Author(s): Carmela Cavallo; Maria Nicolina Papa; Massimiliano Gargiulo; Giuseppe Ruello

Linked Author(s): Carmela Cavallo

Keywords: Temporary rivers; Sentinel-2; Satellite data; Flow regime

Abstract: Temporary rivers constitute a large portion of river segments on Earth. This is going to increase for the effects of climate change with possible turning of perennial rivers into temporary ones. These environments require careful management to protect their biological and socio-economic values. Moreover, it is necessary to develop reliable methods for the assessment of their ecological status, as required by the European Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (European Union Council). The main obstacle to the implementation of correct management policies is constituted by the lack of information, especially on the duration and frequency of zero-flow periods. In this work we exploited the multispectral freely distributed data of the Sentinel-2 mission (ESA) to monitor non-perennial rivers. In particular, a double threshold segmentation method was developed to distinguish three different land cover classes: vegetation, sediments and water. The comparison with the field surveys and very high resolution images showed that the proposed method is able to assess channel dynamics and derive information for the classification of flow regime.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/IAHR-39WC2521711920221473

Year: 2022