scholarly journals An alternative method for estimating total impervious area in catchments using high-resolution colour aerial photography

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 478-486
Author(s):  
Michael G. Hartcher ◽  
Rezaul K. Chowdhury

Estimation of total impervious area (TIA) is a pre-requisite for ecohydrological research to allow for a direct prediction on stream ecosystem health within catchments. This paper presents an alternative to using multi-spectral imagery for estimating TIA at a catchment scale, by using high-resolution colour aerial photography. The method was applied to a number of catchments in South East Queensland, Australia, some of which were gauged and some of which were part of an Ecosystem Health Monitoring Program (EHMP). The results from this method were compared to TIA estimates, for some of the same catchments, that were derived through three other techniques, i.e. manual digitization of geo-referenced aerial photos, Brisbane City Council data derived from image analysis using Landsat TM imagery and rainfall runoff depth relationship. The high-resolution colour aerial photography method compared favourably to the other techniques with standard deviations of TIA (%) ranging between 0.8% and 8%. The major constraints were shading effects, particularly on roads and grassed areas, and from the similarity in colours between some surface types, some of which can be reduced by appropriate selection of signature colours and multiple iterations of a supervised classification. It was concluded that while infra-red spectral wave bands could help considerably, the high-resolution colour photography could be applied with confidence to derive catchment-scale TIA estimates.

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-212
Author(s):  
Petr Vávrů ◽  
Helge Viken

Aerial photography is an important tool for mapping on local scale. In the paper, description of aerial photos taken over several urban and natural landscape sites in West Greenland is given as well as their processing. Using a high-resolution software, aerial photos were processed and digital terrain models (DTMs) of the sites produced. Technique of contour lines was used to check the created DTM for particular site. Finally, orthophotos of all sites were produced. In this Technical Note, several sites located on Western coast of Greenland are presented and the use of maps generated from orthophotos is discussed.


1994 ◽  
Vol 29 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 135-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Deguchi ◽  
S. Sugio

This study aims to evaluate the applicability of satellite imagery in estimating the percentage of impervious area in urbanized areas. Two methods of estimation are proposed and applied to a small urbanized watershed in Japan. The area is considered under two different cases of subdivision; i.e., 14 zones and 17 zones. The satellite imageries of LANDSAT-MSS (Multi-Spectral Scanner) in 1984, MOS-MESSR(Multi-spectral Electronic Self-Scanning Radiometer) in 1988 and SPOT-HRV(High Resolution Visible) in 1988 are classified. The percentage of imperviousness in 17 zones is estimated by using these classification results. These values are compared with the ones obtained from the aerial photographs. The percent imperviousness derived from the imagery agrees well with those derived from aerial photographs. The estimation errors evaluated are less than 10%, the same as those obtained from aerial photographs.


2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 151-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Dallmer

This paper describes part of a program undertaken by South Sydney City Council to promote sustainable water management The aim of the project, named SQIRTS (Stormwater Quality Improvement & Reuse Treatment Scheme) was to demonstrate best-practice water management approaches, to learn from the process of implementing these, and to encourage the further use of these technologies. It comprises three main components located in a suburban park: a gross pollutant trap (GPT), a stormwater reuse system, and interpretative artworks that aim to educate and interpret the water processes within the park. Results from the pre-construction monitoring program are presented.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1763 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Wirion ◽  
Willy Bauwens ◽  
Boud Verbeiren

We propose a remote-sensing based metric approach to evaluate the hydrological response of highly urbanized areas and apply it to the city of Brussels. The model is set-up using 2 m resolution hyperspectral data. Next, it is upscaled to the city level, using multi-spectral Sentinel-2 data with 20 m resolution. We identify the total impervious area, the vegetation cover and the leaf area index as important metrics to derive a timeseries of spatially distributed net rainfall, runoff and infiltration from rainfall data. For the estimation of the actual evapotranspiration we use the potential evapotranspiration and the available water storage based on the interception, the depression storage and the infiltration. Additionally, we route the runoff to the outlet of selected sub-catchments. An important metric for the routing is the timing to the outlet which is approximated using the total impervious area and the hydrological distance to the outlet. We compare our approach to WetSpa model simulations and reach R 2 values of 98% for net rainfall, 95% for surface runoff, 99% for infiltration and 97% for cumulative evapotranspiration. The routing in the Watermaelbeek catchment is evaluated with discharge observations and reaches NSE values of 0.89 at a 2 m resolution and 0.88 at a 20 m resolution using an hourly timestep. At the timestep of 10 min and a 20 m resolution the NSE is reduced to 0.76. For the Roodebeek catchment we reach an NSE of 0.73 at a spatial resolution of 20 m and an hourly timestep. The results presented in this paper are optimistic for using spatial and temporal metrics retrieved from remote sensing data to quantify the water balance of urban catchments.


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