerium für Landwirtschaft, 2023).
By integrating remote sensing with local hydrometric data over an
8-year period, our overarching aim was to quantitatively assess the
patterns river-floodplain connectivity, inundation area and flood stor-
age in two polders with contrasting characteristics and management
regimes. Considering different landscape structures and human inter-
ventions in the two polders, we hypothesized differences in hydrolog-
ical function and river-floodplain connectivity.
Using RS products, empirical data and wavelet analysis, the spe-
cific research questions were:

ZHENG ET AL.
1. What are the spatial patterns of flooding in the two polders in
terms of inundation area and flood storage?
2. What are inter- and intra-annual variations in the patterns and tim-
ing of inundation and storage?
3. What is the relative importance of the Oder River, local groundwa-
ter dynamics and/or climatic factors in governing the polders' flood
regimes?
2 | STUDY SITE
The Oder originates in the Czech Republic and flows as the sixth larg-
est river entering the Baltic Sea. The length of 854-km makes the
Oder the second longest river in Poland, where 89% of its catchment
is located. The Lower Oder Valley National Park (LOVNP) is located

60 km NE of Berlin, Germany, and comprises a large polder system
along
50 km of river length (Figure 1).
The meteorological conditions are relatively constant across the
2
whole LOVNP, which covers an area of 72 km . Mean annual precipi-
tation in the National Park is 561 mm/year (since 2005), and summer
tends to be wettest with some high-intensity convectional events
reaching ≥40 mm/day (Deutsher Wetterdienst, 2023). Local average

daily temperature (1990–2021) is 17.3 and 0.1 C in summer (June to
August) and winter (December to February), respectively (Deutsher
Wetterdienst, 2023). Mean annual potential evapotranspiration (PET)
is 643 mm/year (period 1980–2022).
F I G U R E 1 Location of the study area,
location of the different Polder areas and
the small map showing location in
Germany. The polders focused on in this
study are Polder 10 and Polder A.
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3 of 16
There is limited topographic variation in the LOVNP's flood-
plain, and a network of raised embankments (dykes) subdivide the
region into polders and regulate the interactions between the flood-
plain and the Oder River (Figure 2a). The general landscape structure
in the LOVNP was formed at the end of the last ice age
(
12 000 year ago), with the floodplain fringed by elevated areas of
ground moraines (Ministerium für Landwirtschaft, 2023). The valley
floor is dominated by a mixture of sand and clay differentiating for-
mer channels and areas of overbank flows, with peat soils in the
North and moors formed along the floodplain edge (Ministerium für
Landwirtschaft, 2023).
Until the LOVNP was established with increased emphasis on the
conservation of the floodplain landscape since 1995, land in
the Lower Oder Valley was used for agricultural production
(Ministerium für Landwirtschaft, 2023). The river-floodplain system
has been extensively engineered for over 100 years for agricultural
drainage and flood protection, as well as improvement of navigation
in the Oder channel. As part of this process, embankments have been
built to create seven polders within the floodplain (Figure 1). Several
floodgates can regulate flow of the Oder River into the floodplain.
The annual discharge volume can reach 17.3 km3, while the station
upstream of the LOVNP showed mean daily discharge variations
between 132 and 1620 m3/s from 2015 to 2021 (Figure S2).
About 60% and 20% of the area in the LOVNP are grassland and
woodland, respectively, with less than one third of grassland used for
grazing. The remaining 20% consists of lakes, canals, and other open

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water bodies (Ministerium für Landwirtschaft, 2023). This creates a
rich diversity of wetland habitats reflecting subtle hydraulic gradients,
sustaining rich biodiversity, which underpins conservation and eco-
tourism in the National Park.
In this work, we selected two polders—covering different charac-
teristics of the polder systems (see more details below)—as main study
areas: Polder A and Polder 10, which cover 14.4 and 17.7 km2,
respectively. Both are located on the west bank of the Oder River,
that is, in Germany (Figure 1; Table 1). Both polders have a narrow,
elongated configuration, where the longer side runs parallel to the
Oder River, with 9.2 and 8.5 km in length, respectively.
The local topography is flat with elevations of Polder A and
10 varying from 1.6 to 7.8 and from 1.5 to 6.5 m.a.s.l, respectively
(Figure 2a). Both polders are predominantly covered by pasture
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ZHENG ET AL.
F I G U R E 2 Characteristics of Polders
A and 10: (a) Elevation with locations for
measurements of precipitation, water
levels, groundwater levels and floodgates
(GW7, 8, 20–23 located nearby Polder
10); (b) Landuse; (c) Superficial geology;
(d) Soils.
(79.8% and 85.8%, in Polder A and 10, respectively) and some forest
areas (6.4%) are sporadically distributed in Polder A (Figure 2b).
Stream and river bank deposits comprise the main surface geology in
both polders, while a bog formed in the North-West of Polder 10, and
moors and mires exist nearby the western border (Figure 2c). The soils
reflect extensively distributed loamy clay in both polders, but they are
more abundant in Polder 10 (Figure 2d).
The most important differences stem from the hydrology in both
polders, as Polder A consists of small canals and large disconnected
lakes, while extensive, well-connected channel systems characterize
Polder 10. Also, whilst only two floodgates regulate the hydrological
connectivity between Polder A and the Oder River, Polder 10 is more
open and regulated by 10 gates. These floodgates are usually opened
in November or December and are closed in April (Table S1),
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ZHENG ET AL. 5 of 16

