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Title: WATER QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN THE ARROYO COLORADO (TEXAS) USING A 12-BAND AIRBORNE DIGITAL VIDEO IMAGING SYSTEM

Author
item NAYERI, SHAHRIAR - INDIANA STATE UNIV.
item MAUSEL, PAUL - INDIANA STATE UNIV.
item WEBSTER, CHARLES - INDIANA STATE UNIV.
item Escobar, David
item Everitt, James

Submitted to: Workshop Color Aerial Photography & Videography in Plant Science Proceeding
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/29/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The Rio Grande River system has been impacted by agricultural and industrial activities and contains a variety of water qualities. There is a need to assess and monitor the Arroyo Colorado, a distributary of the Rio Grande River, if its water quality is to be improved and properly managed. Good qualitative associations between the digital values of numerous spectral bands and many of the 17 water parameters were found, but too few suitable water samples were available to develop statistically reliable quantitative measures. However, the qualitative results obtained suggest that narrowband video data have the potential to be used successfully for identification of several important water parameters, along with their concentration variations.

Technical Abstract: The Rio Grande River system has been impacted by agricultural and industrial activities and contains a variety of water qualities. There is a need to assess and monitor the Arroyo Colorado (AC), a distributary of the Rio Grande River, if its water quality is to be improved and properly managed. In this preliminary research study, a 12-band airborne digital video imaging system (ADVIS), which acquires narrowband data (6.5-12.5 nm) within the 447 - 826 nm spectral range, was used for water quality assessment. Video data were collected over the AC on June 26, 1997 from an altitude of 458m (1500 ft) providing an image resolution of 0.49m. Three water samples were collected along different stretches of the river near Port Harlingen, TX, concurrently with video image data acquisition. Good qualitative associations between the digital values (DV) of numerous spectral bands and many of the 17 water parameters were found, but too few suitable water samples were available to develop statistically reliable quantitative measures. However, the qualitative results obtained suggest that narrowband video data have the potential to be used successfully for identification of several important water parameters, along with their concentration variations. Future work will include multi-temporal analysis, collection of selected alternate bands, use of ratio and principal component analysis (PCA), enhanced bands and integration of geographic information system (GIS) approaches for data display and analysis. Methods to calibrate spectral data will be assessed with a view to implement as appropriate in future research phases.