Large-Scale Mapping of Inland Waters with Google Earth Engine Using Remote Sensing

Abstract

Water resources are becoming scarce due to climate change and anthropogenic activities, necessitating immediate action. The first step in conserving our water supplies is to manage them mindfully and sustainably. To achieve this, water sources must be monitored, mapped, and evaluated regularly. Updating national water maps using conventional methods can be a challenging task. Most of the obstacles have been addressed due to recent breakthroughs in the remote sensing field. In this study, we employed remote sensing data integrated into Google Earth Engine (GEE) to develop an application for mapping Turkey’s national inland water bodies. To achieve this aim, we explored the recently developed Multi-Band Water Index (MBWI) in GEE using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and then applied it throughout the research area. The results showed that GEE is a promising application for handling large amounts of satellite data and can accurately extract water bodies on a national scale. The results of this study could be helpful for various administrative applications that require up-to-date water information. The developed application can be used for different study areas and for spatiotemporal analysis.

Keywords

• remote sensing
• water
• Google Earth Engine
• mapping