controlling the direct connection between the polders and the Oder
River in winter but transient pluvial flooding is possible in high rainfall
events outside winter. Additionally, there is a pumping system in Pol-
der A to pump water inside the polder out into the navigation channel
that runs to the East of the floodplain. After pumping, mowing is
conducted.
3 | DATA AND METHODS
3.1 | Hydroclimatic and GIS data
Given the increased availability of remote sensing data at 10–30 m
spatial resolution following the launch of Sentinel 2 and a correspond-
ing range of basic hydrometric parameters, which were monitored on
the river and floodplain of the Oder during the period, we chose
8 years for our study period (2015–2022). Daily precipitation and air
temperature data were obtained from two weather stations of Ger-
man Weather Service (Deutsher Wetterdienst, 2023), which are
located 2 and 16 km NW of Polder A, respectively (Figure 2a). Daily
river water level data were recorded by two stations near Polder A
and 10 (WL4 and WL8) from 2015 to 2022 (Deutsher
Wetterdienst, 2023; IMGW-PIB, 2023). Discharge was only available
from two stations: D4 is at WL 4 (Figure 2a) and UD1 is located
15 km upstream from WL8. Groundwater levels were monitored at
two stations the LOVNP (Figure 2a). The temporal resolutions range
from weekly to monthly (Brandenburg, 2023). PET was calculated
using the FAO-56 Penman-Monteith method (Allen et al., 1998), with
meteorological data (i.e. net radiation, air temperature, wind speed,
actual vapour pressure, altitude) acquired from a DWD station, 16 km
west of Polder A (Deutsher Wetterdienst, 2023). GIS data (i.e. DEM,
land use, geology, and soil type) were provided by the Landesamt für
Umwelt Brandenburg (Brandenburg, 2023).
3.2 | Remotely sensed data
We used all available Landsat and Sentinel-2 images acquired
between 01/01/2015 and 16/08/2022 with a cloud coverage of less
than 75% for our analyses. Landsat and Sentinel-2 images were down-
loaded as Level 1 products from the USGS and the Copernicus Open
Access Hub archives. Preprocessing to Level 2 reflectance data ARD
was based on the Framework for Operational Radiometric Correction
for Environmental monitoring (FORCE), which is an all-in-one proces-
sing engine for medium-resolution Earth Observation image archives,
enabling large area and time series applications and supporting the
integrated processing of Landsat and Sentinel-2 data (Frantz, 2019).
The preprocessing included corrections for atmospheric, topographic,
adjacency, and directional reflectance effects (Buchner et al., 2020;
Frantz et al., 2016; Roy et al., 2017), cloud and cloud shadow masking
(Frantz et al., 2018; Zhu et al., 2015; Zhu & Woodcock, 2012), and
spatial co-registration of Sentinel-2 to Landsat (Rufin et al., 2020). The
FORCE Time Series Analysis submodule was subsequently used to
derive combined Landsat and Sentinel-2 time series of the NDWI
(Normalized Difference Water Index) and the NDVI (Normalized Dif-
ference Vegetation Index) with an interpolated equidistance of
16 days and a spatial resolution of 30 m. Interpolation was based on a
RBF (Radial Basis Function) kernel following Schwieder et al. (2016).
The NDWI was calculated based on green and the near-infrared
bands. This NDWI ranges from 1 to 1, with water pixels generally
showing higher values than land pixels. The NDVI was calculated
based on red and the near-infrared bands, and was used to quantify
the vegetation greenness inside the polders. The NDVI also ranges
from 1 and 1, with higher values denoting greater vegetation pro-
ductivity. An overview of data availability is provided in Table 2.
3.3 | Water area classification
The workflow for classifying water inundated area was summarized in
Figure S1. The total water inundation area of each imagery date was
TABLE 2 Overview of data used for each polder.
Polder A Polder 10
RS imagery 2015–2022/08 2015–2022/08
WL4 2015–2021/10
WL8 2015–2021/10
GW15 2015–2022/08
GW22 2015–2022/08
P3 2015–2022/08 2015–2022/08
PET 2015–2022/08 2015–2022/08

T A B L E 1 Physiographic
Polder A Polder 10
characteristics of Polders A and 10.
Area km2 14.4 17.7
Topographic relief m.a.s.l 1.6
7.8 1.5
6.5
Land use Pasture % 79.80 85.79
Shrub 10.49 7.48
Forest 6.43 1.62
Water bodies 2.68 5.03
Urban settlements 0.57 0.08
Arable land 0.03 0

