Lake Izabal (Guatemala) shoreline detection and inundated area estimation from ENVISAT ASAR images

C. Medina; J. Gomez-Enri; J. J. Alonso; P. Villares

doi:10.1117/12.800254

2 October 2008 Lake Izabal (Guatemala) shoreline detection and inundated area estimation from ENVISAT ASAR images

C. Medina, J. Gomez-Enri, J. J. Alonso, P. Villares

Proceedings Volume 7104, Remote Sensing for Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Hydrology X; 710406 (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.800254
Event: SPIE Remote Sensing, 2008, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom

Abstract

The surface extent of a lake reflects its water storage variations. This information has important hydrological and operational applications. However, there is a lack of information regarding this subject because the traditional methodologies for this purposes (ground surveys, aerial photos) requires high resources investments. Remote sensing techniques (optical/radar sensors) permit a low cost, constant and accurate monitoring of this parameter. The objective of this study was to determine the surface variations of Lake Izabal, the largest one in Guatemala. The lake is located close to the Caribbean Sea coastline. The climate in the region is predominantly cloudy and rainy, being the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) the best suited sensor for this purpose. Although several studies have successfully used SAR products in detecting land-water boundaries, all of them highlighted some sensor limitations. These limitations are mainly caused by roughened water surfaces caused by strong winds which are frequent in Lake Izabal. The ESA's ASAR data products were used. From the set of 9 ASAR images used, all of them have wind-roughened ashore waters in several levels. Here, a chain of image processing steps were applied in order to extract a reliable shoreline. The shoreline detection is the key task for the surface estimation. After the shoreline extraction, the inundated area of the lake was estimated. In-situ lake level measurements were used for validation. The results showed good agreement between the inundated areas estimations and the lake level gauges.

Citation Download Citation

C. Medina, J. Gomez-Enri, J. J. Alonso, and P. Villares "Lake Izabal (Guatemala) shoreline detection and inundated area estimation from ENVISAT ASAR images", Proc. SPIE 7104, Remote Sensing for Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Hydrology X, 710406 (2 October 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.800254

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KEYWORDS

Synthetic aperture radar

Sensors

Image processing

Speckle

Climatology

Remote sensing

Image segmentation

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