Monitoring of Water Bodies and Reclaimed Lands Affected by Warfare Using Satellite Data

Abstract

The paper presents the results of monitoring the state of water bodies and reclaimed lands affected by warfare using remote sensing methods and in-situ surveys. On the example of the flooding of the floodplain of the Irpin river by the waters of the Kyiv reservoir as a result of the destruction of the culvert structure, as well as the flooding of the floodplain of the Dnipro river near village Otradokamyanka after the explosion of the Kakhovska hydro power plant (HPP), the change in the area of inundation was calculated based on spectral index maps and surface classification using Sentinel-2 L2A imagery. On the base of Sentinel-2 L2A images, maps of SAVI and NDWI indices were obtained. They revealed the places of soil cover by sediments and the increase of the area of water bodies. Monitoring of reclaimed lands affected by warfare was carried out in the floodplain of the Irpin river on the Irpin Drainage and Moistening System during three time intervals: before the war in 2019; during the fighting in the spring of 2022 and a year after the end of military actions. Studies have shown a significant prevalence of waterlogged areas in the present time, which confirms the destruction of drainage network.The calculated values of the NDVI index turned out to be too high for agricultural crops, which indicates that the lands is overgrown with shrubs. Based on the results of the conducted monitoring, the territory was classified according to the degree of its damage by shell craters. Based on the results of the studies, it is recommended to monitor water bodies and reclaimed lands that have been affected by the war using images of different spatial resolution, a complex of spectral indices, a combination of image bands and in-situ surveys.