How can you use satellite data to track changes in water and coastal areas? In this Blended Learning course on Water and Coastal Monitoring, you’ll learn to analyze and monitor surface water, water quality, flooding, and coastal changes. You’ll combine optical and radar satellite data with time series to identify trends and translate them into actionable information for water and coastal management.
During this Blended Learning course on Water and Coastal Monitoring, you will learn how satellite data are used to systematically observe and monitor water and coastal areas. You’ll combine optical and radar observations with spectral indices and time series to identify changes in surface water, water quality, flooding, and coastal areas. You’ll work with open-access satellite data from sources such as the European Sentinel missions.
Water has specific spectral properties that often allow it to be clearly distinguished from vegetation, soil, and built-up areas in satellite images. The reflectance of water is influenced by factors such as suspended solids, algae, organic matter, depth, and the properties of the seabed.
You will learn how water responds to different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum and why visible light, near-infrared, and short-wave infrared can provide different types of information. This will enable you to better assess which satellite bands and sensors are suitable for various water-related issues.
You’ll also learn to account for factors that influence satellite observations of water, such as cloud cover, solar reflection, waves, turbidity, water depth, and acquisition conditions.
Satellite imagery makes it possible to track lakes, rivers, canals, reservoirs, and temporary water bodies across large areas. You’ll learn how spectral bands and water indices can be used to distinguish water from the surrounding land.
By comparing satellite images from different time periods, you can investigate how water bodies change. This allows you to visualize, for example, seasonal variations, droughts, the expansion or contraction of lakes, and changes in river and water systems.
You’ll learn not only to display results as maps, but also to quantify and interpret changes in surface area and spatial patterns.
Optical satellite sensors can provide information about water properties that affect the color and reflectance of the water surface. This allows certain changes in water quality to be observed from satellites.
You will investigate how satellite data can be used to identify spatial variations and changes in, for example, turbidity, suspended solids, chlorophyll, and algal growth. In doing so, you will learn that satellite observations do not directly measure all aspects of water quality and that field measurements and other data may be needed for calibration and validation.
The goal is therefore not only to identify patterns but also to assess which conclusions can be reliably drawn from satellite data.
During floods, cloud cover is often a major limitation for optical satellite imagery. Radar remote sensing offers a valuable complement in such cases, as SAR satellites can observe even when it is cloudy or dark.
You will learn how Sentinel-1 radar data can be used to identify flooded areas and how images from before, during, and after an event can be compared. Combining radar observations with optical satellite data, elevation data, and other geographic information provides a more complete picture of the extent and progression of a flood.
Coastal areas are constantly changing under the influence of waves, currents, tides, storms, sediment transport, and human activities. Satellite time series make it possible to systematically monitor these changes over longer periods.
You will learn to derive coastlines from satellite images and compare images from different periods. This allows you to visualize erosion and accretion and to investigate changes in beaches, dunes, sandbars, estuaries, and riverbanks.
When interpreting coastal changes, you’ll learn to account for tides, water levels, wave conditions, and differences in imaging conditions. This helps prevent temporary changes in the position of the waterline from being misinterpreted as structural coastal change.
A single satellite image provides only a snapshot. By analyzing longer time series, you can determine whether changes are temporary, seasonal, or structural.
You combine observations from different periods to identify trends and anomalies. For example, you can track changes in surface water levels during dry and wet periods, investigate recurring algal blooms, or analyze changes in a coastline over several years.
You work with open satellite data and open-source techniques. QGIS serves as a key platform for combining, analyzing, and visualizing satellite data and other geographic information. The focus is always on the water or coastal issue at hand, not on the software used.
During the Blended Learning program, you’ll work with realistic real-world examples and open satellite data. You’ll combine different types of Earth observation data and translate the results into maps, time series, and well-founded conclusions for monitoring and management.
You’ll work on assignments such as:
By the end of the course, you’ll be able to independently use satellite data to analyze and monitor surface water and coastal areas. You will be able to combine optical and radar observations, investigate changes in water quality and water surface area, map floods, and track coastal changes over time. This will enable you to translate Earth observation data into actionable information for water management, coastal management, and spatial monitoring.
You’ll receive 1-on-1 guidance. After signing up, our course coordinator will contact you to schedule your first session.
Do you have questions about the course content? Or are you unsure whether the course aligns with your learning goals or preferences? Would you prefer an in-house or private course? We’d be happy to help.
European water managers can use satellite data to regularly monitor lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and other surface waters. Using data from sources such as Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2, changes in water surface area, droughts, floods, and certain water quality characteristics can be tracked across large areas. This information can be combined with monitoring networks and other geodata for applications in areas such as watershed management and the European Water Framework Directive.
Sentinel-1 is particularly well-suited for mapping floods because its radar sensor can observe even when it is cloudy or dark. This makes it possible to detect and monitor flooded areas during high water and extreme weather conditions. Within Europe, satellite observations are used for crisis management, damage assessment, and the analysis of areas with an increased risk of flooding, among other things.
Satellite time series make it possible to track changes in coastlines, beaches, dunes, sandbars, estuaries, and river mouths over extended periods. This is relevant for coastal areas around, for example, the North Sea, the Wadden Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Atlantic coast, and the Mediterranean Sea. By comparing satellite images from different years, erosion, accretion, and changes in sediment patterns can be studied, and coastal management measures can be supported.
In addition to Sentinel satellite data, the European Copernicus program also provides information products for monitoring European seas and coastal waters. These products make it possible to track changes in water temperature, water color, chlorophyll, algal blooms, and other characteristics of the marine environment. By combining this data with satellite imagery and local measurements, changes in coastal waters can be systematically analyzed and monitored.
