Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID OH_2023_Feng

Using long-term satellite data and machine learning to quantify changes in riverine phosphorus in the Ohio River Basin

Institute: Ohio
Year Established: 2023 Start Date: 2023-09-01 End Date: 2024-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $35,983 Total Non-Federal Funds: $40,824

Principal Investigators: Dongmei Feng

Project Summary: Even though one of the major nutrients in the surface water body system, excess riverine phosphorus can result in various problems, such as eutrophication, and cause a cascade of detrimental consequences to humans and ecosystems. We will integrate new technology in remote sensing, cloud computing, big data, and machine learning to estimate total phosphorus in the Ohio river basin, one of the largest rivers in the United States (U.S.) affected by eutrophication. We will use Landsat reflectance data matched with in situ measurements of total phosphorus collected from all gauges in the U.S. from 1984-2021 to train a machine learning model, and apply this model to all Landsat-visible rivers in Ohio to create a long-term time series of total phosphorus concentrations during 1984-2021. By quantifying the temporal/spatial variations of total riverine phosphorus in Ohio, we will provide a comprehensive evaluation of recent changes in river TP to enhance our understanding of surface water security conditions in Ohio, and thus improve environmental justice.