Remote sensing of diffuse attenuation coefficient patterns from Landsat 8 OLI imagery of turbid inland waters: A case study of Dongting Lake Zhubin Zheng a,b,c,d , Jingli Ren a,b , Yunmei Li a,c,d, ⁎, Chuangchun Huang a,c,d , Ge Liu a , Chenggong Du a , Heng Lyu a,c,d a Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographic Environment, Ministry of Education, College of Geographic Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China b School of Geography and Planning, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou 341000, China c State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base of Geographical Environment Evolution (Jiangsu Province), Nanjing 210023, China d Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing 210023, China HIGHLIGHTS • A new band-ratio algorithm for K d (490) estimation was developed for turbid waters. • Reconstructed patterns of K d (490) in Dongting Lake by Landsat 8 OLI images • Inversion of K d (490) values were ob- served for the first time in Dongting Lake. • Revealed the factors affecting the spa- tial-temporal patterns of K d (490) • The suitability of the new model for Landsat archives and Sentinel 2/3 was discussed. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT Spatial-temporal patterns of K d (490) in Dongting Lake were due to anthropogenic activities and environmental factors. Panel A & B show sand dredging activities and auto uploading vessels respectively; panel C, D & E present the relationships between K d (490) and surface runoff, between surface runoff and precipitation, and between K d (490) and sediment discharge respectively. abstract article info Article history: Received 3 June 2016 Received in revised form 1 August 2016 Accepted 3 August 2016 Available online xxxx Editor: D. Barcelo The diffuse attenuation coefficient, K d (λ), is an important optical property. Environmental change and anthropo- genic activities, however, have made it challenging to accurately assess K d (λ) patterns in the extremely turbid inland waters. We addressed this challenge by using new Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) imagery. For the bio-optical complexity of water, we proposed an empirical band-ratio algorithm for estimating K d (490) using our in situ measurements. Based on the acceptable performance of an OLI image-based atmospheric correc- tion and K d (490) validation, the algorithm was then applied to OLI images to estimate K d (490) patterns from April 2013 to April 2016, leading to several key findings: (1) Spatial-temporal patterns of K d (490) varied signif- icantly in Dongting Lake. The temporal heterogeneity of K d (490) could be explained primarily by surface-runoff changes driven by regional precipitation. The spatial heterogeneity was due to sediment resuspension, resulting from sand dredging and shipping activities; (2) K d (490) values that were inversed at the intersection of Dongting Lake and Yangtze River were observed for the first time near the Chengliji site and resulted from the opposing temporal cycle of K d (490) variations between Dongting Lake and the Yangtze River; (3) There was a significant Keywords: Diffuse attenuation coefficient Landsat 8 OLI Dongting Lake Total suspended matter (TSM) Science of the Total Environment 573 (2016) 39–54 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographic Environment, Ministry of Education, College of Geographic Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China. E-mail address: liyunmei@njnu.edu.cn (Y. Li). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.08.019 0048-9697/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv