Statistical evaluation of remotely sensed data for water quality monitoring

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to determine relationships between water quality parameters (WQPs) and digital data from the Landsat satellite to estimate and map the WQP in the Porsuk Dam reservoir. Suspended sediments (SS), chlorophyll a (chl-a), NO3-N and transmitted light intensity depth (TLID) were the parameters for water quality determination used in this study. Collection of these data, obtained from the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (GDSHW) was synchronized with the Landsat satellite overpass of the September 1987. The relationships between the brightness values (BV) of the TM data and WQP were determined. Using the TM data, we developed multiple regression equations to estimate the WQPs, and the validation of these equations was checked by using ANOVA. The effects of SS, NO3-N and chl-a on TLID were tested not only for ground data, but also for TM datasets. Regression equations were developed for two different datasets and the homogeneity of those equations was tested. Finally, these regression equations evaluated from digital TM data and ground data were applied to map TLID values.