Using new remote sensing satellites for assessing water quality in a reservoir

BONANSEA, MATIAS; LEDESMA, MICAELA; RODRIGUEZ, CLAUDIA; PINOTTI, LUCIO

HYDROLOGICAL SCIENCES JOURNAL-JOURNAL DES SCIENCES HYDROLOGIQUES

IAHS PRESS

Lugar: Wallingford; Año: 2019

0262-6667

Water quality monitoring could benefit from information derived from the newest generation of medium resolution Earth observation satellites. The main objective of our study was to assess the suitability of both Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2A satellites for estimating and mapping Secchi disk transparency (SDT), a common measurement of water clarity, in Cassaffousth reservoir (Córdoba, Argentina). Ground observations and a data-set of four Landsat 8 and four Sentinel-2A images were used to create and validate models to estimate SDT in the reservoir. The selected algorithms were used to obtain graphic representations of water clarity. Slightly differences were found between Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 estimations. Thus, we have demonstrated the suitability of both satellites for estimating and mapping water quality. The present study highlights the importance of free and readily-available satellite datasets in monitoring water quality especially in countries where conventional monitoring programs are either lacking or unsatisfactory.