USING LANDSAT IMAGES IN MAPPING AND MONITORING WATER BODIES IN MĂGURA BASIN
MEREUȚĂ M.
ABSTRACT. - Using Landsat Images in Mapping and Monitoring Water Bodies in Măgura Basin. The work is part of a wider range of interdisciplinary studies undertaken in Măgura catchment, a right-side tributary of Bahlui River. The Măgura River flows from the massif Great Hill-Hârlău. Before the year 2000 there were 11 lakes, and today are only 4. The purpose of this project is to determine the accuracy of the simple techniques in digital image processing for mapping and monitoring lakes and wetlands. Landsat 7 ETM + and Landsat 8 OLI TIRS data sets are used. The paper highlights the bands’ thematic classification accuracy using minimum technical and digital (software) resources. The water bodies’ delineated boundaries of each digital classification procedure were compared with the limits obtained by digitizing the topographical plans (1973) and aerial images (2008). The comparisons show that the Landsat data can be used to map accurately the water bodies. It is a simple method of determining the silting degree, especially for lakes with an area of at least 1 ha. Măgura basin has a high archaeological potential (prehistory up to the modern period), part of the national and international cultural heritage. Creating a GIS database, in order to analyze the human-environment relationship, began by studying the hydrological variables. This factor has an important role in the society’s development, both prehistoric and current.
Keywords: Landsat 8, thematic bands, unsupervised classification, small water bodies, Măgura – Iași.