Course Details

Remote Sensing for Water Quality and Hydrology Training Course

Introduction

Water is an indispensable resource, crucial for human survival, economic development, and ecological health. However, freshwater and marine environments globally face increasing pressures from pollution, climate change, and unsustainable management practices. Effective Water Quality assessment and Hydrology monitoring are paramount for ensuring sustainable water resources, mitigating water-related disasters, and preserving aquatic ecosystems. Traditional in-situ measurements, while precise, are often spatially and temporally limited, making it challenging to capture the broad dynamics of water bodies and hydrological processes across vast or inaccessible areas. Remote Sensing offers a transformative solution, providing a synoptic, repetitive, and non-invasive means to systematically observe, quantify, and analyze various water quality parameters and hydrological phenomena from a distance. Satellite and airborne sensors can detect subtle changes in water color (linked to chlorophyll, suspended sediments), measure surface temperature, map water body extent, monitor snow and ice cover, and even estimate soil moisture. From tracking harmful algal blooms and assessing turbid plumes to mapping flood inundation and managing irrigation, remote sensing provides objective, timely, and cost-effective insights. Without the specialized skills to acquire, process, and interpret remotely sensed data for water quality and hydrological applications, water resource managers, environmental scientists, and hydrologists often struggle to gain a comprehensive understanding of aquatic dynamics, leading to reactive rather than proactive management decisions. Many professionals in the water sector recognize the potential of satellite data but lack the practical expertise to translate raw imagery into actionable insights for effective water resource management.

Conversely, mastering Remote Sensing for Water Quality and Hydrology empowers professionals to conduct robust, evidence-based assessments of water bodies, identify critical trends, evaluate management interventions, and contribute to more informed and sustainable water governance. This specialized skill set is crucial for transforming raw image data into powerful insights that drive water protection, flood mitigation, drought resilience, and sustainable resource allocation. Our intensive 5-day "Remote Sensing for Water Quality and Hydrology" training course is meticulously designed to equip hydrologists, water resource managers, environmental scientists, aquatic ecologists, urban planners, agriculturalists, GIS professionals, and researchers with the essential theoretical knowledge and practical, hands-on skills required to confidently apply remote sensing techniques for comprehensive water quality and hydrological monitoring and analysis.

Duration

5 Days

Target Audience

The "Remote Sensing for Water Quality and Hydrology" training course is ideal for a broad range of professionals and researchers involved in the study, management, and conservation of water resources and aquatic ecosystems. This includes:

• Hydrologists: For river basin management, flood forecasting, and water balance studies.
• Water Resource Managers: Involved in irrigation scheduling, reservoir management, and water allocation.
• Environmental Scientists and Ecologists: For assessing water quality, aquatic ecosystem health, and pollution monitoring.
• Aquatic Biologists and Limnologists: For studying phytoplankton, algal blooms, and lake dynamics.
• Agriculturalists and Agronomists: For irrigation efficiency, crop water stress, and drought monitoring.
• Urban Planners and Civil Engineers: For stormwater management, urban hydrology, and flood risk assessment.
• GIS Professionals and Analysts: Seeking to specialize in water-related remote sensing applications.
• Meteorologists and Climate Scientists: For precipitation estimation, snowpack analysis, and climate change impacts on water.
• Disaster Management Professionals: For flood inundation mapping and rapid assessment of water-related hazards.
• Researchers and Academics: In hydrology, environmental science, geography, and related fields.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of the "Remote Sensing for Water Quality and Hydrology" training course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the fundamental principles of remote sensing as applied to water quality and hydrological processes.
• Identify and select appropriate remote sensing data sources (e.g., optical, thermal, radar) for various water parameters.
• Perform essential pre-processing steps for aquatic remote sensing imagery, including atmospheric and sunglint correction.
• Apply various spectral analysis techniques to derive key water quality indicators (e.g., chlorophyll-a, turbidity, CDOM).
• Utilize thermal infrared data for water surface temperature mapping and thermal pollution detection.
• Employ radar (SAR) data for flood inundation mapping, soil moisture estimation, and wetland delineation.
• Map and monitor surface water bodies, snow cover, and glacier dynamics.
• Formulate strategies for integrating remote sensing data into comprehensive water quality monitoring and hydrological modeling programs.

