I am an student starting a thesis work in river morphology using RS imagery. Could you advice me of the procedure and references :I would be very grateful to any advice.
The ToR of the work is outlined below:
Recently important progress has been made in the prediction of the erosion during the next monsoon in braided rivers (EGIS, 2002)[1] based on the exploring studies carried out by Klaassen& Masselink (1992) and Klaassen et al (1993). Bank erosion along the main rivers of Bangladesh is nowadays routinely predicted on a yearly basis and these predictions are used for taking appropriate measures, either the construction of bank protection works or measures to reduce the damage (retiring levees, shifting important infrastructure like roads and irrigation canals, and to relocate the threatened population).. The methodology developed is presently also tested in Assam to predict year-to-year planform changes of the braided Brahmaputra River. For the Koshi River the methodology should concentrate on the prediction of the attack by channels on the banks and of planform changes.
For the development of such a methodology, first sufficient insight should be obtained in detailed morphological processes which cause or influence the bank erosion processes. Although probably these processes are active in every braided river and hence are generic, they need to be assessed for every river separately because rivers are different in terms of discharges, sediment loads, sediment calibre of bed and bank, and adjacent vegetation. These detailed morphological processes can be studied by analysing year-to-year changes of channel pattern and bank lines on the basis of satellite imagery. Low flow images are used to better identify changes and because low flow often coincides with cloud free conditions. The methodology is best suited for larger braided river because of the resolution of the satellite images to be used, which presently for low-prized imagery like Landsat is in the order of 20 m.
The study to be is to the production of mainly maps showing the yearly erosion and accretion of banks and bars for the period 1973 to 2011 and the analysis of detailed morphological processes like bank erosion rates, channel abandonment and bifurcation dynamics. The development of the methodology has to be done in a later stage. Hence the study consists of the selection and purchase of suitable satellite images in principle for every low flow season since 1972-1973 including 2010-2011 and as far as images are available, the processing of these images to identify the main channels, the production of yearly change maps, the identification and analysis of detailed morphological processes and the preparation and reproduction of a report.
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[1] Sarker, M.H. and Khayer, Yasmin, (2002), Developing and updating empirical methods for predicting morphological changes of the Jamuna River, EGIS (Environment and GIS Support Project for Water Sector Planning), EGIS Technical Note Series 29
