With the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive there is a need for better knowledge on water quality in all larger lakes in Denmark by 2015. Currently, the national monitoring programme in Denmark (NOVANA) is based on traditional in-situ sampling and an extension of this monitoring programme would be a very expensive and time consuming task.
Activities related to monitoring of the marine environment by use of satellite (for examples see http://www.grasdk.com/Solutions/MarineApplications )
have proven to be a cost-efficient addition to the in-situ based monitoring programme. Monitoring of water quality through remote sensing is one of the core competences at GRAS and the thorough knowledge gained in this field will be applied in this project to investigate the potential of very high resolution satellite images for water quality monitoring. In order to test the possibilities of transferring the methods and experiences from the marine monitoring activities in Denmark to the monitoring of lakes a research project funded by the EcoInnovation sector of the Danish Ministry of Environment has been initiated with the aim of optimizing monitoring of the freshwater lakes in Denmark.
Example of Chl-A mapping based on 8 band WorldView2 data
The project will focus on chlorophyll mapping using time series of both the newest very high resolution satellite data (2m resolution) and the traditional medium resolution satellite data (300 m resolution). Furthermore, it will be investigated how the integration of satellite data into ecological lake models can be improved and extended. The DK Lake Monitoring Project is a partnership between GRAS, DHI Water and Environment, the National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) – Department of Freshwater Ecology and TBJ Consult. GRAS’ competences in satellite based monitoring of the environment in general and the marine environment in particular will be a key part of the project that will run from 2010 – 2012.
Satellite data to be used in the study includes Landsat, WorldView-2 and MERIS Full Resolution data.
Further information at GRAS