6 of 16
calculated based on the number of classified water pixels multiplied
by pixel size. The classification of water and land was achieved by the
Otsu method (an unsupervised classification method separating pixels
into two classes and determining the threshold by minimizing
intra-class variance) based on NDWI (Otsu, 1979). A threshold was
calculated using this method, and pixels with values higher than this
threshold were classified as “water”. Different proportions of water
and land will affect the Otsu-based threshold: The water area esti-
mates are strongly affected when a large number of pixels are close
the threshold value. An accurate threshold detection usually requires
that the number of pixels in each class reaches at least 10% of total
number of pixels (Bazi et al., 2007).
In order to evaluate the uncertainty of water area estimation in
relation to the Otsu-based threshold, we created virtual maps for each
original imagery by reorganizing the proportions of the number of
pixels in water and land classes. Each map satisfied the accurate
detection requirements. The water inundated area estimates of the
original imagery determined by the new Otsu-based threshold from
these virtual maps were regarded as the “uncertainty” of the original
imagery.
The detailed steps were as follows: For each original imagery, the
initial water and land classes were determined by the Otsu method.
We then created virtual maps by randomly selecting the pixels from
each initial class according to a prefixed proportion ensuring that each
virtual map had the same number of pixels as the original imagery. We
created two virtual maps with 20% and 80% of water proportion,
which indicated the upper and lower limits for the final water inun-
dated area uncertainty (20% water proportion means small numbers
of pixels with high values exist in the virtual map, representing a low
Otsu-based threshold, and more pixels in the original imagery were
classified as water class based on this threshold). The Otsu method
was then used again to determine the new thresholds of the two vir-
tual maps. These two new thresholds were used in the original imag-
ery to determine the higher and lower limits of water inundated area
estimates indicating the uncertainty of these estimates.
Water storage of each Polder was calculated according to classi-
fied water pixels and the DEM map. The inundated water level was
assumed as the level, of which the elevation of 80% of classified
water pixels are below. The water storage of each classified water
pixels was calculated by multiplying pixel area (30  30) and level dif-
ference between inundated water level and pixel elevation.
3.4 | Validation and assessment
In order to validate the estimated water inundation area, visual inter-
pretation of the water area on very high-resolution imagery from
Google Earth was used as reference. Considering the limited numbers
of images on Google Earth, four dates were selected, which captured
high and low inundation situations (1 February 2018 and 24 March
2017 for high inundation; 5 December 2018 and 30 September 2017
for low inundation). Referenced pixels were randomly selected ensur-
ing coverage of 80% of clear water area, with an equal number of land
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ZHENG ET AL.
and water pixels. Edge areas between water and land and unclear
pixels were excluded (which are the mixed feature in a pixel). Overall,
accuracy (OA), user accuracy (UA), producer accuracy (PA) and kappa
coefficient (K) were calculated to evaluate the performance of classifi-
cation (see equations in supplementary material). OA (SEq1) repre-
sents the percentage of total correctly classified pixels (including
water and land). PA (SEq 2) represents the percentage of the correctly
classified feature (water) in the reference sites. UA (SEq3) is the per-
centage of the correctly classified feature (water) in the classified
sites. K (SEq 4; SEq 5) shows the classification performance compared
with random classification, and ranges from 1 to 1. As closer the
values are to 1, the better the performance.
3.5 | Wavelet analysis
Continuous wavelet transformation (CWT) was used to identify tem-
poral dynamics in terms of periodic signals of different hydrological
variables (i.e., water level, water inundation area, groundwater level
and precipitation). The Morlet wavelet function (Equation 1) was
applied to calculate the wavelet coefficient (Equation 2) by convolu-
tion between the time series data (xn ) (Labat, 2005):
rffiffiffiffi N  
δt X 0 δt
W Xn ðsÞ ¼ xn Ψ0 ðn0  nÞ ð1Þ
s n0 ¼1 s
Ψ0 ðηÞ ¼ π 4 eiω0 η e2η ð2Þ
1 1 2
where ω0 and η are the dimensionless parameters frequency and time,
respectively, δt is time step and s is the wavelet scale.
The wavelet power value was given by the square of the wavelet
 2
coefficient (W Xn ðsÞ ), which is an indicator of how the energy of a sig-
nal is distributed in a time-frequency domain (Labat, 2005), and was
shown as 2D time-frequency plot in this study. Importantly, the CWT
will be influenced by missing information at the start or end of limited
time series; therefore, the cone of influence (COI) zone, which is the
influenced region, was discarded to avoid such edge effects
(Torrence & Compo, 1998).
Wavelet coherency (WTC) was calculated via CWT to investigate
the relationship between timeseries of water inundated area esti-
mates and other hydrological variables, that is, water level in Oder,
groundwater level and precipitation:
  1  XY 2
So s W ðsÞ 
R2n ðsÞ ¼   X  n   Y  ð3Þ
So s W n ðsÞ  So s1 W n ðsÞ
1
n ðsÞ is the complex conjugation of W n ðsÞ and W n ðsÞ, and So
where W XY X Y
is a smoothing operator.
WTC showed the time and scale positions where two signals
exhibited comparable cyclic patterns, and their phase difference. The
power values of CWT that exceeded a certain level were regarded as

ZHENG ET AL.
statistically significant. This level was determined as 95% confidence
levels assuming the time series followed a lag-1 autoregressive pro-
cess and a power value with a chi-square distribution (Torrence &
Compo, 1998). The Monte Carlo method was used to evaluate the
95% confidence level for WTC (Grinsted et al., 2004). Wavelet analy-
sis was realized with the Python package “PyCWT” (Krieger
et al., 2023). The hydrological variables used in WTC were resampled
to the same temporal resolution as processed imagery. Precipitation
was resampled by accumulating the previous 16 days daily values,
water levels were averaged by a 16 days neighbourhood range, and
groundwater levels were linearly interpolated.
4 | RESULTS
4.1 | Hydroclimate and hydrology
Local hydroclimate shows strong seasonality at LOVNP (Figure 3a).
Whilst rainfall is fairly evenly distributed, low intensity frontal rain
dominates in winter, whilst summer is characterized by heavier con-
vectional rainstorms. PET is highest between April and September
reflecting summer radiation input.
The water level regime of the Oder—which reflects the larger cli-
matic footprint of its entire catchment—shows generally winter peaks
and summer low flows (Figure 3b). Elevated summer flows can occur–
such as higher baseflows in 2017 and the marked summer events in
2020 and 2021, which were caused by higher rainfall. Station WL4 is
located downstream of WL8, with WL8 showing stronger seasonality
and greater intra-annual variability than WL4, most likely mainly
reflecting the moderating effect of the upstream polders flood stor-
age. Discharge data of stations D4 and UD1 are shown in Figure S2.
There was a high co-varying trend between the discharge at UD1 and
D4, and the differences were mostly within 10% showing a similar
magnitude and variability during the study period.
Groundwater levels (Figure 3c) reflect both the seasonality of
river flow and local climate. Station GW15 (Polder A) showed stronger
seasonality compared to GW 22 (Polder 10), especially in drier years
(e.g., 2016, 2019, and 2020). GW 22 exhibited less intra-annual
F I G U R E 3 Time series of hydrological
variables (a) Precipitation at P3 (data point
beyond y-axis limit is 164.6 mm) and
Potential Evapotranspiration (PET);
(b) Water levels from 2 stations on the
Oder river (WL8 is upstream of WL4; the
former is in Germany, the latter is in
Poland hence the different datums used
for sea-level); (c) Groundwater levels of
2 stations nearby the polders (GW15 and
GW22 links to Polder A and
10, respectively).
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7 of 16
variability and high intra-annual oscillations. The peaks and troughs in
groundwater and water levels in the Oder were in general similar, with
a slight time lag, while being inversely out of phase with PET in terms
of timing of troughs and peaks.
Overall, the hydrological variables from stations nearby Polder A
(i.e., WL8 and GW15), exhibited strong connections throughout the
period, as their peaks and troughs were very close in time. Peaks of
GW15 appeared prior to WL8 in dry years (e.g., 2016, 2019, and
2020), while this time lag decreased in wet years (e.g., 2017, 2018).
Connections between GW22 and WL4 (Polder 10) were less obvious,
though they showed higher intra-annual oscillations.
4.2 | Patterns of floodplain inundation and water
storage
The overall performance of the classifications for water inundation
area for both Polder A and 10 was good, reaching at least 85% though
sometimes producer accuracy (the accuracy of true water pixels on
the ground classified as water pixels, low value means underestima-
tion or high omission error) and user accuracy (the accuracy of classi-
fied water pixels, low value means overestimation or high commission
error) reached only 70% (Table 3). Spatially, most of the water pixels
were located nearby channels with some differences between sum-
mer and winter flooding in Polder A, reflected by slightly higher por-
tions of water pixels in summer located far away from channels
(Figure S3a,b). Moreover, high winter flooding reflected by NDWI
generally corresponded well with sinks in the DEM (Figure S3c,d). Pol-
der A generally had more extensive flooding in winter and appeared
less productive from the longer periods of water cover (i.e., lower
NDVI) than Polder 10 (Figure 4). Moreover, floodwater in Polder A
mainly accumulated in the downstream area of the polder, reflected
by the higher NDWIs at times of high inundation. In contrast, no clear
inundation was detected in Polder 10, which had lower spatial vari-
ability of NDWI than Polder A.
Temporally, both polders experienced extensive inundation by
river water in winter after the floodgates were opened (Table S1),
though to differing degrees (Figure 5a,b). In wet years, the inundated
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8 of 16 ZHENG ET AL.

