Monitoring of seasonal variability and movement of suspended sediment concentrations along the Thiruvananthapuram coast, southern India, using the Landsat OLI sensor

Abstract

Studies on suspended sediment concentrations at a seasonal scale play a vital role in understanding coastal hydrodynamic processes in an area. Assessment of spatio-temporal changes in suspended sediments in nearshore areas has gained complexity due to the utilization of conventional methods; this issue can be successfully solved nowadays using multi-temporal remotely sensed images with the help of advanced image processing techniques. The present study is an attempt to demonstrate the model algorithm used to extract suspended sediment concentrations using Landsat 8 OLI (Operational Land Imager) sensor images. The study was executed in a near-offshore area of the Thiruvananthapuram coast, southern India, and focused on the extraction of suspended sediment concentrations and their seasonal variability during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods. The OLI images were pre-processed to obtain the actual reflectance using the FLASSH module of the ENVI v5.5 software. The generic model developed herein is designed to compute the spectral reflectance variability between coastal water and suspended sediments and to differentiate the spatial accumulation of the suspended sediment concentrations from the coastal water at the pixel scale. Maximum (0.8 % in near-infrared bands) and minimum (0.6 % in blue bands) spectral reflectance indicates the occurrence of suspended sediments in the coastal water. The model-derived results revealed that the suspended sediment concentration gradually decreased with increasing depth and distance from the shoreline. Higher sediment concentrations accumulated at lower depths in coastal water due to wave and current action that seasonally circulated the sediments. This higher concentration of the suspended sediment load was estimated to be 0.92 mg L−1 at the shallow depths (< 10 m) of the coastal waters and 0.30 mg L−1 at a depth of 30 m. Seasonal variability of suspended sediments was observed in a north–south direction during the pre-monsoon; the reverse was noted during the post-monsoon period. The spatial variability of suspended sediments was indirectly proportional to the depth and distance from the shoreline, and directly proportional to offshore wave and littoral current activity. This study proves that the developed model coupled with the provided computational algorithm can be used as an effective tool for the estimation of suspended sediment concentrations using multi-temporal OLI images; furthermore, the output may be helpful for coastal zone management and conservation planning and development.