Analysis of Satellite Imagery to Determine Spatial-Temporal Changes of Surface Water Bodies: A Case Study of Burdur River Basin, Turkey

Effective management of water resources requires a spatial-temporal evaluation of surface water bodies. With this evaluation, valuable information for river basin management plans is obtained. Besides traditional methods based on ground measurements, satellite imagery can prove useful in mapping and detailed assessment of surface water resources. The objective of this study is to determine spatial-temporal changes of lakes and wetlands in the Burdur River Basin by analyzing Landsat satellite images. A time-variant dataset containing maps of the spatial distribution of surface water is analyzed using Google Earth Engine. These data are generated using scenes from Landsat 5, 7 and 8 acquired between the years 1984 and 2018 for the water-stressed Burdur Lake river basin. Changes in the extent of water bodies are determined. Furthermore, temporal transitions of water bodies are classified as permanent, seasonal, seasonal to permanent, permanent to seasonal, ephemeral permanent and ephemeral seasonal. It is evident from the results that the current spatial extent of surface water is 458.5 km², which is 7.3% of the total basin area. The total surface water area has been consistently declining over the past 34 years. Analysis of spatial-temporal changes reveals that 55% of the surface water is permanent, and the remainder has an ephemeral or seasonal character. The analysis also shows that approximately 13% of the lake surface areas are permanently lost. On the contrary, about 2.4% constitutes new permanent surface water bodies due to the construction of reservoirs.