Water Quality Mapping of Yamuna River Stretch Passing Through Delhi State Using High Resolution Geoeye-2 Imagery

The present article utilizes high resolution Geoeye 2 imagery for mapping and monitoring pollution concentrations of 22 km stretch of river Yamuna passing through Delhi state, by developing regression models between water quality parameters (WQP's) and the corresponding spectral reflectance values. Water samples collected from the sampling locations were analysed for 20 WQP's and grouped into four classes namely; (WQP)organic, (WQP)inorganic, (WQP)anion and (WQP)cation. Several spectral band combinations as well as single bands were probed for performing multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis with the four WQP classes. Results reveal relatively strong positive correlations for band combination viz. [mean RGB × √B/R] with all four WQP classes yielding high R2 value (∼0.85) and RMSE (∼1.03) amongst other selected band combinations. Spatial distribution maps were generated that substantiates to the actual in-situ pollution concentration levels thereby evidences the potential of high resolution Geoeye-2 imagery for monitoring and mapping pollution concentrations in the water bodies.