Mapping Relative Variation in Suspended Sediment Concentration in the Tennessee River using Remote Sensing

Presenter(s)

Braxton Anzalone

Abstract or Description

Spaceborne Remote sensing technology has been used successfully to study sediment loads in the surface water bodies for many years. There are different satellite image derived indices for analyzing sediment loads in the water. However, the performance of these indices varies. Therefore, it is important to know the performance of these indices for estimating sediment concentration in the surface water bodies. 

Using Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) imagery, this study calculated three commonly used suspended sediment concentration and turbidity estimation indices for the Tennessee River and evaluated their performance. The indices calculated include Normalized Difference Suspended Sediment Index (NDSSI), Normalized Difference Turbidity Index (NDTI), and Normalized Suspended Materials Index (NSMI).

A time series of three Landsat 8 OLI satellite images acquired over the Tennessee River within Hamilton County, TN was used to calculate the indices. Near real-time in situ measurements of turbidity for all three image acquisition dates were used to accomplish the evaluation. The obtained results will be presented and discussed.