NEW JERSEY SOUTHERN Surveying Water Surface and Wetlands in Delaware Bay Using Cloud-Removed LandSat Data

Overview

Managing water and wetlands is critical to the environment and economy. Wetlands, marshes, and bogs in Delaware, for example, support ecosystems and provide significant economic value ranging from $1 billion to $3 billion annually, including 25,000 jobs with $568 million in wages in the state and surrounding region. However, traditional surveys are costly and time-consuming; they are often only conducted every 10-15 years. This project proposes a cost-efficient, digital solution to monitor and analyze water and wetland changes using LandSat satellite images collected by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Missing pixels due to cloud coverage is a critical issue in image-based analysis. The project applies data imputation methods to address this problem. Then, linear and radial regressions are performed to investigate long term trends of rising sea level, decline of wetlands, and seasonal changes in Delaware Bay from 1990 to 2021. T o improve the accuracy of the models, the linear regressions are extended to Support Vector Regression (SVR), a machine learning algorithm, to estimate water area as a function of time and tidal height. Tidal height information is collected from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Last, LandSat-based shoreline analysis is performed to identify possible erosion and accretion over the years. This method is applied to a case study of Cumberland County in NJ, ranked eighth for greatest coastal erosion in the US. This novel water monitoring framework supports governments and agencies to better manage resources, provide jobs, and mitigate risks due to environmental and climate changes.

Competition history

• JSHS 2023 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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