Analysis of Meandering River Morphodynamics Using Satellite Remote Sensing Data—An Application in the Lower Deduru Oya (River), Sri Lanka

Vindhya Basnayaka, Jayanga T. Samarasinghe, Miyuru B. Gunathilake, Nitin Muttil, Dileepa C. Hettiarachchi, Amila Abeynayaka and Upaka Rathnayake
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Vindhya Basnayaka: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Malabe 10115, Sri Lanka
Jayanga T. Samarasinghe: Department of Earth Environmental and Resource Sciences, University of Texas, El Paso, TX 79968, USA
Miyuru B. Gunathilake: Environment and Natural Resources, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy and Research, 1433 Ås, Norway
Nitin Muttil: Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities, Victoria University, P.O. Box 14428, Melbourne, VIC 8001, Australia
Dileepa C. Hettiarachchi: Department of Irrigation, Office of Director of Irrigation, Airport Road, Anuradhapura 50000, Sri Lanka
Amila Abeynayaka: Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), 2108-11 Kamiyamaguchi, Hayama 240-0115, Japan
Upaka Rathnayake: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Malabe 10115, Sri Lanka

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: River meandering and anabranching have become major problems in many large rivers that carry significant amounts of sediment worldwide. The morphodynamics of these rivers are complex due to the temporal variation of flows. However, the availability of remote sensing data and geographic information systems (GISs) provides the opportunity to analyze the morphological changes in river systems both quantitatively and qualitatively. The present study investigated the temporal changes in the river morphology of the Deduru Oya (river) in Sri Lanka, which is a meandering river. The study covered a period of 32 years (1989 to 2021), using Landsat satellite data and the QGIS platform. Cloud-free Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 satellite images were extracted and processed to extract the river mask. The centerline of the river was generated using the extracted river mask, with the support of semi-automated digitizing software (WebPlotDigitizer). Freely available QGIS was used to investigate the temporal variation of river migration. The results of the study demonstrated that, over the past three decades, both the bend curvatures and the river migration rates of the meandering bends have generally increased with time. In addition, it was found that a higher number of meandering bends could be observed in the lower (most downstream) and the middle parts of the selected river segment. The current analysis indicates that the Deduru Oya has undergone considerable changes in its curvature and migration rates.

Keywords: river meandering; river morphology; centerline migration; remote sensing; satellite images (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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