Extraction of Water-Body Area From High-Resolution
Extraction of Water-Body Area From High-Resolution
Extraction of Water-Body Area From High-Resolution
Corresponding Author:
B. Chandrababu Naik,
Department of Electronics and Communication,
SVU College of Engineering, SV University, India.
Email: [email protected]
1. INTRODUCTION
The remote sensing knowledge is mainly used in different areas, such as the lake, coastal zone
management, shoreline change and erosion monitoring, forest for monitoring of changes, forest and
vegetation changes [1], [2], disaster monitoring [3], [4], flood prediction and evaluation of water resources
[5]. It is essential for agriculture (food crops), day to day life of humans, and ecosystems [6]. To accomplish
the information about open surface water is most important in different scientific areas, those are surface
water analysis, watershed analysis, dynamic changes of rivers, environment monitoring, present and future
estimations of water resources, and flood mapping [7]-[10]. Remote sensing satellites are having 30m
resolutions and they offer a huge amount of data, which is widely used for detecting and extraction of surface
water areas and its dynamic changes in recent decades [11]-[17].
Identification of water is very significant for various precise estimations and human life.
To detecting and extraction of surface water area from satellite data has been introduced at many more image
processing techniques in the current decades. A single-band and multi-band methods were widely used in
Landsat imagery for detecting and extraction of surface water area along with selected threshold value, either
positive or negative value [9]. Compared with a single-band method, multi-band method was extensively
used for enhancing the surface water bodies [9]. Four different satellite multi-band methods were used for
extraction of surface water bodies, those are water indexing methods, including the NDVI, NDMI, NDWI,
and MNDWI. Thus, these methods were introduced to an extraction of surface water bodies with specified
threshold values being either less than zero (negative value) or greater than zero (positive value). The NDVI,
NDMI, NDWI, and MNDWI for the detecting and extraction of surface water bodies from satellite imagery.
By using change detection, water features can extract separately for the different years of satellite data.
The Nagarjuna Sagar Reservoir is located in Nalgonda district in Telangana state. In recent decades,
there are tremendous changes in its capacity. Therefore, the dynamic changes of the Reservoir surface water
area need to monitor continuously. In this study, the spatiotemporal changes of Reservoir Nagarjuna Sagar
from 1989 to 2017 are investigated based on satellite-multiband water indexed methods, including NDVI,
NDMI, NDWI, and MNDWI using Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-8 OLI images for extraction of the surface
water body. Overall, the MNDWI were found superior to other indexes. These method is highly important for
time-series analyses of extracting shorelines using any number of Landsat images in different time intervals,
and it provides an important contrast that can be used to investigate shoreline changes.
The Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-8 OLI data obtained in January 1989, 1997, 2007, and 2017. These
data were taken from the US Geological Survey (USGS) portal, but collected all Landsat images were
cloud-free data. Table 1 represents the specification of Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-8 OLI images. The water
body was extracted from satellite images with a 30m spatial resolution and different band with different
wavelengths as shown in Table 1.
Int J Elec & Comp Eng, Vol. 8, No. 6, December 2018 : 4111 - 4119
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3. METHODOLOGY
Considered the period of 1989 to 2017, that can show the changes of water area in Reservoir.
Introduces the methodology and its performances of different satellite –multiband indexes, including the
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) [18], Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) [19],
Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) [20], and Modified Normalized Difference Water Index
(MNDWI) [12], were used for detecting and extraction of surface water bodies from Landsat imagery as
shown in Table 2. Thus, four different years of satellite images (Landsat-5 data from 1989, 1997, 2007 and
Landsat-8 data from 2017) were performed and extraction of surface water bodies using different indexing
methods (NDVI, NDMI, NDWI, and MNDWI). Table 2. Represent the Landsat-5 data, indexes used for
water feature extraction (B2: band2=green, B3: band3=red, B4: band4=near infrared, B5: band5=middle
infrared. Similarly, in Landsat-8 data (B3: band3=green, B4: band4=red, B5: band5=near infrared,
B6: band 6=middle infrared).
The NDWI has introduced to detect and extracting the surface water bodies with a specified
threshold value. The positive threshold values for water and negative threshold values for nonwater
bodies [20]. The MNDWI has introduced a powerful index to detect and extracting the surface water bodies.
