Satellite-based monitoring of contrasting characteristics of suspended sediment discharged from the Red and the Ma river systems along the northern coast of Vietnam

The northern coast of Vietnam has accumulated asignificant amount of sediment discharged fromthe multiple distributaries of rivers such as the Red River and Ma  River. While recent decreases of these diment supply appears to have a significant impact on coastal erosion, the complex network of these distributaries makes it difficult to determine the overall spatiotemporal characteristics of sediment discharges and related topographic changes. The goal of the current study is to develop a satellite-based monitoring system for observation of turbidity discharged from the multiple rivers and to investigate the applicability of the developed monitoring system through acase study on  the  northern coast of Vietnam. Based on the in-situobserved data, a formula was determined for estimation of the surface water turbidity as a function of the red band reflectance of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) images. The formula was then combined with a newly determined threshold for cloud-masking to obtain maps of the nearshore turbidity patterns. These maps capture the spatiotemporal water surface turbidity along the entire coast of the Red River Delta and the coast around the Ma River mouth over the past sixteen years with frequency of twice a day. Finally, long-term trends of the turbidity patterns from multiple rivers were compared with thein-situobservation data and it was found that the Red River and the Ma River showed clearly contrasting characteristics,which reasonably explain the recent coastalshoreline changes and characteristics of sediment  sampled along the coast.

1. Introduction

2. Development of satellite-based monitoring system of near- shore turbidity patterns

2.1. Field survey

2.2. Turbidity mapping

2.3. Cloud masking

3. Validities and characteristics of the developed monitoring system

3.1. Daily and monthly turbidity along the northern coast of Vietnam

3.2. Areas of high turbidity

3.3. Tidalinfluence onobservedturbiditypatterns

3.4. Relation between the monthly-average river water level and observed turbidity

3.5. Long-term trend of turbidity patterns around the Ma River and the Red River mouths

4. Discussion

5. Conclusions

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See detail: Satellite-based monitoring of contrasting characteristics of suspended sediment discharged from the Red and the Ma river systems along the northern coast of Vietnam

Yoshimitsu Tajima a,n, Kavinda Gunasekara b, Hung Thanh Nguyen c
a Department of Civil Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
b Geo-Informatics Center, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
c Key laboratory of River and Coastal Engineering, Vietnam Academy of Water Resources, Hanoi, Vietnam

International Journal of Sediment Research