4:15 PM - 4:30 PM
[MSD39-04] Water Quality Monitoring From Space
Keywords:micro-satellite, water quality, earth imaging, acquaculture application, image processing
About 71 percent of the Earth's surface is water-covered and water is an important essence of life that sustains human life. Water acts as the medium which helps supply seafood and freshwater food for human consumption. Processed freshwater makes up most of our drinking water supply. It is thus imperative that such a precious resource should be well monitored to safeguard human health and survival. Conventionally water quality can be monitored through manual laboratory-based methods which are time-consuming. Ground-based sensors are helping in expediting this task, though it involves the use of multiple sensors at various locations and requires regular maintenance and replacement. Satellite technology provides a good alternative method as it is able to scan large areas at relatively low cost. Measurements of parameters such as sea surface temperature, total suspended solids (turbidity), primary food production (chlorophyll-A), abnormal movement, disease, oxygen deficiency, growth monitoring of aquatic life and many others have been successfully reported in the literature. With the advent of the micro-satellites which are capable of transmitting higher resolution images with a finer spectral resolution, greater advancements can be made for the detection of more number of critical water quality parameters. This paper will review the existing status of the water quality parameters from space technology, particularly micro-satellites and provide a conceptual relation to human critical industries such as aquaculture, marine life and our water supply system.