Estimating water optical properties, water depth and bottom albedo using high resolution satellite imagery for coastal habitat mapping

Abstract

The recently launched Worldview-2 satellite has 8 high resolution (2-m) spectral bands in the visible to near-infrared region. The additional spectral bands provide an opportunity to test the spectral matching algorithm for retrieving the water depth, bottom albedo and intrinsic optical properties of coastal sea water. Our test area is an intertidal zone and reefs near an off-shore island of Singapore consisting of seagrass, corals and mangrove habitats. Examples of applying the spectral matching method to submerged coral reefs are shown. The retrieved water depth and bottom albedo are utilized together with the reflectance spectra of various habitat classes for better classification and mapping of the coastal habitats. © 2011 IEEE.