An Assessment of In-situ Water Quality Parameters and its variation with Landsat 8 Level 1 Surface Reflectance datasets

Abstract

ABSTRACT The water quality represents the water’s physical, chemical and biological properties and depends on the environment, and anthropogenic influences. Recently, river water in Dehradun has subjected to immense pressure due to contamination from indecorous land use and urbanisation. In this study area, water quality assessment is carried out with the help of in situ observations and satellite surface reflectance from October 2018 to March 2019. Physicochemical and microbial qualities, namely, ambient temperature (AT), electrical conductivity (EC), water temperature (WT), potential hydrogen (pH), free carbon di oxide (CO2), biological oxygen demand (BOD), dissolved oxygen (DO), total dissolved solids (TDS), salinity (S), total Hardness (TH), calcium hardness (CH), magnesium hardness (MgH), sodium ion (Na), Potassium ion (K), nitrate (NO2), phosphate (PO4), and coliform concentrations (CC) were evaluated in the laboratory, plotted spatially in GIS environment and validated with the Indian Standards (IS). Furthermore, the Pearson correlation matrix was an established between the mean surface reflectance band values of Landsat-8 in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) and the water quality parameters are collected at each station location. The entire river water has been found an unsuitable for drinking but suitable for irrigation purposes. In future, such studies would be supportive for more effective management strategies to overcome the problems of water pollution.