Application of Satellite Imagery and Water Indices to the Hydrography of the Cetina River Basin (Middle Adriatic)

Abstract

The paper gives a brief description of the remote sensing method used for the identification and extraction of water surfaces. Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 satellite imagery was used to separate land from bodies of water in the complex karst area surrounding the Croatian Cetina River, flowing into the Adriatic Sea. Water indexing methods are presented in detail. The most frequently used water indices were selected: NDWI, MNDWI, AWEI_nsh, AWEI_sh, WRI and LSWI, and their results compared. The combination of satellite imagery and calculated water indices is concluded to be very useful for the identification and mapping of the area and banks of lakes, riverine zones, river mouths and the coastline in the coastal zone. Landsat 8 satellite imagery is slightly inferior to Sentinel 2 due to lower image resolution. The best results were obtained with the NDWI water index and the worst with LSWI.