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Retrieval of suspended sediment concentrations in large turbid rivers using Landsat ETM+: an example from the Yangtze River, China
Author(s) -
Wang JianJun,
Lu Xi Xi,
Liew Soo Chin,
Zhou Yue
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
earth surface processes and landforms
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.294
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1096-9837
pISSN - 0197-9337
DOI - 10.1002/esp.1795
Subject(s) - sediment , yangtze river , environmental science , hydrology (agriculture) , remote sensing , atmospheric correction , range (aeronautics) , water quality , thematic mapper , satellite , reflectivity , chine , satellite imagery , geology , china , geomorphology , geography , ecology , materials science , geotechnical engineering , archaeology , engineering , aerospace engineering , composite material , biology , optics , physics
Abstract Suspended sediment concentration (SSC) is a critical parameter in the study of river sediment transport and water quality variation, but traditional measurement methods are costly and time‐consuming. This paper is focused on presenting a methodology that may be useful in estimating SSC which is of key importance in process geomorphology and hydrology. In previous studies, remote sensing has been applied to estimate the SSC of sea waters as well as low turbid inland waters like lakes, reservoirs and short river reaches visible within a single Landsat satellite image coverage. Rivers, especially highly turbid large rivers, have largely been ignored. The dataset used in this paper includes measured SSC and multi‐temporal Landsat ETM+ images covering most part of the Yangtze River. Using an effective easy‐to‐use atmospheric correction method that does not require in situ atmospheric conditions, retrieved water reflectance of Band 4 was found to be a good SSC indicator within the large SSC range 22–2610 mg l –1 . The newly developed regression relation between SSC and water reflectance of Band 4 appears to be able to provide a relatively accurate SSC estimate directly from Landsat ETM+ images for the Yangtze River from the upper, the middle to the lower reaches. With the relation it is possible to estimate or map out SSC dynamics of large rivers which lack SSC data due to constraints of conventional measurements. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.