Water Quality Assessment in Kelantan Delta using Remote Sensing Technique

This paper presents the utilities of remote sensing technique for water quality assessment in Kelantan Delta, Malaysia. Remote sensing is one of the effective methods for water quality monitoring through image analysis of study area. Spectral reflectance signatures of Kelantan Delta were measured from 20 stations using ASD Handheld spectroradiometer from regions with different turbidity level. Water samples collected from these stations were taken to the laboratory for measure turbidity in Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU). The objective of this study is to examine the potential of ALOS on Japanese Earth Observing Satellite (JEOS) for assessing water quality in Kelantan Delta. There is a large correlation between NTU and the in-situ reflectance at 500 - 620 nm (maximum spectra band between 300 and 1100 nm) is shown by multiple linier regression model, resulting from increasing of turbidity levels, was developed and applied to ALOS band 2 and band 3 (0.42-069 nm). A simple atmospheric correction, based on darkest pixel technique was performed in this study. The ALOS data provides accurate estimates of the mean water quality (R-2 = 0.95 and RMSE = 2.26 NTU). The result acquired is reliable to estimate of water quality values for the Kelantan Delta and its implication for future operation.