Low-Cost Unmanned Aerial Multispectral Imagery for Siltation Monitoring in Reservoirs
Open Access
- 7 June 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by MDPI AG in Remote Sensing
- Vol. 12 (11), 1855
- https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12111855
Abstract
The recent and continuous development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and small cameras with different spectral resolutions and imaging systems promotes new remote sensing platforms that can supply ultra-high spatial and temporal resolution, filling the gap between ground-based surveys and orbital sensors. This work aimed to monitor siltation in two large rural and urban reservoirs by recording water color variations within a savanna biome in the central region of Brazil using a low cost and very light unmanned platform. Airborne surveys were conducted using a Parrot Sequoia camera (~0.15 kg) onboard a DJI Phantom 4 UAV (~1.4 kg) during dry and rainy seasons over inlet areas of both reservoirs. Field measurements of total suspended solids (TSS) and water clarity were made jointly with the airborne survey campaigns. Field hyperspectral radiometry data were also collected during two field surveys. Bio-optical models for TSS were tested for all spectral bands of the Sequoia camera. The near-infrared single band was found to perform the best (R2: 0.94; RMSE: 7.8 mg L−1) for a 0–180 mg L−1 TSS range and was used to produce time series of TSS concentration maps of the study areas. This flexible platform enabled monitoring of the increase of TSS concentration at a ~13 cm spatial resolution in urban and rural drainages in the rainy season. Aerial surveys allowed us to map TSS load fluctuations in a 1 week period during which no satellite images were available due to continuous cloud coverage in the rainy season. This work demonstrates that a low-cost configuration allows dense TSS monitoring at the inlet areas of reservoirs and thus enables mapping of the sources of sediment inputs, supporting the definition of mitigation plans to limit the siltation process.Keywords
Funding Information
- Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (01.14.0114.00)
This publication has 38 references indexed in Scilit:
- A study of sediment transport in the Madeira River, Brazil, using MODIS remote-sensing imagesJournal of South American Earth Sciences, 2013
- ‘Structure-from-Motion’ photogrammetry: A low-cost, effective tool for geoscience applicationsGeomorphology, 2012
- Review of constituent retrieval in optically deep and complex waters from satellite imageryRemote Sensing of Environment, 2012
- A current review of empirical procedures of remote sensing in inland and near-coastal transitional watersInternational Journal of Remote Sensing, 2011
- Calibration and validation of a generic multisensor algorithm for mapping of total suspended matter in turbid watersRemote Sensing of Environment, 2010
- A case study of airborne and satellite remote sensing of a spring bloom event in the Gulf of FinlandContinental Shelf Research, 2007
- Monitoring the maximum turbidity zone and detecting fine‐scale turbidity features in the Gironde estuary using high spatial resolution satellite sensor (SPOT HRV, Landsat ETM+) dataInternational Journal of Remote Sensing, 2006
- Seaborne measurements of near infrared water-leaving reflectance: The similarity spectrum for turbid watersLimnology and Oceanography, 2006
- Characterizing the spectral reflectance of algae in lake waters with high suspended sediment concentrationsInternational Journal of Remote Sensing, 2005
- Analytical algorithms for lake water TSM estimation for retrospective analyses of TM and SPOT sensor dataInternational Journal of Remote Sensing, 2002