Satellite and Drone Remote Sensing Models and Tools for Water Quality Monitoring and Ecological Assessment of Fresh Water Resources

Lakes, reservoirs, and rivers are invaluable inland freshwater resources. Freshwater resources are increasingly experiencing widespread degradation and deterioration, manifested as poor water clarity and high turbidity, eutrophication, and harmful algal blooms. Traditional water quality and ecological monitoring methods are time-consuming, expensive, and do not give sufficient spatial or temporal coverage. There is a pressing need for developing new, more accurate, efficient, and cost-effective satellite and drone remote sensing techniques to provide crucial and timely information for water quality monitoring and ecological assessment.

This research project will develop a second generation of spatially transferable and temporally repeatable adaptive software tools to evaluate and demonstrate the applicability of the new-generation satellite observations and cutting-edge drone remote sensing technology in drinking water quality monitoring and ecological assessment of freshwater resources.