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

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

Bahía Blanca

Congreso; II LOICZ Open Science Meeting; 1999

LOICZ

The Bahía Blanca estuary, located in the south-west of Buenos Aires province, is characterized by acomplex tidal channel net with varied drainage patterns. The aim of this work is to develop ahierarchy of the tidal channels and to identify the different areas according to its drainage patternapplying geoprocessing techniques to remotely sensed Landsat 5 TM images. It was acquired bythe 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 thelinear contrast operations. Once these operations were carried out all the identified tidal channelswere digitized on the resulting image. Finally they were classified according to the "currents ofwater order system" proposed by Horton (1945) and modified by Strahler (1952). The combinationbetween the new geoprocessing techniques and the classic geomorphometrical techniques made itpossible to define four areas with differences in the order and density of tidal channels, as well as toidentify the presence of different drainage patterns.