Estimating River Sediment Discharge from Landsat Imagery

Sediment transport through river systems has received considerable attention worldwide as it plays a major role in pollutant transport, degradation of surface water quality, and reduction of channel-conveyance capacity. Establishing viable means of quantifying sediment transport at regional or global scale is pressingly needed for water quality assessment, natural resource management, and environmental policy making. In this study, we apply the relationships between hydraulic geometry of river channels, river discharge, and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) to quantify sediment discharge with the aid of space-based observations. We take advantage of the recent advances in remote sensing of river geometry and discharge, such as river width extraction from Landsat Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWE), river discharge estimation using Bayesian inference and at-many-stations hydraulic geometry (AMHG), and Landsat Surface Reflectance SSC retrieval models, to calculate the average sediment discharge within a river reach. Finally, we examine the overall viability of the approach by comparing the estimated values with observations from selected USGS gauging stations along the Mississippi River.