T A B L E 3 Accuracy assessment of
5 December 2018 1 February 2018 30 September 2017 24 March 2017
water inundation area by NDWI in Polder
PdA Pd10 PdA Pd10 PdA Pd10 PdA Pd10 A. Kappa coefficient evaluates how well
the classification performed compared
OA (%) 85.7 84.6 84.8 91.5 91.1 87.3 86.4 85.2
with randomly sampling. “CA” means the
Kappa 0.75 0.73 0.74 0.84 0.84 0.77 0.76 0.74 result of our classification scheme. “PdA”
PA (%) 71.4 69.5 94.4 83.5 82.1 74.6 85.2 70.4 and “Pd10” represent Polder A and
UA (%) 100 99.6 79.2 99.4 100 100 87.3 100 Polder 10, respectively (The processing
work flow of accuracy assessment is
CA (%) 2.05 2.37 52.2 11.8 2.25 2.34 44.7 3.64
shown in Figure S2).

portions of the classified water pixels just above the threshold as a

F I G U R E 4 NDVI and NDWI distribution in Polders A and
10 exemplary for a wet year and a dry year. “High inundation” images
were extracted at the time with maximum inundation area during the
corresponding year, while “Low inundation” images were at the time
with minimum inundation area.
area normally covered
50% in both polders. However, in dry years
(e.g., 2019 and 2020), the inundated area in Polder A was limited to
only 20%–30%, while it seems no significant inundation occurred in
Polder 10 even after the floodgates opened. An exception was
in January of 2016 in Polder A, where a sudden increase in inundation
area reached
70%, followed by a sudden decrease, which could be
the result of snow cover, as it is difficult to distinguish snow and
water via NDWI.
The winter inundation in Polder A generally started in November/
December reaching its peak about 2 months later and decreased as
water levels in the Oder decreased. Pumping water out of the polder
accelerated water drainage during the recession period, ending usually
in April of the following year (Figure 5b). One exception occurred in
2020, when inundation did not start until January. Winter inundation
in Polder 10 usually started almost the same time as in Polder A but
showed a high degree of inundation only for the first 2 months of the
wet years (e.g., 2017, 2018, and 2021) with rapid recession
(Figure 5c).
Summer inundation was only detected in Polder A, which gener-
ally followed heavy rainfall, and with high uncertainties in large
result of mix of high vegetation and water cover, which are difficult to
distinguish.
Overall, the relationship between estimated inundation and the
uncertainty interval during winter inundation of Polder 10 was similar
to summer inundation in Polder A, but there were generally narrow
uncertainty bands during the winter inundation of Polder A
(Figure 5b,c). High-water inundation also lasted longer in Polder
A with varying water inundation being more strongly linked to water
level variations in the Oder than in Polder 10. These differences
between the two polders likely stem from contrasting polder charac-
teristics and management regimes, as Polder A is more extensively
controlled by embankments with only two floodgates and widespread
mowing of grassland in the summer, while an extended channel sys-
tem and 10 floodgates reduce water residence times in Polder 10.
Additionally, water storage in Polder A can reach 2–3 hm3 in wet
years (2017, 2018, and 2021) and about 1 hm3 in dry years (2016,
2019, and 2020) (Figure 6a), while Polder 10 show less storage vol-
ume with only 0.8–1 and below 0.3 hm3 in wet and dry years
(Figure 6c), respectively. During wet years, the high storage volume
persists longer, corresponding to the most extensive, protracted inun-
dation in both polders. The steep variation in Polder 10 (2018, 2021)
is consistent with transient, marked flooding, though this wasn't evi-
dence in Polder A. The base storage (storage level in non-inundation
period) period accounted for 50% of time in Polder A, and it reached
60% in Polder 10 (Figure 6c,d). And the high storage duration was
about 40% and 20% of time in Polder A and 10 (Figure 6c,d),
respectively.
4.3 | Wavelet analysis of inundation patterns
Figure 7 shows the periodicities in wavelet power spectra of different
hydrological variables with periodicities reflecting cycled signals,
which can be weekly, monthly, or yearly (seasonal signals). Water
levels at WL8 and WL4 (Figure 7a) exhibited high and consistent
power values in 1-year cycles (between 256 and 512 days) through-
out the study, which reflects strong seasonality. In addition, WL8 pre-
sented some local wavelet ridges in the 1–4 months cycles (between
32 and 128 days, mainly in 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021), reflecting
that flooding is varying within seasons.
Both WL stations displayed periodic signals for <1 month, which
show several short-term floods. More significant low periodicities
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ZHENG ET AL. 9 of 16

F I G U R E 5 Time series of water

inundated area estimates with
precipitation and water level in the Oder
River. (a) Precipitation at P3 (data point
beyond y-axis limit is 164.6 mm),
(b) Water inundated area estimates in
Polder A (PA) with uncertainty and water
level at WL8, (c) Water inundated area
estimates in Polder 10 (P10) with
uncertainty and water level at WL4.