 Course Modules

Module 1: Introduction to Remote Sensing for Water and Hydrology

• Overview of global water challenges and the role of remote sensing.
• Review of remote sensing fundamentals: Electromagnetic spectrum, platforms, sensors.
• Unique properties of electromagnetic radiation interaction with water: Absorption and scattering.
• Introduction to key hydrological and water quality parameters measurable by remote sensing.
• Integration of remote sensing with hydrological models and GIS for water resource management.

Module 2: Optical Remote Sensing for Water Body Delineation and Hydrology

• Characteristics of optical sensors (Visible, Near-Infrared, Shortwave Infrared) for water applications.
• Sources of optical imagery for hydrology (e.g., Landsat, Sentinel-2, MODIS, high-resolution commercial satellites).
• Delineating surface water bodies: Lakes, rivers, wetlands, reservoirs.
• Calculating and interpreting water indices (e.g., NDWI, MNDWI) for mapping water extent.
• Monitoring changes in water body extent over time (e.g., drought, reservoir levels).

Module 3: Remote Sensing for Water Quality Parameters

• Principles of ocean/inland water color remote sensing.
• Retrieval algorithms for key water quality parameters:
• Chlorophyll-a concentration: Indicator of algal biomass.
• Total Suspended Solids (TSS) / Turbidity: Measures water clarity and sediment load.
• Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM): Indicates dissolved organic carbon.
• Detecting harmful algal blooms (HABs) and their spatial extent.
• Challenges of atmospheric correction and sunglint removal over water.

Module 4: Thermal Remote Sensing for Water Surface Temperature

• Physics of thermal infrared radiation emitted from water surfaces.
• Retrieval algorithms for Water Surface Temperature (WST) from thermal sensors (e.g., Landsat TIR, MODIS, VIIRS).
• Applications of WST data:
• Monitoring thermal pollution from industrial discharges.
• Assessing water temperature impacts on aquatic ecosystems.
• Tracking upwelling and downwelling phenomena in large lakes/oceans.
• Estimating evapotranspiration from water bodies.
• Understanding diurnal and seasonal variations in WST.

Module 5: Radar (SAR) Remote Sensing for Hydrology

• Introduction to SAR principles and its unique advantages in hydrological applications (all-weather, day/night, penetration).
• Interpreting SAR backscatter signatures for water bodies, soil moisture, and flooded areas.
• Flood Inundation Mapping: Delineating flooded areas and extent using SAR data.
• Soil Moisture Estimation: Using SAR data to infer surface and root zone soil moisture.
• Mapping and monitoring wetlands and their changes.
• Applications in snow wetness mapping and ice extent.

Module 6: Remote Sensing for Snow, Ice, and Glacier Monitoring

• Optical remote sensing for snow cover mapping (snow extent, snowmelt).
• SAR for snow wetness and avalanche detection (conceptual).
• Monitoring glacier extent, retreat, and glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs).
• Assessing snow water equivalent (SWE) from remote sensing (conceptual).
• Applications in water supply forecasting from snow and ice melt.

Module 7: Hydrological Modeling and Remote Sensing Integration

• Using remote sensing-derived inputs for hydrological models:
• Land cover maps for roughness and infiltration parameters.
• DEMs for flow accumulation and watershed delineation.
• Precipitation data from satellite-based products.
• Evapotranspiration estimates from thermal imagery.
• Assessing model performance using remote sensing observations.
• Remote sensing for flood forecasting and early warning systems.
• Integrating remote sensing insights into Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

Module 8: Advanced Topics, Data Portals, and Future Trends

• Hyperspectral remote sensing for detailed water quality parameter retrieval.
• LiDAR for high-resolution bathymetry and river morphology (conceptual).
• Utilizing cloud-based platforms (e.g., Google Earth Engine) for large-scale water monitoring.
• Data portals for water-related remote sensing data (e.g., NASA Earthdata, Copernicus).
• Future trends: New sensors, AI/Machine Learning for water quality prediction, CubeSats for high-frequency monitoring.

CERTIFICATION

• Upon successful completion of this training, participants will be issued with Macskills Training and Development Institute Certificate

TRAINING VENUE

• Training will be held at Macskills Training Centre. We also tailor make the training upon request at different locations across the world.

AIRPORT PICK UP AND ACCOMMODATION

• Airport pick up and accommodation is arranged upon request

TERMS OF PAYMENT

Payment should be made to Macskills Development Institute ba