Because band5 (middle infrared) has replaced by the band4 (near infrared). Hence band5 reflectance’s more
compared with band4 [12]. The MNDWI widely used for suppressing errors from vegetation, soils, and built-
up areas. The threshold values of MNDWI have positives and negatives for water and nonwater bodies.
The NDVI has introduced mainly used for extracting green vegetation from other wetland surface areas.
Thus, NDVI also extracts the surface water much better than NDMI indexed method, and its threshold values
for water would be negative values [18]. The NDMI has introduced mainly for extracting vegetation, and
water liquid but it’s not much more capable of extracting water bodies as compared to others index methods
(NDVI, NDWI, and MNDWI). Thus, the NDMI method was not efficient for extraction of water bodies. The
NDMI threshold value of water would be a positive. Based on these analyses, the MNDWI method has
performed slightly better than other index methods (NDWI, NDVI, and NDMI).
The best significance of water body extraction techniques was recognized and employed to
spatiotemporal changes of the Nagarjuna Sagar Reservoir in the period 1989 to 2017. To detect and
extracting Reservoir surface water bodies in four different years, such as Landsat-5 (1989, 1997, 2007) and
Landsat-8 (2017) images. Out of four-year analyses of extracting Reservoir surface water area, the maximum
changes occur in the period of 2007-2017. In order to get the efficiency of detection and extraction of surface
water area, different accuracy analyses were performed. By using accuracy assessment analyses, calculate the
parameters are overall accuracy, producer’s accuracy, user’s accuracy, and kappa coefficient. Those
parameters were performed over the changes of water body in the period 1989 to 2017.
Extraction of Water-body Area from High-resolution Landsat Imagery (B. Chandrababu Naik)
4114 ISSN: 2088-8708
MNDWI were used to detect and extract the surface water body from the Landsat-5 (1989, 1997, 2007) data
and Landsat-8 (2017) data.
The four spectral water indexed methods (NDVI, NDMI, NDWI, and MNDWI) are applied to the
Reservoir water area to highlight the differences between water and non-water bodies as shown in
Figures 3,4,5, and 6 (a-d). Out of all water indexed methods, the MNDWI has the better method for
separating water bodies as compared to other indexed methods (NDVI, NDWI, and NDMI). Generally,
threshold values of water areas having greater than zero values and vegetation areas having negative values.
First, calculate surface water area and changed surface water area for four different years with selected
Reservoir as shown in Table 4. Similarly, calculate the surface perimeter and changed surface perimeter for
four different years with same Reservoir ass hwon in Table 5.
Figure 2. Landsat-5 TM image from 1989 (a); Landsat-5 TM image from 1997 (b); Landsat-5 TM
image from 2007 (c); Landsat-8 OLI image from 2017 (d)
Figure 3. NDVI-based extracts water body from the Landsat-5 TM image 1989,1997, and 2007 (a-c);
Landsat-8 OLI image 2017 (d)
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Figure 4. NDMI-based extracts water body from the Landsat-5 TM image 1989,1997, and 2007 (a-c);
Landsat-8 OLI image 2017 (d)
Figure 5. NDWI-based extracts water body from the Landsat-5 TM image 1989,1997, and 2007 (a-c);
Landsat-8 OLI image 2017 (d)
Extraction of Water-body Area from High-resolution Landsat Imagery (B. Chandrababu Naik)
4116 ISSN: 2088-8708
Figure 6. MNDWI-based extracts water body from the Landsat-5 TM image 1989,1997, and 2007 (a-c);
Landsat-8 OLI image 2017 (d)
Figure 7. Changes in the area of Reservoir Nagarjuna Sagar generated using (a) MNDWI 1989; (b) MNDWI
and NDVI 1989 and 1997; (c) MNDWI, NDVI and NDWI 1989, 1997, and 2007; (d) MNDWI, NDWI and
NDVI 1989, 1997, 2007 and 2017.
