Using Optimized Two and Three-Band Spectral Indices and Multivariate Models to Assess Some Water Quality Indicators of Qaroun Lake in Egypt

Salah Elsayed, Mohamed Gad, Mohamed Farouk, Ali H. Saleh, Hend Hussein, Adel H. Elmetwalli, Osama Elsherbiny, Farahat S. Moghanm, Moustapha E. Moustapha, Mostafa A. Taher, Ebrahem M. Eid and Magda M. Abou El-Safa
Additional contact information
Salah Elsayed: Agricultural Engineering, Evaluation of Natural Resources Department, Environmental Studies and Research Institute, University of Sadat City, Sadat City 32897, Egypt
Mohamed Gad: Hydrogeology, Evaluation of Natural Resources Department, Environmental Studies and Research Institute, University of Sadat City, Sadat City 32897, Egypt
Mohamed Farouk: Agricultural Engineering, Surveying of Natural Resources in Environmental Systems Department, Environmental Studies and Research Institute, University of Sadat City, Sadat City 32897, Egypt
Ali H. Saleh: Environmental Geology, Surveying of Natural Resources in Environmental Systems Department, Environmental Studies and Research Institute, University of Sadat City, Sadat City 32897, Egypt
Hend Hussein: Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Damanhour University, Damanhour 22511, Egypt
Adel H. Elmetwalli: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Tanta University, Tanta 31527, Egypt
Osama Elsherbiny: Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt
Farahat S. Moghanm: Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Moustapha E. Moustapha: Department of Chemistry, College of Science and Humanities, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
Mostafa A. Taher: Biology Department, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61321, Saudi Arabia
Ebrahem M. Eid: Biology Department, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61321, Saudi Arabia
Magda M. Abou El-Safa: Environmental Geology, Surveying of Natural Resources in Environmental Systems Department, Environmental Studies and Research Institute, University of Sadat City, Sadat City 32897, Egypt

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 18, 1-23

Abstract: Standard methods are limited for monitoring and managing water quality indicators (WQIs) in real-time and on a large scale. Consequently, there is an urgent need to use reliable, practical, swift, and cost-effective monitoring tools that can be easily deployed and assist decision makers in assessing key indicators relevant to surface water quality in a comprehensive manner. Surface water samples were collected and evaluated for water quality at 16 distinct sites across the Qaroun Lake in 2018 and 2019. Different WQIs, including total dissolved solids (TDS), transparency, total suspended solids (TSS), chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), and total phosphorus (TP), were tested for aquatic utilization. An integrated approach comprising WQIs, geospatial techniques, hyperspectral reflectance indices (SRIs) (commonly used SRIs, two-band and three-band SRIs (Spectral index calculated from water spectral reflectance of two or three wavelengths)), and partial least square regression (PLSR) models were used to assess the water quality of Qaroun Lake. According to the findings, the water quality attributes are polluted to varying degrees. The majority of commonly used SRIs presented moderately relationship with four WQIs (transparency, TSS, Chl-a, and TP) (R 2 = 0.45 to 0.64), while the majority of newly two-band SRIs (NSRIs-2b) indicated moderate to strong relationships with WQIs (R 2 = 0.51 to 0.74), and the majority of newly three band SRIs (NSRIs-3b) presented strong relationships with WQIs (R 2 = 0.67 to 0.81). Broadly, the highest coefficients of determination were noticed with the NSRIs-3b followed by the NSRIs-2b and then the commonly used SRIs. For example, the NSRIs-3b (NDSI 648,712,696 ) had stronger relationships with transparency, TSS, and Chl-a with R 2 = 0.77, 0.66, and 0.81, respectively, than other SRIs. In addition, the NSRIs-3b (NDSI 620,610,622 ) showed the highest R 2 of 0.73 with TSS. The NSRIs-3b coupling with PLSR predicted the WQIs with satisfactory accuracy in the calibration (reach up R 2 = 0.85) and validation (reach up R 2 = 0.81) datasets. The overall findings of this research study showed that deriving an optimized NSRIs-3b from spectrum region and combining it with PLSR model could be a practical tool for managing water quality of the Qaroun Lake by accurately, timely, and non-destructively monitoring the WQIs.

Keywords: 2D correlograms; 3D correlograms; transparency; physicochemical; total suspended solids; PLSR (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10408/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10408/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:18:p:10408-:d:638300

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().