Carrying out monitoring of suspended sediment concentration in river and lake systems is of great significance for understanding the laws of sediment transport in water and formulating policies on water environmental control. Taking Shengjin Lake and the connected Yangtze river section in Anhui province as the study area, band reflectance of a Sentinel-2 MSI sensor is simulated according to field spectral datasets, and the retrieval model is established by statistical regression from the synchronized suspended sediment concentration measurements. Then, the retrieved results from 28 scene MSI images during 2017-2019 are used to analyze the spatiotemporal variation of suspended sediment concentration in rivers and lakes, and the influence of water level variation on their spatial differentiation is also discussed. The results show that:① The retrieval model established by the ratio of the sixth band to the third band of the MSI sensor is suitable for high-turbidity water type, with high accuracy (R2=0.863, RMSE=22.211 mg·L-1). ② Spatially, the suspended sediment concentration near the lake entrances, northwestern parts of the upper and middle lake areas, and the lower lake is relatively higher, and that of Shengjin Lake is lower than that of the Yangtze River overall except for in summer. Temporally, the suspended sediment concentration in Shengjin Lake is relatively lower in summer and higher in other seasons, while the connected Yangtze River section exhibits the opposite intra-annual variation. ③ The water level, which is caused by the connectivity of rivers and lakes under the influence of the sluice, is the key factor affecting the spatial differentiation of suspended sediment concentration in the river and lake system. The suspended sediment concentration in Shengjin Lake contributes to the Yangtze River in dry and normal water periods, and that in the normal water period is more significant. In contrast, during the flood period, the correlation between suspended sediment concentration in the Yangtze River and that in Shengjin Lake is not obvious.
Keywords: Sentinel-2 MSI image; Shengjin Lake; remote sensing retrieval; suspended sediment concentration; water level.