F I G U R E 6 Water storage (a, c) and percentage of time water storage is exceeded or equaled (b, d) in (a, b) Polder A and (c, d) Polder 10. The
average daily water volume discharged from the Oder to the Baltic sea is about 496  106 m3/day.

were found in WL4 compared to WL8, indicating that WL4 experi-
enced more frequent short-term flooding. Considering the timing
when such signals appeared, significant periodicities and variabilities
mainly occurred in winter for both WL stations (2 to 64 days).
For the estimated water inundation area of Polder A, annual
(1-year) cycle signals were present during most of the study, reflecting
the strong seasonality (Figure 7c,d). In the half-year frequency
domain, the power values were greater than the higher
frequency domain (i.e., monthly or weekly), as sometimes two peaks
in summer or winter occurred. Particularly in 2015–2017, obvious
periodicities from 1 to 4 months (i.e., high frequent fluctuations)
occurred.
In Polder 10, noticeable periodicities for all frequencies
(i.e., weekly, monthly, or yearly fluctuations) only occurred in winter
during high inundation and the higher frequencies (weekly, monthly)
were more pronounced than in Polder A. This corresponded to the
more short-term fluctuations in inundation of Polder 10.
For the groundwater stations near the polders, significant
1-year cycles persisted in GW15, with only local high power values in
GW22 (Figure 7e,f). In other words, clear seasonality was apparent
in GW15, but not in GW22 (see also Figure 3). However, in the high
frequency domain, higher periodicities occurred in GW22. These
monthly fluctuations were observed both in summer and winter in
GW22, while they were mostly concentrated in summer for GW15.
Overall, the power values were more evenly distributed along the
entire frequency spectrum in GW22 and the oscillations in the time
series were more evenly distributed at the entire frequency scale,
rather than showing a distinct seasonality as in GW15.
For the climate variables, significant 1-year cycles were persistent
in the power spectrum of PET reflecting expected strong seasonality,
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10 of 16 ZHENG ET AL.

F I G U R E 7 Wavelet power spectrum (with wavelet basis of Morlet) of hydrological variables. (a, b) Water level in the Oder River at WL8 and
WL4 (daily data); (c, d) Water inundation area in Polder A and Polder 10 (16-days data); (e, f) Groundwater level at GW15 and GW22 (16-days
data); (g, h) Precipitation at P3 and PET (daily data). A higher value in the power spectrum indicates a greater likelihood of the presence of a
periodic signal with a corresponding period and time. The black circles in the heat map show the significant regions (95% confidence level). The
crossed-out shaded areas were not considered because of edge effects.

though this was only evident for precipitation in 2017 (Figure 7g,h).
These cycles were manifested in seasonal peaks and troughs at sum-
mer and winter, respectively. Both precipitation and PET showed high
frequency cycles in summer, but the periodic signals were more regu-
lar in PET. At high frequencies, daily and weekly fluctuations were
observed both in PET and precipitation, with monthly fluctuations
being only common in precipitation. Overall, power values were more
evenly distributed along the entire frequency scale in precipitation,
with no fluctuations of mid-range frequency occurring in PET.
4.4 | Coherence of wavelets in inundation extent
and controlling factors
Statistically significant coherency between water inundation area in
Polder A and all other variables in 1-year cycles occurred throughout
the study period (Figure 8a–c), reflecting the strong co-varying char-
acter between seasonal variations. Water level showed the highest
coherencies in 1-year periods, with the strongest co-varying proper-
ties with the inundation area in Polder A (Figure 8a). In this
frequency scale, the phase differences between water inundation
area and river water or groundwater level were small (small time
lags). However, the greater phase difference for groundwater means
that signals between water level and inundation were transferred
faster (Figure 8a,b).
Between water inundation area and precipitation for the 1-year
period, a large phase difference was apparent (Figure 8c). Precipitation
also had an anti-phase (time lag of half a year) trend.
In the higher frequency spectrum of Polder A, coherency ridges
only sporadically occurred in periods from 1-month to 8-months for
water level and precipitation, and from 2-months to 4-months
for groundwater level. This reflects that the inundation fluctuations
are restricted to these shorter periods showing dependence on river
water level, groundwater level, precipitation at different time and
scale positions. Precipitation showed comparatively high coherency
values in periods from 4-months to 8-months (Figure 8c), which sug-
gests a potential contribution for such intermediate periods, though
this was not statistically significant. Further, water level and
groundwater showed unstable phase differences (Figure 8a–c). These
instabilities reflect high uncertainty at high frequencies, as significant
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ZHENG ET AL. 11 of 16

F I G U R E 8 Wavelet coherency of water inundation area in Polder A (a, b, c) and Polder 10 (d, e, f) with other hydrological variables: (a, d)
water level in Oder river; (b, e) groundwater level; (c, f) precipitation at P3. The black circles in the heat map show the significant regions (95%
confidence level). The crossed-out shaded areas were not considered because of edge effects. The arrows indicate the local phase difference
between two variables, and the phase value was determined by the angle between the arrow and positive x-axis. Significant regions reflect
similarity of the fluctuation patterns between two variables and higher coherency values mean stronger relationships. The negative phase means
the response of the inundation area is behind the other variable and the exact time lag is calculated by (phase difference  corresponding
period)/2π.

