## 5 Conclusions  
The findings from this study underscore the importance of selecting appropriate vegetation indices tailored to specific environmental conditions and vegetation characteristics in wetland ecosystems--an issue of growing global relevance as wetland monitoring becomes increasingly critical in the context of climate change and biodiversity loss. Both NDVI and EVI showed the highest correlation with canopy height and cover (CHM30) over shrub swamps, with NDVI being more sensitive to canopy height variation in all woody vegetation classes. However, the strength and direction of CHM-VI relationships varied across landcover types, reflecting the differing sensitivity of each index to vegetation structure and moisture conditions in each class. While NDVI tends to capture a broader range of vegetation responses, including shorter stature vegetation, its potential for over-estimating the time-variant greening response of a landscape due to the sensitivity to changes in canopy structure or surface moisture cannot be ignored. EVI exhibited more spatially consistent trends in areas of taller woody canopy, making it more suitable for detecting ecotonal expansion and succession in structurally complex wetland zones. In contrast, NDVI trends were more responsive to vegetation changes in lower-stature, moisture-sensitive areas, particularly where wetland drying was observed. These findings highlight the complementary strengths of NDVI and EVI in capturing different aspects of wetland vegetation change, offering insight into both structural canopy shifts and surface moisture responses. In particular, the as yet inconclusive evidence we present here for comparatively increased rates of woody ecotonal expansion in the historically reversible flow areas of the Peace Delta warrants dedicated investigation. The conceptual framework presented in Figure 11 provides a basis for a multi-decadal assessment of wetland open water, surface moisture and vegetation canopy change. While developed for the PAD, it offers a transferable approach that can inform similar assessments in other northern wetland complexes worldwide, contributing to international efforts in wetland conservation and climate adaptation. Conceptualization, C.H. ; Methodology, F.A. and C.H. ; Software, F.A. ; Validation, F.A., C.H., L.C., C.M. and D.L.P. ; Formal Analysis, F.A. ; Investigation, F.A. and C.H. ; Resources, C.H. ; Data Curation, F.A. and C.H. ; Writing--Original Draft Preparation, F.A. ; Writing--Review and Editing, F.A., C.H., L.C., C.M. and D.L.P. ; Visualization, F.A., C.H., L.C., C.M. and D.L.P. ; Supervision, C.H. ; Funding Acquisition, C.H. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. Funding for this project was supported by NSERC-Discovery Grant (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) to Hopkinson (#2017-577 04362). Airborne lidar survey equipment was funded through a Western Economic Diversification Canada (#000015316) grant and ground survey equipment from Canada Foundation for Innovation (#32426) grant to Hopkinson. Funding for the 2000 data was provided by Environment Canada ([PERSON]), and contributions from the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing ([PERSON]) and Parks Canada ([PERSON]) subsidized the 2018 lidar campaign and air photo processing. [PERSON] was supported through an Alberta Innovates graduate student scholarship. Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable. Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable. Data Availability Statement: The Landsat-derived indices used in this study are based on publicly available satellite imagery accessed through the Google Earth Engine platform ([[https://earthengine.google.com/](https://earthengine.google.com/)]([https://earthengine.google.com/](https://earthengine.google.com/))).