Abstract
States can adopt numeric water quality criteria into their water quality standards to protect the designated uses of their coastal waters from eutrophication impacts. The first objective of this study was to provide an approach for developing numeric water quality criteria for coastal waters based on archived SeaWiFS ocean color satellite data. The second objective was to develop an approach for transferring water quality criteria assessments to newer ocean color satellites, such as MODIS and MERIS. Measures of SeaWiFS, MODIS, and MERIS chlorophyll-a (Chl RS -a , mgm −3 ) were resolved across Florida’s coastal waters between 1998 and 2009. Annual geometric means of SeaWiFS Chl RS -a were evaluated to determine a quantitative reference baseline from the 90th percentile of the annual geometric means. A method for transferring to multiple ocean color sensors was implemented with SeaWiFS as the reference instrument. The Chl RS -a annual geometric means for each coastal segment from MODIS and MERIS were regressed against SeaWiFS to provide a similar response among all three satellites. Standardization factors for each coastal segment were calculated based on the differences between 90th percentile from SeaWiFS to MODIS and SeaWiFS to MERIS. This transfer approach was allowed for future assessments, typically with <7% difference in the calculated criteria.
Highlights
Extensive modification of landscapes associated with increased human population, land development, and agricultural activities contributes to increased delivery of nitrogen and phosphorus to the coastal waters.[1]
Coastal waters were further subdivided into 74 coastal segments based on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (FDEP) Water Body Identification System (WBIDs), which start at the land margin and extend seaward to 3 nautical miles (NM)
The results indicate that Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) ChlRS-a correctly represents Chl-a [Fig. 2(a), log SeaWiFS ChlRS-a versus log Chl-a, slope 1⁄4 1.09, R2 1⁄4 0.82, p < 0.01, N 1⁄4 357]
Summary
Extensive modification of landscapes associated with increased human population, land development, and agricultural activities contributes to increased delivery of nitrogen and phosphorus to the coastal waters.[1]. Numeric water quality criteria are concentrations or levels of a pollutant that, if achieved, provide an expectation that designated uses will be supported. Eutrophication assessment frameworks in Europe and the USA use a variety of approaches for assessing nutrient pollution impact and status in marine coastal waters. Such frameworks include the Oslo Paris (OSPAR) Commission Common Procedure, Water Framework Directive (WFD) of the European Union, Assessment of Estuarine Trophic Status (ASSETS) in the USA, Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) from the European Commission, French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea (IFREMER) method, and Helsinki
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