Airborne hyperspectral data to assess suspended particulate matter and aquatic vegetation in a shallow and turbid lake

This paper presents an application of a physic-based method that relies on spectral inversion procedures to simultaneously estimate concentrations of water constituents, water column heights (cH) and benthic substrate types in Lake Trasimeno (Italy) from airborne imaging spectrometry. Complex waters of this lake are challenging due to the coexistence of optically-deep turbid waters and of optically-shallow waters, mostly characterised by dense submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) beds. Airborne data acquired on 12 May 2009 by Multispectral Infrared and Visible Imaging Spectrometer (MIVIS) were converted into remote sensing reflectance Rrs(?) with the atmospheric correction code ATCOR. A spectral inversion procedure implementing a bio-optical model (namely BOMBER), parameterised with in situ data, was firstly run to retrieve concentrations of suspended particulate matter (SPM), chlorophyll-a (chl-a) and coloured dissolved organic matter (i.e. aCDOM(440)) in the optically-deep waters. The areas where the retrieved optimisation error was higher than 10% were instead assumed as optically-shallow. In these areas two maps depicting the linear unmixing of three substrate types (i.e., silty-clay, Chara ssp. and other hydrophyte) and the water column heights were produced. The MIVIS-derived products were validated with field data providing a reliable estimation of SPM, chl-a, aCDOM(440) and cH (determination coefficients always R2 > 0.7). SPM concentrations were also similar to a 5.4-km long transect of flow-through turbidity data, and the SAV map was comparable to in situ observations. Generally, the colonisation patterns of SAV were reflecting the spatial distribution of SPM concentrations. In particular, the positive role of Chara on keeping SPM concentrations low was observed. Future research should extend this application to remote sensing data acquired in other seasons to trace the dynamics of SAV and its effect on spatial water clarity.