Waterline determination for topography and morphodynamics using remote sensing data
Chin-Yi Yang
Abstract
Analysis of waterline variability and waterline erosion-accretion trends is fundamental to a broad range of investigations undertaken by coastal engineers, and coastal managers.Accurate information on the distribution of waterline is important for coastal zone morphodynamic monitoring and DEM generation (e.g. tidalflat, sandbank).Often this information is difficult to produce using traditional survey techniques because water bodies can be fast moving as in floods, tides, and storm surge or may be inaccessible.Remote sensing data provide a means of delineating water boundaries over a large area at a given point in time.To capture fast moving hydrological features, the data need to be either of a high temporal resolution or in a substantial archive to cover a range of hydrological conditions. From satellite images of various types can provide the waterline location by using digital image-processing analysis.Using extracted waterlines, several geoscientific applications can be carried out like identifying morphodynamic changes in bottom topography over a long time span and interpolation of waterlines from data acquired during a short time span into DEMs using measurements from tide gauge as additional height information.Moreover, the DEMs can detect volume changes as a function of time and lead to improved hydrodynamic tide-surge models.From these applications, the topography and morphodynamics can be obtained from waterline determination by using remote sensing data rapidly and cheaply.
References
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(Abstract) (Full text)
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