The use of remote sensing for identification and mapping of plumes of suspended sediments in coastal areas
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Esch, K.F.; 2Sartori Neto, A.
1UNIVERSIDADE DO ESTADO DO RIO DE JANEIRO Email: kellyesch@hotmail.com
2PETROBRAS Email: angelosartori@petrobras.com.br
Abstract
Suspended sediments are a major factor affecting water quality in aquatic ecosystems of the world; they do influence the geomorphological processes of environmental formation and may indicate erosion problems and loss of ground on the contributing watershed. Its spatial and temporal monitoring is fundamental in the activities of the environmental management of the coastal areas. In that direction, the basic hypothesis of this research is that the spatial and temporal pattern of coastal plumes of sediments – associated to the hydrological regime of the river – may be characterized from orbital images of medium spatial resolution. To prove this, it was elected the mouth of Paraiba do Sul river as study area for defining and testing the methodology, which was formulated as principal purpose to map qualitatively the coastal plumes of this river from the images of Landsat 5 and CBERS-2, from the period between 1985 and 2007. The evaluated dates were defined with criteria through three strategies of analysis, totaling fifty images. Literature review and evaluation of the spectral response of the feature of interest consisted on the main steps of the definition of the methodology. The plumes were so identified, mapped and extracted; afterward, its spatial and temporal characteristics were analyzed by geographical information systems and evaluated together with historical data of river discharge. The results indicate that the red band yielded a better internal discrimination of the plume, being, therefore, used as basis to the analyses realized on this work. With exception of the procedure of atmospheric correction, the methodology proposal consists on the utilization of simple techniques of digital processing of images, based on the integration of semi-automatic and visual analyses techniques. The evaluation of the sediments pattern and qualitative thematic maps of suspended particulate matter indicates the strong differentiation existing between scenarios representing the periods of high and low waters of the river. Spatial analyses of the behavior of the plumes even contribute to a better knowledge of the geographical space, supplying subsidies to the most assorted sectors of environmental planning and management.
Keywords
Suspended sediments; Remote sensing; Paraíba do Sul River