Hindcasting water clarity from Landsat satellite images of unmonitored shallow lakes in the Waikato region, New Zealand | Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
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Hindcasting water clarity from Landsat satellite images of unmonitored shallow lakes in the Waikato region, New Zealand

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Abstract

Cost-effective monitoring is necessary for all investigations of lake ecosystem responses to perturbations and long-term change. Satellite imagery offers the opportunity to extend low-cost monitoring and to examine spatial and temporal variability in water clarity data. We have developed automated procedures using Landsat imagery to estimate total suspended sediments (TSS), turbidity (TURB) in nephlometric turbidity units (NTU) and Secchi disc transparency (SDT) in 34 shallow lakes in the Waikato region, New Zealand, over a 10-year time span. Fifty-three Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus images captured between January 2000 and March 2009 were used for the analysis, six of which were captured within 24 h of physical in situ measurements for each of 10 shallow lakes. This gave 32–36 usable data points for the regressions between surface reflectance signatures and in situ measurements, which yielded r 2 values ranging from 0.67 to 0.94 for the three water clarity variables. Using these regressions, a series of Arc Macro Language scripts were developed to automate image preparation and water clarity analysis. Minimum and maximum in situ measurements corresponding to the six images were 2 and 344 mg/L for TSS, 75 and 275 NTU for TURB, and 0.05 and 3.04 m for SDT. Remotely sensed water clarity estimates showed good agreement with temporal patterns and trends in monitored lakes and we have extended water clarity datasets to previously unmonitored lakes. High spatial variability of TSS and water clarity within some lakes was apparent, highlighting the importance of localised inputs and processes affecting lake clarity. Moreover, remote sensing can give a whole lake view of water quality, which is very difficult to achieve by in situ point measurements.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Waikato Regional Council sincerely for access to their water quality data. We also thank Kevin Collier and David Hamilton for constructive criticism of the manuscript. This study was funded by the NZ Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment contract UOWX0505.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Research Institute, Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, 3240, New Zealand

    Brendan J. Hicks, Glen A. Stichbury & Mathew G. Allan

  2. Department of Geography, Tourism and Environmental Planning, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, 3240, New Zealand

    Lars K. Brabyn & Salman Ashraf

Authors
  1. Brendan J. Hicks
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  2. Glen A. Stichbury
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  3. Lars K. Brabyn
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  4. Mathew G. Allan
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  5. Salman Ashraf
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brendan J. Hicks.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 7.

Appendix 1 Predicted yearly mean TSS calculated from equation 6 (Table 4) from measured in situ TSS measurements and Landsat 7 EMT+ band 4 reflectance for 2000–2009 for 34 shallow Waikato lakes. Number of images (n) for each year may not have all been used for each lake due to cloud cover
Full size table

Appendix 2

Table 8.

Appendix 2 Predicted yearly mean SDT calculated from Eq. 8 (Table 4) from measured in situ SDT measurements and Landsat 7 EMT+ reflectance from bands 1 and 3 for 2000–2009 for 34 shallow Waikato lakes. Number of images (n) for each year may not have all been used for each lake due to cloud cover
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Hicks, B.J., Stichbury, G.A., Brabyn, L.K. et al. Hindcasting water clarity from Landsat satellite images of unmonitored shallow lakes in the Waikato region, New Zealand. Environ Monit Assess 185, 7245–7261 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-013-3098-2

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