1731 - Assess and monitor water quality

Concepts

• [TA11-3-2] Users in utilities & supplies
  Utilities (water, electricity, waste): Power station operators, Water plants operators, Survey companies, Hydroelectric suppliers, Regulatory Bodies, Distribution companies, Landfill and waste, Regional planners / policy makers. The benefit from EO information that monitor pollution in rivers and lakes, assess changes in the carbon balance, assess environmental impact of human activities, monitor land pollution, assess changes to urban and rural areas, assess and monitor water quality, assess ground water and run-off.
• [TA13-4-3] Monitor bodies of water
  EO provides the opportunity to monitor bodies of water, i.e. inland waters, and to assess ground water and run-off. For lakes, this includes products about water quality, pollution, turbidity, suspended sediment concentrations (quantitative, qualitative), waterbody (temperature, extent, volume, quantity), algal blooms, alkaline water, evaporation, surface temperature. For ground water and run-off, the products focus on water run-off (water quantity), hydrological network and catchment areas (water catchment), run-off season, groundwater. Various scales are addressed, from local catchments to the global water cycle. For inland water quality, sensors are optical medium resolution (300 meters) for achieving a (strongly cloud-cover dependent) update frequency of 10-20 times per year and high resolution (5 meters) for update frequency of 3-5 times per year.
• [TA13-6] Monitor marine
  Monitoring marine inlucdes monitoring of marine safety (e.g. marine operations, oil spill combat, ship routing, defence, search & rescue, ...), marine resources (e.g. fish stock management, ...), marine and coastal environment (e.g. water quality, pollution, coastal activities, ...), and climate and seasonal forecasting (e.g. ice survey, seasonal forecasting, ...).
• [TA13-6-1] Monitor the marine ecosystem
  EO is capable of monitoring ocean quality and productivity by focusing on ocean colour (that show among other thins chlorophyll and algal bloom), parameters of sea surface salinity (SSS) and sea surface temperature (SST). In addition, EO can monitor pollution at sea that that explains coastal water quality, which is relevant for aquafarms and for tourism (bathing area water quality). Further, EO satellites can detect oil slicks and spills and threats from such events. Many of these parameters and detected features are relevant for monitoring marine habitats, targeting in particular generic algal blooms, marine mammals, sea surface temperature, sediments, plumes, nutrients, dredging operation, coral reef health assessment (bleaching).