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Surface Water

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Encyclopedia of Remote Sensing

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Definition

Remote sensing of surface water can be defined as collecting information about lakes, wetlands, floodplains, and rivers when viewed from above using electromagnetic radiation (Rees, 2001) or gravity field fluctuations (e.g., Crowley et al., 2006).

Introduction

Spaceborne and airborne instruments are used to characterize hydrologic features of surface water bodies: lakes, wetlands, floodplains, and rivers. Such remote sensing measurements are an increasingly important complement to traditional in situ surface water hydrology measurements. Alsdorf et al. (2007a) summarize science questions related to surface water and provide a detailed review of surface water remote sensing methods.

Primary quantities of interest for surface water quantity are the spatial extent of surface water bodies (inundated area, hereafter) and the vertical elevation of surface water bodies (water surface elevation, hereafter). From these primary quantities, changes in storage and hydrologic fluxes...

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Durand, M. (2014). Surface Water. In: Njoku, E.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Remote Sensing. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_197

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