Use of Remote Sensing to Assess

Wetland and Water Quality

By: Rodney Farris

SOIL 4213
Significance/Uses of Wetlands
Filter for clean water supply
Support a diversity of vegetation
Wildlife habitat

Main components
Hydrology
Soil
Vegetation
Significance/Uses of Wetlands
Improve Water Quality
Mobilize heavy metals
Regulate the flow of water and
nutrients
Some Areas Around
Wetlands are
Pasture/Agricultural
Croplands
Some used/converted for
agricultural use
(crops, forage, timber)
Irrigation source
Reduction or prevention of
erosion
Flood control
Non-point/point source runoff
filtration
Wetland and Water Quality Monitoring
Water Storage Capability
Size of wetlands
Extent of water-spread and its seasonal
variation
Water flow
Water fluctuations
Vegetation
Patterns, abundance, richness, composition
Weed infestations
Wetland and Water Quality Monitoring
Water Quality
Turbidity levels
Eutrophication
Siltation/sediment concentration
Chlorophyll concentration/Algal biological parameters
Herbicides
Change detected in short lived taxa
Bioaccumulation of metals
Change detected in long lived taxa
Wetland Wildlife
Remote Sensors Used

Landsat TM & MSS CASI (Compact

SPOT Airborne
Spectrographic
RADARSAT
Imager)
SAR (Synthetic
Aerial Photography
Aperture Radar)
Ground Level (low
Spectron SE-590
level) Photography
Spectroradiometer
Landsat TM or MSS
High spatial resolution,
data at 16 day intervals,
25 years of archived
data
95% accuracy in
mapping wetlands
compared to manual
mapping
Bands 4, 5, 7 best for
detecting water
Landsat TM or MSS (cont.)
(TM) Thematic Mapper
30m spatial resolution (all Bands*)
*Exception: for Band 6 resolution is 120m
Incident infrared wavelengths shows
water body better than visible Bands.
Strong absorption of light by water, giving
a low spectral response
Detect open water
Landsat TM or MSS (cont.)
Able to classify vegetation
Dense green
Sparse green
Very sparse green
Problems
Clouds or cloud shadows
Dense vegetation makes it difficult to
define soil/water boundaries
Can only classify vegetation based on
density
SPOT
Low reflectance of water in infrared
Bands
Searches a smaller area than Landsat
images (20 m spatial resolution)
Records reflected radiation in green, red
and near-infrared spectrum
Detect changes in aquatic vegetation
Used to measure algal growth and
respiration rates
RADARSAT
Daily access over an area
Able to penetrate clouds, vegetative
canopies, sensitive to moisture changes
in targets
Specular signal scattering over water
surface and diffuse over soil surface
Able to pick up corner reflection effects
between water surface and vegetative
stems/trunks
SARSynthetic Aperture Radar (C-Band)

Detects changes in surface soil moisture

conditions
Detects wetland and non-wetland vegetation
Better detection in fall or senescence period
Open water appears dark
With image filtrations:
Marshes (bright red, green, and blue due to
reflective effects
Non-forested bogs appear reddish
Spectron SE-590 Spectroradiometer
Detects suspended sediment
concentrations
Better detection at 740 900nm or
infrared wavelengths
Based on function of bottom brightness
and reflection of suspended sediments
CASICompact Airborne Spectrographic Imager
Wetland mapping
Vegetative health
Density, position, composition
Determine wetland vegetation based on
lushness, vigor, intensity
Compared to upland/dry sites
Detect sediments, wildlife, algal
concentrations
Ground Level (low level) Photography

Photographs, video, time lapse

photography
Used at fixed or surveyed points of
reference
Photos taken at specific times
Document scale with range poles
Photos can be pieced together to form
panorama
Detect changes in vegetation, distribution/
loss of wildlife
Importance of Remote Sensing for
Wetland/Water Quality Assessment
Ground access is often difficult
Able to sense a large area at a given
point in time
Assess the impacts of point/non-point
pollution
Wetlands on private lands can be
monitored
Importance of Remote Sensing for
Wetland/Water Quality Assessment
Wetlands are included in Water Quality
Standards (WQS)
Basis for wetland status/trend monitoring of
state wetland resources
Wetland assessment, over the years, will
help define spatial extent (quantity),
physical structure (plant types, diversity,
distribution), users, and wetland health
References
Baghdadi, N., et.al. 2001. Evaluation of C-band SAR data for wetlands mapping. Int. J.
of Remote Sensing. 22:71-88.

Chopra, R., V.K. Verma, and P.K. Sharma. 2001. Mapping, monitoring and conservation
of Harike wetland ecosystem, Punjab, India, through remote sensing. Int. J. of Remote
Sensing. 22:89-98.

Durand, Dominique, J. Bijaoui, and F. Cauneau. 2000. Optical remote sensing of

shallow-water environmental parameters: a feasibility study. Remote Sensing of
Environment. 73:152-161.

Frazier, P.S., and K.J. Page. 2000. Water body detection and delineation with Landsat
TM data. Photogrammetric. Engineering & Remote Sensing. 66:1461-1467.

Jorgensen, P.V. and K. Edelvang. 2000. CASI data utilized for mapping suspended
matter concentrations in sediment plumes and verification of 2-D hydredynamic modeling.
Int. J. of Remote Sensing. 21:2247-2258.

Keiner, Louis E. and X. Yan. 1998. A neural network model for estimating sea surface
chlorophyll and sediments from Thematic Mapper imagery. Remote Sensing of Environment.
66:153-165.
References (cont.)
Munyati, C. 2000. Wetland change detection on the Kafue Flats, Zambia, by
classification of a multitemporal remote sensing image database. Int. J. of Remote Sensing.
21:1787-1806.

Rio, Julie N.R., and D.F. Lozano-Garcia. 2000. Spatial filtering of radar data
(RADARSAT) for wetlands (brackish marshes) classification. Remote Sensing of Environment.
73:143-151.

Shepherd, I., et. al. 2000. Monitoring surface water storage in the north Kent marshes
using Landsat TM images. Int. J. of Remote Sensing. 21:1843-1865.

Tolk, B.L., et. al. 2000. The impact of bottom brightness on spectral reflectance of
suspended sediments. Int. J. of Remote Sensing. 21:2259-2268.

Toyra, Jessika, A. Pietroniro, and L.W. Martz. 2001. Multisensor hydrological

assessment of a freshwater wetland. Remote Sensing of Environment. 75:162-173.

Yang, M.D., R.M. Sykes, and C.J. Merry. 2000. Estimation of algal biological parameters
using water quality modeling and SPOT satellite data. Ecological Modelling. 125:1-13.
References (cont.)
http://baby.indstate.edu/gerstt/rscc/isurs2.html

http://www.ducks.org/conservation/greatplains.asp

http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/wqual.html

http://sfbay.wr.usgs.gov/access/quality.html

http://terraweb.wr.usgs.gov/TRS/projects/SFBay/

http://water.usgs.gov/nwsum/WSP2425.html