Coastal water environmental management and spatio-temporal analysis based on RS/GIS technology and statistical software

Coastal zone is characterized by its complicated physical processes and fragile ecological environment because of its land-sea interactive environment, and more and more population and social-economic properties have been attracted to this area because of its advantageous geographic location. Various human activities have brought many kinds of environmental problems, among of which water pollution has become a key trouble in the coastal area of the world. In this paper the discussion focused on the framework of coastal water management system and its kernel function spatio-temporal analysis based on RS/GIS technology and statistical software. The Pearl River estuary and its adjacent coastal waters of Hong Kong were taken as a case, software ArcGIS was employed as a basic platform for developing the coastal water environment system and spatial analysis, Geo-database was used to manage the temporal-spatial data, ERDAS IMAGINE and SPSS were used to analyze the temporal-spatial data. A related-data model was proposed to solve the problem of data communication between ArcMap and SPSS, which is a basis of spatio-temporal analysis. Data mainly came from remote sensed images and monitoring program of water quality in the study area. Two parameters, suspended solids and DO, were selected to discuss the spatio-temporal analysis. The spatio-temporal analysis of suspended solids was based on 152 suspended solids concentration maps revised from the remote sensed images NOAA/AVHRR in the time period of 1995 and 2000, and the result showed that the spatio-temporal dynamics of suspended solids can spatially quantify the distribution and diffusion of land-source materials and direct the movement of the coastal waters. The buffering analysis of DO in 2001 showed that an obviously offshore increment and the lowest levels mainly appeared within 1 km in the near shore waters. Those analyses can provide with scientific information to coastal water environment management and decision making.