Satellite-Based Chlorophyll-a Analysis of River Tapi: An Effective Water Quality Management tool with Landsat-8 OLI and Acolite Software

Most pollutants found in rivers come from the discharge of raw sewage from both point and nonpoint sources. So, monitoring the pollution levels in surface water sources is essential. River pollution monitoring is a real challenge. Using remote sensing, precise outcomes can be achieved with the help of the selection of the right combination of satellite images and algorithms. Generally, established available algorithms are site-specific, indicating that they may not work at all areas on Earth's surface due to differences in altitude, cloud cover, and sun glint. The present work determined Chlorophyll-a concentrations in the Tapi River at various locations using Landsat-8 satellite images and Acolite software from 2017 to 2021 Period. The outcomes reveal that applying the dark spectrum fitting with sun glint correction when processing Landsat-8 satellite images is needed. In the present study, water quality results were obtained very precisely for the months of January, February, November, and December after processing and analysing satellite images. Due to factors such as sun glare, cloud cover, cloud shadow, and haze, the desired effect could not be achieved in the remaining months of the study period. This research provides a solid foundation for estimating the impact of eutrophication in the water body by estimating chlorophyll-a concentration from satellite images.