Micro, Macro & Mezzo Geoinformation (Dec 2020)
MAPPING THREE DECADES WATER CHANGES IN NORTH MACEDONIA USING REMOTE SENSING DATA
Abstract
As the essence of life, water is one of the most important substances on Earth. In the last few decades, the aquatic ecosystem, has been faced with serious challenges due to overuse of water and negative effects of climate change. Thus, water monitoring is essential for water management. In the last few decades, remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has rapidly expanded and evolved as one of the most important tools and technologies in Earth Observation (EO) studies. This paper investigates three decades’ water changes in North Macedonia using remote sensing data. For that purpose, Landsat data from five periods during 1988-2019 were used for mapping the water bodies on national level. The water bodies have been classified using Object-Based Image Analyses (OBIA), as well as indices for water bodies extraction, such as Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). The results present the water changes on national level from 1988 to 2019 in the summer period in North Macedonia. Although there has been a rise in the water area after 2000 due to dam construction, there has been decrease in the water areas from 2014 -2019. For future studies, more detailed investigation for critical parts of the study area can be applied.
