Use of remote sensing to estimate water quality in reservoirs in the Republic of Cuba

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Abstract

The work to study the quality of the water in the reservoirs is expensive and usually takes time, and only specific analyzes can be carried out, which do not allow the entire body of water to be covered. Currently, remote sensing is used to solve this problem, allowing the reservoirs to be studied in their entirety, as well as reducing the time to obtain the data. However, it is still necessary to have in situ measurements to correlate them with the data from reflectance offered by satellite images. This work aims to propose a methodology to carry out qualitative and semi quantitative studies of water quality, under the conditions of Cuba, using remote sensing techniques when in situ data are not available. For this, a bibliographic research was carried out where the regression models with the highest correlation coefficient were extracted, which were applied in Landsat 8 images of the western and central region of Cuba. As a result, a methodology was obtained that involves the calculation of the chlorophyll-a content from the average of five regression models, the calculation of the depth of the Secchi disk and the calculation of the Water Quality Index (WQI). The cartography obtained from the parameters allowed the temporal analysis to be carried out between the years 2013 to 2024, demonstrating the seasonal nature of the water quality in the reservoirs.