Detection of Babolroud River Plume Using Sentinel-2 Satellite Image Case Study: Flood in 2018

Floods play an important role in the flow of rivers, so their investigation and analysis are importance. Studying the dynamics of floods and the water discharged into the sea (plume) is very important in the fields of fisheries, sedimentation, transportation and environment. Babolrud-River originates from the south of Babol city and flows into the Caspian-Sea after traveling about 67 kilometers. In this research, the expansion of the plume entering from the Babolrud-River to the Caspian Sea during the spring flood of 2018 has been investigated. For this purpose, firstly the images of Sentinel-2 satellite were taken, then the required pre-processing including geometric and radiometric correction was applied. According to the spectral behavior of muddy and clear waters, in the spectral range of wavelengths of 0.4 to 0.78 micrometers, this phenomenon can be distinguished. As a result, by using this feature and the optimal index factor (OIF), the best color combination with the largest information was detected. The combination bands of 3, 4 and 8, with the OIF of 0.19, was defined as the best band combination. In the next step, NDVI, NDFI, and MNDWI were applied, and thresholds were applied to the defined indices for better separation of muddy and clear waters. These thresholds were identified by drawing spectral profiles at the plume of river and checking their histograms. Finally, by building the decision tree with all these indicators and applying the thresholds, the amount of muddy water from the flood entering the Caspian Sea from the Babolrud-River was revealed.