Water quality mapping of Augusta Bay, Italy from Landsat-TM data

Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) digital data were used to map the distributions and concentrations of selected water quality indicators in and around Augusta Bay, Sicily. The general approach involved near-simultaneous aquisition of TM data and water quality samples from 42 sites, laboratory analysis of samples, extraction of sample site digital numbers from the TM data, development and validation of regression models based on sample data, application of models to the entire study area, and generation of colour-coded output maps. Results were good for modelling temperature, turbidity, Secchi disk depth and chlorophyll-a, and indicate that remotely-sensed data may be applicable to monitoring water quality in this geographic area.