Inland Riverine Turbidity Estimation for Hanjiang River with Landsat 8 OLI Imager

This research investigated the Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) performance in monitoring dynamic riverine turbidity in a case study of he Hanjiang River in China, the largest tributary of the Yangtze River. Field surveys conducted between April and November 2013 showed a wide range of turbidity (15.8~54.4 NTU). A practical exponential retrieval algorithm used in conjunction with the OLI bands1, 3 and 5 on the Landsat 8 was developed to assess compatibility between satellite remote sensing reflectance and in-situ measured data. Results obtained for the whole area accurately matched the in-situ data at most stations (R²=0.71, MAPE=15.44%) during the validation phase. It was found that Landsat 8 OLI imagery can be used to estimate turbidity in inland riverine systems when a suitable retrieval algorithm is applied.