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results expose that the surface area of Reservoir Nagarjuna Sagar in January 1989, 1997, 2007, and 2017 was
approximately 205 km2, 203 km2, 196 km2, and 160 km2 as shown in Table 3. The result show that the
Reservoir surface water body changes around 2.131 km2 between 1989 to 1997, 6.494 km2 between 1997 to
2007, 36.016 km2 between 2007 to 2017. The overall changes in surface water around 44.641 km2 between
1989 to 2017 as shown in Table 4.
Table 3. Performance Evaluation of The Satellite-multiband Indexes used for Surface Water Extraction
Min Max Standard
Indexes Year Mean Perimeter (km) Area (km2)
Threshold Threshold Deviation
1989 -0.555 0.716 0.034 0.132 258.095 205.574
1997 -0.290 0.613 0.068 0.128 257.113 203.443
NDVI
2007 -0.375 0.672 0.040 0.155 252.296 196.949
2017 -0.582 0.416 0.119 0.083 212.021 161.529
1989 0.311 0.745 0.186 0.145 264.112 201.555
1997 0.304 0.774 0.282 0.152 260.436 201.101
NDMI
2007 0.334 0.778 0.318 0.182 254.346 192.115
2017 0.323 0.782 0.433 0.173 216.170 160.933
1989 0.607 0.924 0.446 0.188 261.423 204.229
1997 0.635 0.918 0.505 0.187 259.029 201.630
NDWI
2007 0.613 0.923 0.475 0.207 252.034 195.679
2017 0.623 0.987 0.544 0.198 211.232 161.411
1989 0.603 0.936 0.214 0.256 263.827 203.784
1997 0.601 0.950 0.250 0.236 258.978 201.879
MNDWI
2007 0.610 0.948 0.299 0.269 252.152 194.783
2017 0.617 0.988 0.407 0.264 213.627 161.335
Similarly, The NDVI, NDMI, NDWI, and MNDWI results expose that the surface perimeter of
Reservoir Nagarjuna Sagar in January 1989, 1997, 2007, and 2017 was approximately 264 km, 260 km, 254
km, and 216 km as shown in Table 3. The result show that the Reservoir surface perimeter changes around
3.676 km between 1989 to 1997, 6.090 km between 1997 to 2007, 38.176 km between 2007 to 2017.
The overall changes in surface perimeter around 47.942 km between 1989 to 2017 as shown in Table 5.
The result show that decreasing surface water area in Reservoir from the period 1989 to 2017, and by
observing the resulting analyses of maximum changes in the surface water body, as well as surface perimeter,
occurred in the period 2007 to 2017. The Reservoir Nagarjuna Sagar lost nearly around one-fourth of its
surface area compared to 1989. The maximum surface water area changes are observed in the western region
and western - north parts of the Reservoir.
the classification map and the reference data. a discrete multivariate technique of use in accuracy assessment.
Khat>0.80 represent strong agreement and good accuracy. Khat=0.40-0.80 is middle, Khat<0.40 is poor.
5. CONCLUSION
The main aim of this study is to detect the spatiotemporal changes of surface water area in
Nagarjuna Sagar Reservoir from the period of 1989 to 2017, by the satellite image interpretation and GIS.
Using satellite images to extract information regarding Reservoir water area change is faster and more
accurate than other observation methods. Several index methods (NDVI, NDWI, MNDWI, and NDMI) were
used for detecting and extracting surface water area. The result shows that decreasing surface water area
maximum changes occurred about 44.641 km2 in the period 1989 to 2017. Especially, from 2007 to 2017 the
Reservoir lost its surface water area about 36.016 km2. If such decreasing tendency follows continuously the
Reservoir will lose its maximum surface water area in near future. The statistical parameters of the accuracy
assessment result show that MNDWI provides better results as compared to other index methods (NDVI,
NDWI, and NDMI) so that the MNDWI method has good efficient in detecting and extracting surface water
body in Nagarjuna Sagar Reservoir. The future scope of these methods could be useful for detecting and
extracting (decreasing or increasing) open water surface area in the world with different band wavelengths
and different satellite data.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like acknowledge to the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for utilization of resources and
availability of software tools. The grateful thanks to the USGS portal for downloading Landsat data with a
free of cost.
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Extraction of Water-body Area from High-resolution Landsat Imagery (B. Chandrababu Naik)