Abstract

Hyperspectral and Multispectral Remote Sensing of Water Quality in Guatemala
Track: Water Resources
Authors: Africa Flores

Currently Guatemala relies on standard methods to monitor the water quality (WQ) of its fresh water bodies. These methods are significantly expensive, time consuming, require restrictive laboratory equipment and just provide data for discrete points. All these hinder the monitoring of WQ parameters in Guatemalan lakes. As a consequence, despite the importance these ecosystems have for the ecology and economy of the country, they lack of monitoring and as a result, the understanding of their behavior and changes is limited.

This project presents a novel way to improve WQ monitoring by using remote sensing (RS) and GIS techniques. RS data provides an effective, low cost complement that can significantly improve our understanding of fresh water bodies in Guatemala. This project integrates in situ measurements and reflectance data from satellite images to evaluate the WQ conditions of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. Hyperion, ALI and Landsat images are used in this project.