Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID GA_2024_ElSharif

Sattelite-based Lake Chlorophyll-a Assessment for Georgia Lakes

Institute: Georgia
Year Established: 2024 Start Date: 2024-09-01 End Date: 2025-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $20,981 Total Non-Federal Funds: $20,985

Principal Investigators: Husayn El Sharif, Aris Georgakakos

Project Summary: This project proposes to regionalize and deploy a procedure to assess Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations in Georgia lakes from near real-time satellite imagery. An earlier version of this approach and tool is currently used by the Gwinnett County Water Resources Department for monitoring Chl-a concentrations in Lake Lanier. The proposed project aims to expand the application range of this approach and implement it for all major Georgia lakes. Toward this goal, all existing Chl-a measurements from field campaigns will be acquired and used in model calibration and testing. Such measurements are obtained during the warm months of the year by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (Ga EPD) for regulatory purposes and other organizations such as the USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center (USGS SAWSC Georgia Office).