Document Type

Dissertation - University Access Only

Award Date

2012

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department / School

Geospatial Science and Engineering

First Advisor

Gabriel B Senay

Abstract

This research responds to the recent recommendations made by (i) the International Association of Hydrologic Sciences (IAHS) decade (2003-2013) on Predictions in Ungauged Basins (PUB) initiative and (ii) NASA science plan objective to increase the measurements of the variability of water levels globally. In this research, three approaches to monitor variability in ungauged lakes and reservoirs are developed. First a multi-source satellite data driven semi-distributed physically-based hydrologic model was used to estimate water level in ungauged natural lakes with reasonable accuracy (RMSE of 0.35 m). This physically-based hydrologic model of lake level is used to project lake level in regulated and ungauged lakes and reservoirs under different scenarios of future lake inflows. Simulated future scenarios of hydrological variables are produced from existing satellite data using a nonparametric bootstrap resampling approach and the impact of regulated/change in inflows on Lake Turkana located in East Africa is assessed. Finally, a semi-empirical modeling approach is developed that models water level from cloud-free and partially clouded satellite data especially for ungauged lakes and reservoirs globally. This direct remote sensing approach to monitor on lake water level could increase the frequency of monitoring lakes while producing lake level information with improved accuracy (RMSE of 0.25 m) when compared to hydrologic modeling approach. The approaches developed in this research can be used to (a) simulate patterns in ungauged lake and reservoir water level variations, (b) operationally monitor lake water levels in natural as well as regulated lakes and reservoirs that are ungauged, ( c) understand the impact of potential changes in lake inflows on lake water level using existing satellite data, ( d) increase the frequency of observation of lake and reservoirs in ungauged basin, and ( e) derive historic lake level information where such information is not available.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Lakes -- Africa, East -- Remote sensing
Reservoirs -- Africa, East -- Remote sensing
Water levels -- Africa, East
Hydrologic models

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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Rights Statement

In Copyright