Remote Sensing and River Basin Management: An Expository Review with Special Reference to Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

This chapter is part of the focus on the development in river basin management, and its specific objective is to provide an expository review of drainage basin morphometry and the relevance of remote sensing technology, especially for locations in developing countries, where sophisticated remote sensing technology are either expensive or challenged by limited professionals. The chapter is divided into six subsections, treating issues on remote sensing, drainage density and presenting specific case study, among others. The study reveals that remote sensing technology is efficient for providing decision support system for both gauged and ungauged river basins, and that freely available remote sensing data can efficiently fill the data gaps in many developing countries. It however warned on the need to consider variations in sensors capacity and mission as important attributes that can generate different spatial radiometric issues which may negatively affect the quality of the results. It concluded that researchers on drainage basin analysis in developing countries will benefit immensely from the freely available remote sensing data in the region.