Abstract
The flux of total suspended matter (TSM), FTSM, output by several large rivers in Asia, has been in decline due to human activities. As the estuary of the Ganges–Brahmaputra River, the Padma River transports a significant amount of suspended matter (SM) to the Bay of Bengal each year. In this study, the TSM concentration (CTSM) and FTSM in the Padma River in the period 1991–2019 were calculated based on the data acquired by the Landsat series satellites and an empirical TSM algorithm model for large, high-turbidity rivers. The results showed that the maximum and minimum FTSM values (318 ± 62 and 73 ± 29 mt, respectively) in the Padma River occurred in 2011 and 2015, respectively. On average, FTSM in the Padma River decreased at an annual rate of 3.3 mt (p < 0.01). The impact of human activities on CTSM contributed more significantly to the changes in FTSM (R = 0.76) than natural factors (R = 0.44). Due to a lack of water conservancy facilities within the river basin, changes in the water and soil retention capacity due to the changes in vegetation coverage were an important human factor (R = −0.79).
Highlights
Total suspended matter (TSM) is an important index for evaluating the water quality in water bodies
The CTSM value in a water body can help to maintain its ecosystems only when controlled within a suitable range
The CTSM algorithm for the estuary of the Yangtze River developed by Liu et al (2019) [31] was selected in this study for CTSM estimating based on the following considerations: 1. The estuarian waters of both the Yangtze and Ganges Rivers are high in CTSM and contain TSM mostly from terrestrial sources [31]
Summary
Total suspended matter (TSM) is an important index for evaluating the water quality in water bodies. Monitoring and studying the changes in the flux of TSM in large rivers is currently a focus area for research. Recent studies have shown that the flux of SM transported by large deltaic rivers is in decline, especially in Asia [6] The transfer of both water and sediment to the sea will decrease as more dams and other river projects are built and utilized [7]. In large tropical rivers such as Padma River, the installation and maintenance of in situ stations is a very costly task, limiting the data available for both river discharge and sediment load trend assessment For these reasons, assessment of FTSM in large rivers by remote sensing monitoring has received increasing interest from the scientific community [13]. To date, few studies have monitored and estimated the flux of SM at the mouth of the Ganges River based on high-resolution satellite remote-sensing data
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