co-varying parts could be captured, but how long the time lag was
between the variables often remains unclear.
In the 1-year period for Polder 10, only precipitation showed sig-
nificant coherency with water inundation area (i.e., a strong inter-
annual co-varying trend, Figure 8f), which was similar to Polder
A. However, almost all other domains of the frequency spectrum
showed low power values (Figure 8c,f). The phase difference for pre-
cipitation was similar to Polder A with an asynchronous appearance,
an anti-phase trend for precipitation (Figure 8c,f). The phase differ-
ence between water level and inundations was also similar in both
polders, however, the seasonal variations were not as relevant in Pol-
der 10, while groundwater showed a more unstable time lag across
the study period.
In the higher frequency spectrum (1–8 months), significant
coherency occurred for water level in Polder 10, indicating stronger
river-floodplain links, while groundwater is less connected to the inun-
dation in this frequency spectrum (Figure 8d,e). The phase differences
at higher frequency for water and groundwater levels was unstable
along the time scale for both polders. These results again reflect the
uncertain linkages at high frequencies, though Polder 10 showed
more stochastic behaviour.
5 | DI SCU SSION
5.1 | Spatial–temporal dynamics of floodplain
inundation
In this study, remote sensing products based on NDWI and NDVI
were integrated with empirical data and analysed using wavelet analy-
sis to better characterize and understand the spatial–temporal pat-
terns of river-floodplain inundation in contrasting polders in the
LOVNP along the river Oder in Germany. Previous studies have also
used topography and DEMs in remote sensing-based analysis to esti-
mate flood inundation (Liu et al., 2020b; Munasinghe et al., 2018;
Rosser et al., 2017): These typically show patterns of inundation being
more likely distributed adjacent to channels and low-lying areas, with
connectivity between flooded areas increasing with increasing water
levels. However, in our work in the Oder floodplain, the very different
inundation patterns between the two polders studied were mainly
related to differences in their floodplain structure and management.
The winter inundation and water storage were generally much
greater in extent and more prolonged in Polder A than Polder
10, which being upstream had a first order influence on flood

12 of 16
attenuation of the main annual flow peaks. During periods of high
winter inundation, the flooded areas corresponded well with the
topographic depressions in the DEM. However, in Polder 10, the
upstream flood storage, together with the well-connected channel
system and high number of floodgates, contributed to a strong river-
floodplain connectivity and thus, the polder was less extensively inun-
dated as it drained more rapidly. Czuba et al. (2019) similarly found
that channel orientation inside a floodplain plays an important role in
river-floodplain exchange in their modelling results.
Although summer flooding was occasionally evident in Polder A,
it was rarely detected in Polder 10, which has greater coverage of per-
manent open water bodies and well-connected channels. Usually,
summer flooding is pluvial in origin as the flood gates are closed, limit-
ing river-floodplain connectivity. Thus, in part, these differences
reflect the more extensive dry areas in Polder A that are prone to
flooding. In addition, inundation in the polders likely reflected meth-
odological uncertainties associated with high vegetation surrounding
the channels. Consequently, some inundation was probably unde-
tected due to mixed pixels of water and land. Such mixed pixels were
also proportionally more important during times of low inundation.
Similar vegetation effects on classification have also identified in other
inundation estimations, especially in wetland areas (Leblanc
et al., 2011).
The wavelet analysis allowed a more systematic assessment of
the contrasting inundation patterns of the two polders, as well as a
basis for comparing intra- and inter-annual variability. The 1-year peri-
odicity (i.e., seasonality) was strongest in Polder A reflecting the
annual pattern of floodplain inundation in response to high water
levels in the Oder. In contrast, in Polder 10 monthly-scaled fluctua-
tions were more pronounced, reflecting the upstream floodplain stor-
age in Polder A and the subsequent pulses of higher connectivity in
response to increases in river levels in winter. Similar temporal varia-
tions in floodplain inundation have been shown to reflect dominant
hydrological processes in river-floodplain systems and differ in con-
trasting geographical regions (Scott et al., 2019). For example, strong
inter-annual variability of maximum inundation extent has also been
identified in floodplains in South American (Hamilton et al., 2002)
where the duration of the inundation period was linearly related to
the maximum extend of the inundation area.
These inferences were derived from analysis for the RS imagery
and highlight some of the potential as well as limitations of such
approaches. Detection of inundation was extracted from RS optical
imagery; a technique which has been widely applied and validated for
larger scale assessments of soil moisture and vegetation dynamics
(Huang et al., 2018). RS provides global long-term and spatially exten-
sive distributed earth surface observations, which is particularly useful
in places where ground observations are difficult (Schmugge
et al., 2002). Due to the variations in clear sky observations resulting
from cloud coverage, we combined observations from multiple satel-
lite sensors and employed an interpolation algorithm to achieve tem-
poral continuity of the data series as in Frantz (2019). From direct
comparison with time series of aerial photographs, we found accept-
able accuracies in our validation of the Otsu-based water inundated
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ZHENG ET AL.
area classification and the use of the informal uncertainty indicators
provided qualitative insight into potential errors in estimated inun-
dated states.
Our approach based on indices is straightforward and consistent
through time and overall showed good results. However, to account
for observed limitations, such as the inability to detect for small water
proportions in a pixel or water hidden by vegetation, spectral unmix-
ing techniques or the additional use of Synthetic Aperture Radar
(SAR) data would be helpful. For example, wetland inundation classifi-
cation by SAR imagery were examined by using multi-temporal
RADARSAT-2 C-band SAR intensity and showed good performance
(Canisius et al., 2019). Similarly, spectral unmixing techniques for eval-
uating water bodies in sub-Landsat pixels were also applied in eight
imageries from southern Arizona, USA by Sall et al. (2021), and
showed accurate result compared with digitized surface water area.
5.2 | Disentangling the influence of river
connectivity, groundwater and climatic variability on
floodplain inundation with wavelets
Due to the physical structure of floodplains and their interactions with
local and catchment-scale drivers, river-floodplain systems are com-
plex hydrological interfaces (Alaghmand et al., 2014; Li et al., 2019).
Continuous wavelet transformation allowed us to extract both the
frequency and temporal position of coherent signals in concurrent
timeseries, allowing more insight than, for example, Fourier transfor-
mation (Cheng et al., 2021). Via wavelet coherency, the co-varying
tendency and phase difference of two timeseries could be used to
indicate their relationship in frequency-time scale (Cheng et al., 2021).
Therefore, wavelet analysis has been widely used in hydrology for
decomposition, de-noising, complexity description and hydrological
forecasting (Sang, 2013).
Even so, overlapping signals meant that it was difficult to fully dis-
entangle the contributions of floodplain structure, river flow regime
and other drivers on inundation patterns. In general, the analysis
showed that the dominant influences of river levels in the Oder and
local rainfall on inundation was, respectively, pronounced in winter
and summer, and stronger in Polder A. River-floodplain connectivity
varied predominantly at an inter-annual scale in both polders, but Pol-
der 10 also showed more pronounced connectivity at the monthly
scale.
In the wavelet coherency spectrum, the limited monthly co-
varying links during winter between the Oder and Polder A suggest
that the rapid fluctuations of water levels in the Oder do not corre-
spond to varying inundation in Polder A. In contrast, the numerous
monthly co-varying links between the Oder and Polder 10 highlight
the importance of the polders structure with the more limited inunda-
tion in the well-connected and freely-opened Polder 10 responding
rapidly to water level changes in the river and channels.
Local climatic variables, that is, snowmelt, rainfall intensity, have
been shown to play an important role in the temporal variation of
floodplain inundation (Scott et al., 2019). Effects due to wetter climate

