Extraction of the Spatial and Temporal Surface Water Bodies Using High Resolution Remote Sensing Technology

Abstract

Since surface water is such a vital component to ecosystem health and human well-being, knowing where it can be found is of paramount importance. Moderate and low-resolution satellite photos are widely used for this purpose because to their practicality in large-scale implementation. However, very high-resolution (VHR) satellite pictures are required for the detection and analysis of more intricate surface water features and small water bodies. Extraction of water from VHR pictures on a wide scale necessitates efficient and reliable technologies. Cardiff City in Wales, United Kingdom is the area under investigation for the Enhanced Water Index (EWI) which will through this index can detect the surface water bodies (SWBs). The Multispectral Scanner (MSS), Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus ETM+, and Operational Land Imager OLI Landsat images have been analyzed to extract SWBs over the years 1974, 1984, 1994, 2004, 2014, and 2023. Results shows that the years 1974, 1994, and 2014 have less SWBs regions compared to the years 1984, 2004, and 2023. Regions suffer from dry were larger than those contain water in the years 1974, 1994, and 2014, while in the years 1984, 2004, and 2023, SWBs were very large, leaving behind small areas that suffered from drought. It can expect from this study that the return period of dryness or wetness may happen every 20 years. This research can be used as a reference when developing new methods for extracting water body information from VHR photos, and it can be used to the mapping of water bodies in other broad regions.