DRIVERS OF BIODIVERSITY IN SOUTH AFRICAN ESTUARIES ARE POORLY UNDERSTOOD. EXISTING FRAMEWORKS DEVELOPED IN NORTH AMERICA SUGGEST THAT STRESS AND EFFICIENT COMPETITORS LIMIT BIODIVERSITY IN THE INTERTIDAL ZONE. HOWEVER IT IS UNCLEAR HOW DRIVERS SUCH AS SEDIMENT INPUT TIDAL RANGE WAVE ENERGY AND FRESHWATER INPUT AFFECTS BIODIVERSITY ACROSS SOUTH AFRICA'S CLIMATICALLY GEOLOGICALLY AND HYDROLOGICALLY DIVERSE ESTUARIES. THE VULNERABILITY AND RESILIENCE OF ECOSYSTEMS IN THE LAND-OCEAN AQUATIC CONTINUUM (LOAC) TO CHANGING TEMPERATURES PRECIPITATION AND SEA-LEVEL RISE IS UNCERTAIN. THEREFORE THERE IS A NEED FOR COMBINING IN SITU AND AIRBORNE DATA FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND REFINEMENT OF METHODOLOGIES FOR MAPPING PLANT FUNCTIONAL TYPES HYDROGEOMORPHIC SETTING VEGETATION TRAITS AND COASTAL RESILIENCE WITH HYPERSPECTRAL AND WAVEFORM LIGHT DETECTION AND RANGING (LIDAR). WE WILL UTILIZE THESE DATA PRODUCTS TO UNDERSTAND THE PHYSICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS THAT DRIVE BIODIVERSITY ACROSS THE LOAC IN SOUTH AFRICA AND HOW CLIMATE CHANGE AND ANTHROPOGENIC ACTIVITY WILL IMPACT BIODIVERSITY. TO ACHIEVE OUR PRIMARY GOAL OF UNDERSTANDING BIODIVERSITY DRIVERS ACROSS THE LOAC IN SOUTH AFRICA WE HAVE IDENTIFIED THREE OBJECTIVES. OUR FIRST OBJECTIVE IS TO EVALUATE THE DIVERSITY OF PLANT FUNCTIONAL TYPES (PFTS) AND ESSENTIAL BIODIVERSITY VARIABLES (EBVS) ACROSS ESTUARIES REPRESENTING DIVERSE GEOMORPHIC SETTINGS IN THE GREATER CAPE FLORISTIC REGION (GCFR) WITH AIRBORNE HYPERSPECTRAL & WAVEFORM LIDAR. WE WILL PLAN AND EXECUTE FIELDWORK COINCIDENT WITH THE AIRBORNE CAMPAIGN COLLECTING PLOT-LEVEL EBVS INCLUDING SPECIES RICHNESS BIOMASS PLANT FUNCTIONAL TYPE RELATIVE HEIGHT AND PERCENT COVER. FOLLOWING THE FIELD CAMPAIGN WE WILL USE AVIRIS-NG AND LVIS TO CLASSIFY PFTS AND EVALUATE THE INCLUSION OF ADDITIONAL DATASETS (HYTES AND PRISM). FURTHERMORE WE WILL USE HYPERSPECTRAL AND WAVEFORM LIDAR DATA TO PREDICT PLANT TRAITS AND VEGETATION STRUCTURE IN ESTUARINE ENVIRONMENTS. TO COMPLETE OBJECTIVE 1 WE WILL CONDUCT AN ACCURACY ASSESSMENT TO QUANTIFY THE UNCERTAINTY OF OUR DATA PRODUCTS. OUR SECOND OBJECTIVE IS TO DETERMINE BIODIVERSITY DRIVERS FOR THE NINE ESTUARY CLASSES AND SUBDIVIDE THEM INTO PFT DRIVERS. WE WILL UTILIZE LVIS ICESAT-2 GEDI AND SONAR TO MAP OUR STUDY ESTUARIES' TOPO-BATHYMETRIC ELEVATION GRADIENT. FINALLY WE WILL COMPUTE SPECTRAL DIMENSIONALITY FOR EACH PFT AND ALL HYPERSPECTRAL SENSORS TO EVALUATE ITS RELATIONSHIP TO BIODIVERSITY AT THE ESTUARY AND PFT SCALE. OUR FINAL OBJECTIVE IS TO EXPLORE THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON ESTUARIES OF THE GCFR. TO ACHIEVE THIS OBJECTIVE WE WILL USE NASA SPACEBORNE DATA TO CLASSIFY PFTS IN ALL ESTUARIES OF THE GCFR. THEN WE WILL SYNTHESIZE EXISTING DATA ON FRESHWATER IMPACTS TO HINDCAST THE EFFECT OF FRESHWATER AND ANTHROPOGENIC CHANGE ON RIVERINE ESTUARIES. FINALLY WE WILL USE CLIMATE SCENARIOS TO PREDICT THE IMPACT OF FUTURE TEMPERATURE PRECIPITATION AND URBANIZATION ON GCFR ESTUARIES. OUR PROPOSAL ADDRESSES TWO OF THE BIOSCAPE RESEARCH THEMES: BIODIVERSITY DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE AND FEEDBACKS BETWEEN GLOBAL CHANGE BIODIVERSITY CHANGE AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION AND SERVICES. OUR PRIMARY FOCUS IS INCREASING OUR KNOWLEDGE OF BIODIVERSITY IN ESTUARINE ENVIRONMENTS OF THE GCFR. THE METHODS WE DEVELOP WILL INFORM RESEARCH OUTSIDE OF THE STUDY SITE E.G. IMPROVED ABILITY TO TRACK EBVS IN ESTUARIES INCLUDING ECOSYSTEM EXTENT AND FRAGMENTATION VERTICAL PROFILE % COVER PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY AND DISTURBANCE REGIME. ADDITIONALLY OUR PROPOSED WORK WILL INFORM CURRENT (E.G. GEDI DESIS) AND FUTURE NASA SPACEBORNE MISSIONS (E.G. HYSPIRI). THE DATA PRODUCTS CREATED BY THIS PROJECT WILL BE FREELY AVAILABLE AND HAVE MANY POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS IN COASTAL PLANNING PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT CARBON MONITORING CLIMATE ADAPTATION AND MODELING SATELLITE DEVELOPMENT AND ALGORITHM REFINEMENT.