Assessment of environmental water strategies for improving fringing vegetation health by modelling vegetation condition in a connected floodplain lakes system

Across the globe, environmental water has been allocated with the purpose of preserving the health and vitality of floodplain vegetation. However, the influences of environmental water volume and environmental water delivery strategies have not been studied widely because of shortage of on-ground monitoring data. Remotely sensed data can bridge this gap by providing long-term and continuous information; Landsat imagery from 1988 to 2020 was used in this research. We used the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as an indicator of physiological condition of lake-fringing trees on the Hattah Lakes floodplain, south-east Australia. We employed the random forest (RF) regression method to model the relationship between NDVI and various climate and hydrological factors, such as the volume of water delivered to the connected lakes system as environmental water allocations or natural floods. The RF models performed well overall, with a mean R2 value of 0.73. The analysis identified the monthly total of environmental water delivered 3 months prior to the Landsat image date as a more crucial factor than natural floods over the same period for driving vegetation condition. Environmental water from 3 months previously exerts a positive influence on NDVI until the volume reaches a specific threshold. We have observed significant improvements in floodplain vegetation through the current environmental water strategy, particularly since the construction of pumping infrastructure in 2013. We suggest that managers aim to inundate the lake fringing area every 3 years, specifically from August to September, by delivering environmental water up to the modelled threshold volume. Finally, the use of infrastructure has proven to be an effective and efficient method for irrigating floodplain lakes, leading to improvements in vegetation condition while conserving water resources.