Estimating grondwater nutrients using hyperspectral satellite imagery in the Flemish Meuse valley

In order to improve European biodiversity, natural habitats need to be restored and improved within a large European network of protected areas (Natura 2000). Therefore, agricultural land often needs to be converted to nature. Lowering soil nitrogen and phosphorus levels appears to be a necessary prerequisite for a successful restoration. To select which agricultural fields are most suitable for conversion to natural habitats, large and expensive soil monitoring campaigns are actually executed in situ. n this paper, it is demonstrated that hyperspectral satellite imagery, acquired by the EO-1 Hyperion sensor, has a large potential to substitute the current method. This is demonstrated in a qualitative regional study, where ground water analyses are used to derive the correlation between nutrient concentrations and spectral bands. Additionally, a pair-wise index is calculated for each band and compared with in-situ values. For this study, it is stated that the concentration of nutrients can be explained by a linear model using at least one or two spectral bands, with R-2 correlations between 0.4 and 0.7