Space technology transfer is discussed in terms of applying visible and infrared remote sensing measurement to water resources management. Mapping and monitoring of snowcovered areas, hydrologic land use, and surface water areas are discussed, using information acquired from LANDSAT and NOAA satellite systems

Salomonson, V. V.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

APPLICATIONS OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY TO 
WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 
by 
V. V. Salomonson 
Applications Directorate 
Goddard Space Flight Center 
Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 
195 
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19770023344 2020-03-20T07:54:05+00:00Z
Considerable effort accompanied by significant progress has occurred in 
the last several years in applying visible and infrared remote sensing measure- 
ment to water resources management needs. The Landsat and NOAA environ- 
mental satellite systems have provided spacecraft observations that a r e  proving 
to have utility in several hydrologic areas. The major areas where the needs 
of the water resources management a re  being met involve the mapping and 
monitoring of snowcovered area, hydrologic landuse, and surface water area. 
Landuse mapping from Landsat has been successful in providing appro- 
priate inputs to engineering watershed models at accuracies comparable to con- 
ventional techniques with cost savings of 55 to 85 percent and order of magnitude 
time savings. Flooded area mapping and surface water surveys have also been 
accomplished in fractions of the time and cost entailed with conventional method- 
ology. Lake area estimation accuracies have been found to be *8 percent when 
water bodies 5 hectares in size a re  involved. The accuracies improve to *l 
percent for water bodies 500 hectares in surface area. The combination of the 
NOAA Very High Resolution Radiometer (VHRR) on the Landsat Multispectral 
Scanner Subsystem are  being used successfully to map snowcovered area in the 
western United States. 
In the case of snowcovered area mapping the transfer of technology 
process is now being accomplished in the western United States in a cooperative 
effort involving 6 federal agencies and 3 state agencies along with NASA. A new 
collaborative effort of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and NASA involves the 
mapping of landuse by Landsat and its use in hydrologic engineering watershed 
models employed in flood/control/waterworks planning, design, and management. 
Improved systems planned for implementation in the 1978 to 1981 time 
frame can be expected to result in increased utilization of visible and near 
infrared, remote sensing observations. Research being carried out now also 
suggests that microwave observations may be able to monitor more fundamental 
hydrologic variables and, thereby, make a more essential contribution to water 
re sources management. 
196 


Applications of space technology to water resources management

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