Assessing Orinoco river sediment discharge trend using MODIS satellite images

Gallay, Marjorie; Martinez, Jean‐Michel; Mora, Abrahan; Castellano, Bartolo; Yépez, Santiago; Cochonneau, Gérard; Alfonso, Juan A.; Carrera, Juan Manuel; López, José Luís; Laraque, Alain

doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2019.01.010

Cited by 16 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The method reliably resolves the spatiotemporal dynamics of SSSC at Pyay, similar to previous applications in other large rivers [7,9,26,29]. In particular, the seasonal variation of the SSSC due to the monsoonal cycle, with high values during the wet season and low values during the dry season is well resolved (Fig 4).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 74%

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The Ayeyarwady River (Myanmar): Washload transport and its global role among rivers in the Anthropocene

2021

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The Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) is the second largest river of Southeast Asia and one of the rivers with the highest load of suspended sediment delivered to the sea in the world. The Ayeyarwady is the lifeline of Myanmar which concentrates the majority of the population and GDP of the country. It is the main way of transport, a source of fluvial aggregates for development projects, hydropower, and the basin plays a major role in food supply and irrigation. Despite the Ayeyarwady ranking amongst the world’s largest rivers and its vital importance to Myanmar, scarce research has been undertaken to understand its morphodynamics and sediment transport regime. Current load estimates still heavily rely on the only systematic study of sediment transport dating back to the 19th century. Here, we provide a novel estimate for the recent washload sediment transport based on a field calibrated remote sensing model of surface suspended sediments concentrations. We show that the Ayeyarwady has likely become the river with the second or third largest delivery of washload to the sea in the world since it has so far been much less affected by damming compared to the vast majority of other rivers.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Our Method is based on the principle that the surface reflectance, as captured by the satellite sensor, can be correlated with the concentration of sediments in the water body [ 26 – 28 ]. However, sand transport cannot be determined from surface reflectance in the presence of near-surface sediment.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ayeyarwady River (Myanmar): Washload transport and its global role among rivers in the Anthropocene

2021

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“…Studies estimating annual sediment discharge using gauge records and composited remotely sensed data (250-m MODIS) have shown good agreement with observed data with a ±2% mean relative difference [17,42]. Compared with these studies, we demonstrated a "per event" or "per image" estimation approach where we approximated the sediment discharge based on gauge records and 30-m Landsat data.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Estimating River Sediment Discharge in the Upper Mississippi River Using Landsat Imagery

Flores

Stöckle

et al. 2020

Remote Sensing

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With the decline of operational river gauges monitoring sediments, a viable means of quantifying sediment transport is needed. In this study, we address this issue by applying relationships between hydraulic geometry of river channels, water discharge, water-leaving surface reflectance (SR), and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) to quantify sediment discharge with the aid of space-based observations. We examined 5490 Landsat scenes to estimate water discharge, SSC, and sediment discharge for the period from 1984 to 2017 at nine gauging sites along the Upper Mississippi River. We used recent advances in remote sensing of fluvial systems, such as automated river width extraction, Bayesian discharge inference with at-many-stations hydraulic geometry (AMHG), and SSC-SR regression models. With 621 Landsat scenes available from all the gauging sites, the results showed that the water discharge and SSC retrieval from Landsat imagery can yield reasonable sediment discharge estimates along the Upper Mississippi River. An overall relative bias of −25.4, mean absolute error (MAE) of 6.24 × 104 tonne/day, relative root mean square error (RRMSE) of 1.21, and Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) of 0.49 were obtained for the sediment discharge estimation. Based on these statistical metrics, we identified three of the nine gauging sites (St. Louis, MO; Chester, IL; and Thebes, IL), which were in the downstream portion of the river, to be the best locations for estimating water and sediment discharge using Landsat imagery.

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“…Because of some recent results obtained in the Amazon and Orinoco basins [62][63][64][65]-two other large intertropical rivers-evaluating the river TSS fluxes based on remote sensing by river water colorimetry, we analyzed the TSS concentrations from January 2013 at three points of the central vertical line of the river cross section (Figure 9).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the TSS concentrations of the three sampling depths vary concomitantly (Figure 11), it is now possible, thanks to satellite remote sensing (Landsat 8 OLI and MODIS sensors), to evaluate the TSS concentration of the Congo waters, as was successfully carried out on the Orinoco, Amazon and Guyanese rivers [62][63][64][65]. The colorimetry of waters makes it possible to link their reflectance to their surface TSS concentration.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Variability of Sediments, Dissolved Solids and Dissolved Organic Matter Fluxes in the Congo River at Brazzaville/Kinshasa

et al. 2020

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For three decades, the solid and dissolved fluxes of the Congo River have been regularly monitored on a monthly basis, despite 12 years of deficiencies (1994–2005). Two programs successively carried out these follow-ups: PEGI/GBF (1987–1993) and SO HYBAM (2006–2017), upstream and downstream, respectively, of the Malebo Pool near Brazzaville, the main hydrometric station of the Congo River. The objective of this study is to examine the temporal dynamic of TSS, TDS and DOC, to explore how these descriptors change over time. Comparison with the two time programs will shed more light on how these descriptors are related to discharge. Afterward, we then find a relationship between total TSS in the water column and that measured in surface for eventual estimation of TSS by remote sensing. In the last decade, compared to the PEGI/GBF period, the discharge of the Congo River was mainly marked by a 4% increase, leading to a significant change on TDS and DOC behaviors. The TSS was quite stable (from 8.2 and 9.3 t km−2 yr−1) due to the low physical erosion well known in this region. The TDS concentrations decreased slightly, by a simple dilution effect. However, the mineral dissolved fluxes (from 11.6 and 10.1 t km-2 yr-1) due to the chemical weathering and atmospheric inputs still predominate over the solid fluxes. Therefore, there was no radical change in the monthly geochemical regime of Congo River Basin (CRB) during these last 30 years. Contrariwise, the DOC concentration marking the biogeochemical processes significantly increased, from 9.0+/−3.0 mg L−1 to 12.7+/−5.0 mg L−1, due to more flooding events in the central part of the CRB. The change for the DOC fluxes is more relevant, with an increase of 45% between the two studied periods, from 11.1 × 106 to 16.2 × 106 t yr−1. This highlights the continuous and actual importance of the “Cuvette Centrale” in the heart of the CRB for dissolved organic matter transport by the Congo River.

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Assessing Orinoco river sediment discharge trend using MODIS satellite images

Cited by 16 publications

References 38 publications

The Ayeyarwady River (Myanmar): Washload transport and its global role among rivers in the Anthropocene

The Ayeyarwady River (Myanmar): Washload transport and its global role among rivers in the Anthropocene

Estimating River Sediment Discharge in the Upper Mississippi River Using Landsat Imagery

Temporal Variability of Sediments, Dissolved Solids and Dissolved Organic Matter Fluxes in the Congo River at Brazzaville/Kinshasa

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