Using Remote Sensing of Land Cover Change in Coastal Watersheds to Predict Downstream Water Quality

Abstract

Huang, J. and Klemas, V., 2012. Using remote sensing of land cover change in coastal watersheds to predict downstream water quality. Journal of Coastal Research, 28(4), 930–944. West Palm Beach (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Land cover and land use data are important for watershed assessment and runoff modeling. Satellite and airborne remote sensors can map land cover/use effectively. Whenever a strong linkage exists between land cover/use and runoff water quality, remotely sensed land cover trends can help predict long-term changes in water and habitat quality of downstream estuaries and bays. This paper reviews practical remote sensing techniques for land cover change monitoring and presents a case study that relates land cover/use, landscape patterns, and temporal scales to the water quality of runoff from a coastal watershed in SE China. The results of the case study show that the percentage of built-up land was a good predictor for downstream water quality and that the linkage among NH z 4 -N, CODMn, and landscape variables during wet precipitation years was stronger than during dry precipitation years.