Combining high-resolution satellite images and altimetry to estimate the volume of small lakes

Abstract

Abstract. This study presents an approach to determine the volume of water in small lakes (<100 ha) by combining satellite altimetry data and high-resolution (HR) images. The lake being studied is located in the south-west of France and is only used for agricultural irrigation purposes. The altimetry satellite data are provided by RA-2 sensor on board Envisat, and the high-resolution images (<10 m) are obtained from optical (Formosat-2) and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors (Terrasar-X and Radarsat-2) satellites. The altimetry data (data are obtained every 35 days) and the HR images (45) have been available since 2003 and 2010, respectively. In situ data (for the water levels and volumes) going back to 2003 have been provided by the manager of the lake. Three independent approaches are developed to estimate the lake volume and its temporal variability. The first two approaches are empirical and use synchronous ground measurements of the water volume and the satellite data. The results demonstrate that altimetry and imagery can be effectively and accurately used to monitor the temporal variations of the lake (R2altimetry = 0.97, RMSEaltimetry = 5.2%, R2imagery = 0.90, and RMSEimagery = 7.4%). The third method combines altimetry (to measure the lake level) and satellite images (of the lake surface) to estimate the volume changes of the lake and produces the best results (R2 = 0.99) of the three methods, demonstrating the potential of future Sentinel and SWOT missions to monitor small lakes and reservoirs for agricultural and irrigation applications.