ZHENG ET AL.
conditions and disruption by flow regulation on river-floodplain con-
nectivity are amongst such influences identified by others (e.g., Karim
et al., 2015; Ward & Stanford, 1995). For Polder A, the apparent
inter-annual linkages between rainfall and inundation are suggested
by the high coherency values, but the large time lag between these
two time series are physically implausible (i.e., local summer rainfall
cannot affect winter inundation directly). Hence, this apparent linkage
is just an artefact of the mathematical similarity between rainfall and
inundation inter-annually, with no physical connection. The monthly-
scale co-varying links in Polder A in summer highlight the short-term
nature of pluvial flooding there. Although the linkages between rain-
fall and inundation are not frequent in our analysis, undoubtedly ante-
cedent rainfall reduced floodplain's storage capacity, affecting the
water residence time inside polders (Tull et al., 2022), and subse-
quently reducing the time lag between water level in the Oder river
and inundation in the polders (Tull et al., 2022). Overall, the limited
contribution of local rainfall to inundation in both polders during win-
ter is reflected by its low coherency values in the high-frequency
domain.
Subsurface water storage in floodplain soils and groundwater can
act as buffers to precipitation or input signals (Liu, Yu, et al., 2020),
and could be recharged by different sources. For example, groundwa-
ter levels showed less periodic signals than precipitation or water
levels in the Oder river, and the lagged response of groundwater to
inundation in Polder A suggests that groundwater was mainly
recharged by flood water. In contrast, weaker linkages in Polder
10 may be evidence that the groundwater was also recharged by local
rainfall as well as flood water.
Polder A showed a greater low-pass filtering effect for signals
transferring from precipitation or river water to inundation, compared
with Polder 10, with high-frequency signals rarely apparent in the
inundation of Polder A. The differences of the water levels between
WL8 (upstream) and WL4 (downstream) also show the polder's buff-
ering effects of flood storage as the mid-frequency signals (1–
4 months) in the water level of the Oder at WL8 were not detected at
WL4, although high frequency signals (<1 month) were strengthened
in winter. It is likely that the confluence of the navigation canals in the
west of the Oder river help transmit some high frequency distur-
bances downstream.
Again, whilst the wavelet analysis proved useful; capturing and
localizing multiple periodicities as well as illustrating the oscillations
in various temporal scale, limitations were also apparent. For exam-
ple, the identification of relationships between two variables is
highly mathematical and sometimes can produce artefacts that lack a
physical basis (Sang, 2013). This can lead to misleading results such
as the high coherency values depicting the inter-annual link between
precipitation and inundation in both polders. In addition, the wavelet
analysis was also limited by data availability and some of the locally
high—but statistically insignificant—relationships may have become
clearer with finer temporal resolutions in the time series. Despite
this, the wavelet analysis allowed us to detect the multi-temporal
scale and non-stationary characteristics of many hydrological
variables.
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13 of 16
Further limitations in the wavelet analysis stem from the quality
of the estimated inundation timeseries derived from RS. Errors here
can affect the assessment of where significant regions in the wavelet
spectrum appear, and the inconsistent duration and gaps of the time-
series confined the analysis to a limited time-frequency region
(Torrence & Compo, 1998). The high but insignificant values in the
wavelet spectrum may suggest some potential periodicities, but they
may also be the result of intermodulation or subharmonics and may
not have a physical meaning (Cheng et al., 2021).
5.3 | Wider implications for floodplain
management
Better understanding the controls of the spatial extent and longevity
of the two Polders has important process-based implications for man-
agement of land and water in the National Park. This is particularly
the case for the future as climate change in eastern Europe and
changing management of the Oder upstream in Poland may affect
future patterns of inundation (Anders et al., 2014). Whilst the main
driver of annual floodplain inundation is the flow regime of the Oder
river, operation of the floodgates in the polders contributed to quite
different flood responses in Polder A and Polder 10. Moreover, the
pumping in Polder A had an important influence on the recession of
flooding, whereas Polder 10 drained along pre-existing channels. Con-
sequently, there are many possibilities for floodplain management that
could be used to develop resilient strategies in the face of future cli-
mate and environmental change.
In this regard, the analysis presented here provides a framework
for better conceptual understanding of the characteristics and causes
of inundation and flood storage that have two obvious uses. Firstly,
such spatial–temporal information has potential utility in providing
readily communicable information for various stakeholders
(e.g., regulatory agencies, land owners, farmers, conservationists, etc.)
as an evidence base that could be used for discussing potential man-
agement changes in the face of climate and other threats (e.g., Smith
et al., 2021; Smith et al., 2022). Secondly, and linked to the first point,
this conceptual understanding is an essential prerequisite for numeri-
cal model development that could characterize the water balance of
river-floodplain dynamics in a quantitative manner (Tull et al., 2022).
Again, such quantification, with acknowledgement of associated
uncertainty is important evidence in option appraisal.
From a conservation perspective the variability of inundation
across the floodplain creates a rich mosaic of wetland habitats that
sustains a high degree of biodiversity. And, although the relationship
between flooding duration and fish production has been globally
documented (Arthington & Balcombe, 2011), for many wetland spe-
cies and communities the habitat requirements in terms of timing,
extent and longevity of saturation are not well-known (Drayer &
Richter, 2016). Polder A and 10 have different land use distributions
and contrasting flora or fauna assemblages due to their distinct inun-
dation variability. For example, the high hydrological heterogeneity
resulting from the short-term inundation in Polder 10 may offer

