"Proceedings, Federal Interagency Workshop, "Sediment Technology for the
21'st Century," St. Petersburg, FL, February 17-19,
1998"
Application of Remotely Sensed Image Data and Remote Sensing
Technology to Map Suspended Sediment Information
By Pat Chavez
Pre-Proposal
Issue/Problem
Detecting and mapping suspended sediment concentrations and patterns
are important to many different aspects of both coastal and in-land
water environments. Currently, there is not an easy to use and
inexpensive operational procedure to detect and map suspended sediment
information on both a local and regional scale. Current operational
suspended sediment mapping tools and procedures can be costly and time
intensive. Existing automated suspended sediment measurement equipment
often require extensive field maintenance due to the fact that the
instrument package is in the water for prolong periods of time. For
many applications and environments both remotely sensed images and
spectral field radiometer data can be used to help with the mapping
of surface suspended sediment concentrations and patterns.
Objective
To develop and refine procedures that are useful for detecting and
mapping suspended sediment using both remotely sensed image and
field spectral radiometer data. A procedure and equipment used for
operational detection and mapping of suspended sediment must not only
be easy to use, but portable and usable in different environments
(e.g., both coastal and river waters). This project will investigate
the use of both remotely sensed image and field spectral radiometer
data for operational detection and mapping of suspended sediments
in various environments, including coastal and in-land waters.
Approach
The large areal coverage of remotely sensed satellite and airborne
images makes them useful for mapping and monitoring both relatively
local and regional areas. The portability and compactness of field
spectral radiometer instruments developed for the remote sensing
community make them good candidates for in-situ use to get very
local and high temporal resolution suspended sediment information
without touching the water. A study is needed to take what has been
done in a research mode mapping suspended sediment information using
remote sensing and further develop and fine tune the procedures for
more operational and wide spread use. Conditions and environments in
which this type of a procedure would be useful, as well as limitations
of these data, need to be identified.
Funding
Funding (project level funds)
Field Spectral Radiometer Task---
One year at
$60K
Remotely Sensed Image Task---
One year coastal
at
$50K
One year in-land waters at
$70K
TOTAL
$180K
Beneficiaries
Agencies and groups with interests in detecting and mapping suspended
sediment concentrations and patterns (e.g., coastal waters, estuarines,
and in-land rivers/lakes).
Workshop Contributions