Geomorphometrical analysis in the Bahía Blanca estuary using remotely sensed digital data.

ANGELES, G.R; PICCOLO, M.C.; PERILLO, G.M.E.

Bahía Blanca

Congreso; 4th LOICZ Open Science Meeting; 1999

LOICZ

The Bahía Blanca estuary, located in the south-west of Buenos Aires province, is characterized by a complex tidal channel net with varied drainage patterns. The aim of this work is to develop a hierarchy of the tidal channels and to identify the different areas according to its drainage pattern applying geoprocessing techniques to remotely sensed Landsat 5 TM images. It was acquired by the satellite on 16 February 1999 and processed by The National Commission of Spatial Activities (CONAE). Among the applied techniques stand out the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and the linear contrast operations. Once these operations were carried out all the identified tidal channels were digitized on the resulting image. Finally they were classified according to the "currents of water order system" proposed by Horton (1945) and modified by Strahler (1952). The combination between the new geoprocessing techniques and the classic geomorphometrical techniques made it possible to define four areas with differences in the order and density of tidal channels, as well as to identify the presence of different drainage patterns.