Satellite-based estimation of total suspended solids and chlorophyll-a concentrations for the Gold Coast Broadwater, Australia

Edoardo Bertone; Andrea Ajmar; Fabio Giulio Tonolo; Ryan J K Dunn; Nicholas J C Doriean; William W Bennett; Jemma Purandare

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.116217

Satellite-based estimation of total suspended solids and chlorophyll-a concentrations for the Gold Coast Broadwater, Australia

Mar Pollut Bull. 2024 Apr:201:116217. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.116217. Epub 2024 Mar 22.

Authors

Edoardo Bertone¹, Andrea Ajmar², Fabio Giulio Tonolo³, Ryan J K Dunn⁴, Nicholas J C Doriean⁴, William W Bennett⁵, Jemma Purandare⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Southport 4215, Queensland, Australia; Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Southport 4215, Queensland, Australia; Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan 4111, Queensland, Australia. Electronic address: e.bertone@griffith.edu.au.
² Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST), Politecnico di Torino, Viale Mattioli, 39, 10125 Torino, Italy.
³ Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino, Viale Mattioli, 39, 10125 Torino, Italy.
⁴ Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Southport 4215, Queensland, Australia; Coastal and Marine Research Centre, Griffith University, Southport 4215, Queensland, Australia.
⁵ Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Southport 4215, Queensland, Australia; Coastal and Marine Research Centre, Griffith University, Southport 4215, Queensland, Australia; School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Southport 4215, Queensland, Australia.
⁶ Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Southport 4215, Queensland, Australia; Coastal and Marine Research Centre, Griffith University, Southport 4215, Queensland, Australia; School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Southport 4215, Queensland, Australia; City of Gold Coast, 833 Southport Nerang Road, Nerang 4211, Queensland, Australia.

PMID: 38520999
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.116217

Abstract

Satellite retrieval of total suspended solids (TSS) and chlorophyll-a (chl-a) was performed for the Gold Coast Broadwater, a micro-tidal estuarine lagoon draining a highly developed urban catchment area with complex and competing land uses. Due to the different water quality properties of the rivers and creeks draining into the Broadwater, sampling sites were grouped in clusters, with cluster-specific empirical/semi-empirical prediction models developed and validated with a leave-one-out cross validation approach for robustness. For unsampled locations, a weighted-average approach, based on their proximity to sampled sites, was developed. Confidence intervals were also generated, with a bootstrapping approach and visualised through maps. Models yielded varying accuracies (R² = 0.40-0.75). Results show that, for the most significant poor water quality event in the dataset, caused by summer rainfall events, elevated TSS concentrations originated in the northern rivers, slowly spreading southward. Conversely, high chl-a concentrations were first recorded in the southernmost regions of the Broadwater.

Keywords: Chlorophyll-a; Empirical modelling; Remote sensing; Total suspended solids; Water quality.

MeSH terms

Australia
Chlorophyll A
Chlorophyll* / analysis
Environmental Monitoring* / methods
Water Quality

Substances

Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll A