Improvement of Algal Bloom Identification Using Satellite Images by the Algal Spatial Monitoring and Machine Learning Analysis in a New Dam Reservoir

Abstract

Algal blooms are major issues and an ongoing cause of water quality problems in inland waters globally. In the case of harmful algal blooms, the water temperature rises after nitrogen and phosphorus inflow, which occurs in the summer, is the main cause of the algae bloom. In South Korea, algae monitoring methods have been performed by collecting water in point monitoring stations. Recently, in order to overcome the limitations of these existing monitoring methods, spatial monitoring methods using hyperspectral images and satellite images has been researched. We used satellite images for analysis of the spatial algal variation. The accuracy of algal identification is imperative for effective spatial monitoring of algal blooms in the context of ecological health and assessment. In this study, we generated algal big-data with simultaneously observed chlorophyll-a concentrations based on fluorescence measurement and predicted chlorophyll-a concentrations using 13- band satellite images derived from Sentinel-2. In order to validate the values from the satellite images, we compared them with simultaneously observed chlorophyll-a concentrations based on fluorescence measurement. The goal of this study is to improve the accuracy of predictions induced from satellite images. The analytical techniques were comparatively evaluated. The results showed that Artificial Neural Networks exhibited the best performance among them, improving more than 30% accuracy compared to that of multiple linear regression. Furthermore, the accuracy of identifying algal blooms has been shown to increase at high algal concentrations. In the end, it was successful to create algal bloom maps using a new algorithm to analyze algal bloom management.

Keywords

• algal blooms
• spatial monitoring
• sentinel-2 satellite
• machine learning
• big data