14 of 16
_
greater refuge opportunities for species at risk of flooding (Zmihorski
et al., 2016). In summer, Polder 10, with its widely connected chan-
nels, provides better aquatic habitat compared to the more isolated
ponds in the drier Polder A, and overall, such high physical habitat
diversity and hydrological connectivity contributes to the survival of
aquatic organisms (Arthington & Balcombe, 2011). In addition, it is
important to note that the closed floodgates in summer disconnect
the river-floodplain system, and subsequently, water quality gradually
becomes the dominant factor contributing to the habitat quality of
aquatic organisms (Arthington et al., 2010). Thus, assessing the water
quality regimes of the floodplain wetlands of the Oder is a major pri-
ority for future work.
As most of the polders are managed for some sort of farming,
other management practices include patterns of mowing and grazing
on grasslands, which can affect wetland habitats. For example, differ-
ent wetland bird species have different vegetation requirements, with
short-term flooding in Polder 10 and unmowed areas appearing to
benefit birds nesting and foraging (Åhlén et al., 2023). Similarly, areas
of forestry are likely to have higher evapotranspiration and may create
more buffering against summer floods by contributing to soil moisture
deficits. Likewise, pumping operations can have a strong influence on
inundation variability, thus playing an important role for manipulating
habitats to the benefit of particular species in the floodplains. Whilst
these anthropogenic management practices, (i.e., floodgate operation,
pumping system operation and land use) can be adjusted to maintain
certain habitat conditions (Gumiero et al., 2013), conceptual and
quantitative understanding of inundation dynamics and their controls
as provided in this study will be essential to evidence-based decision
making.
6 | C O N CL U S I O N S
Our study investigated the inundation area in two polders in the Lower
Oder Valley National Park by classification of NDWI imagery from
FORCE Time Series Analysis submodule (combined Landsat and
Sentinel-2 images) and employed wavelet analysis to investigate the
spatial–temporal variation of wetland inundation and associated con-
trolling factors. We further analysed spatial differences of inundation
patterns using a DEM in relation to management practices and their
effects on wetland habitat. Overall, seasonality was well-captured in
the wavelet power spectrum of most variables, showing marked
inter-annual variation of wetland inundation, though the influence was
weaker for inundation of Polder 10 due to its shorter duration and the
effects of floodplain storage upstream in Polder A. Water levels in
the Oder river showed the strongest influence on winter inundation in
the polders, with short-term variations more pronounced in Polder
10, compared with Polder A. Inter-annual variations in extent and lon-
gevity of inundation could be marked. Linkages between inundation
and local precipitation were only detected in Polder A during summer.
These were transient and spatially localized compared with winter inun-
dation from the Oder. Groundwater showed delayed response to inun-
dation in polder A, likely reflecting induced recharge during flowing.
10991085, 2024, 4, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hyp.15137 by UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL PAULISTA, Wiley Online Library on [01/04/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
ZHENG ET AL.
Weaker linkages in Polder 10 (between groundwater and inundation)
are consistent with a greater influence of local rainfall-driven recharge.
The well-connected Polder 10 (with 10 flood gates) responds more rap-
idly to water input signals (i.e., water level in Oder river, precipitation),
as evidenced by greater coherence between inundation patterns and
other hydrological variables.
RS techniques provided direct evidence of how wetland habitat
varied over extensive areas and wavelet analysis proved useful in dis-
entangling the linkages between inundation dynamics and potential
driving variables in this complex river-floodplain system. Using these
techniques in an integrated way, this study provided conceptual
understanding of how wetland habitat was influenced by hydrological
processes that are currently highly controlled in managed polder sys-
tems. As well as providing a framework for future quantitative model-
ling, the study provides an evidence base for relevant stakeholders to
assess whether future changes in management are needed to main-
tain habitats in the face of projected climate change in eastern Europe
and flow regulation upstream in the Oder catchment.
AC KNOW LEDG EME NT S
Hanwu Zheng is funded by the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC).
Tetzlaff's and Okujeni's contribution was partly funded through the
Einstein Research Unit “Climate and Water under Change” from
the Einstein Foundation Berlin and Berlin University Alliance (grant
no. ERU-2020- 609). Contributions from Soulsby are supported by
the Leibnitz Association Germany in the project Wetland restoration
in peatlands.
CONFLIC T OF INTER E ST STATEMENT
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
DATA AVAILABILITY STAT EMEN T
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the
corresponding author upon reasonable request.
OR CID
Hanwu Zheng https://orcid.org/0009-0007-8931-5226
Chris Soulsby https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6910-2118
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SUPPORTING INF ORMATION
Additional supporting information can be found online in the Support-
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How to cite this article: Zheng, H., Tetzlaff, D., Freymüller, J.,
Chmieleski, J., Okujeni, A., & Soulsby, C. (2024). Quantifying
intra- and inter-annual dynamics of river-floodplain
connectivity and wetland inundation with remote sensing and
wavelet analysis. Hydrological Processes, 38(4), e15137.
https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.15137