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Journal of Geographical Research | Volume 04 | Issue 04 | October 2021
Journal of Geographical Research
https://ojs.bilpublishing.com/index.php/jgr
Copyright © 2021 by the author(s). Published by Bilingual Publishing Co. This is an open access article under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30564/jgr.v4i4.3780
*Corresponding Author:
Gema Marco Dos Santos,
Departament of Agrochemistry and Environment, University Miguel Hernández of Elche, Edif, Alcudia, Elche, 03202, Spain;
Email: gema.marcodos.santos@gmail.com
Jose Navarro-Pedreño,
Departament of Agrochemistry and Environment, University Miguel Hernández of Elche, Edif, Alcudia, Elche, 03202, Spain;
Email: jonavar@umh.es
1. Introduction
Reservoirs are a very important tool for water manage-
ment, especially in semi-arid areas
[1]
. They facilitate water
supply in scarcity periods, flood control, hydroelectric
power generation and other uses
[2]
. In arid and semi-
arid areas, with water scarcity and irregular precipitation,
an effcient use of water resources is one of the greatest
challenges for managers
[3]
, especially considering the
climate change projections where a decrease in available
water resources is expected
[4,5]
. In Spain, there has been
a significant increase in water demand mainly to the
ARTICLE
Using Landsat Images to Determine Water Storing Capacity in
Mediterranean Environments
Gema Marco Dos Santos
*
Jose Navarro-Pedreño
*
Ignacio Meléndez-Pastor Ignacio Gómez
Lucas
Departament of Agrochemistry and Environment, University Miguel Hernández of Elche, Edif, Alcudia, Elche, 03202,
Spain
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
Article history
Received: 28 September 2021
Revised: 26 October 2021
Accepted: 29 October 2021
Published Online: 31 October 2021
Reservoirs play an important role in water management and are key elements
for water supply. Monitoring is needed in order to guarantee the quantity
and quality of stored water. However, this task is sometimes not easy. The
objective of this study was to develop a procedure for predicting volume
of stored water with remote sensing in water bodies under Mediterranean
climate conditions. To achieve this objective, multispectral Landsat 7 and 8
images (NASA) were analyzed for the following fve reservoirs: La Serena,
La Pedrera, Beniarrés, Cubillas and Negratín (Spain). Reservoirs water
surface was computed with the spectral angle mapper (SAM) algorithm.
After that, cross-validation regression models were computed in order to
assess the capability of water surface estimations to predict stored water in
each of the reservoirs. The statistical models were trained with Landsat 7
images and were validated by using Landsat 8 images. Our results suggest
a good capability of water volume prediction from free satellite imagery
derived from surface water estimations. Combining free remote sensing
images and open source GIS algorithms can be a very useful tool for water
management and an integrated and effcient way to control water storage,
especially in low accessible sites.
Keywords:
Climate change
Decision-making tools
GIS
Reservoir
Water storage