Coastal Discharges Monitoring by an Airborne Remote Sensing System

A remote sensing campaign by an aerial platform was performed on the Gulf of Naples (Italy) coastal waters for three days in June 1990. Instruments, including a multispectral scanner, CZCS compatible and a high resolution video-camera, were flown on a small aircraft equipped by Alenia Ecosystems Division in the ambit of a contract with ENEA (a national research institution). During the overflight measurements of atmospherical, physical and chemical parameters were taken from a vessel, to be used as sea truth measurements in the following computation process. The main purpose of the campaign was to standardize a remote sensing methodology to monitor water pollution and eutrophication variations caused by coastal discharges. Data, corrected to prevent atmospherical effects and geometrical distortion, were processed to identify and classify all coastal discharges in the test area. Algorithms were applied to the data to calculate the amount of chlorophyll A and suspended sediments in the gulf waters: good agreement with sea truth data was obtained. A database of the discharges in the Gulf of Naples was then produced for the Italian Ministry of Environment. The methodology, from campaign techniques to the algorithms used, is ready to be applied to monitor the Mediterranean coast periodically. So known and unknown discharges can be detected, classified and monitored.