title: Remote sensing water observation for supporting Lake Victoria weed management.
abstract: This paper aims to assess the suitability of remote sensing for enhancing the management of water body resources and for providing an inexpensive way to gather, on a wide area, weed infestation extent and optical parameter linked to the water body status. Remotely sensed satellite images and ancillary ground true data were used to produce land cover maps, trough classification techniques, and water compounds maps, applying radiative transfer models. The study proposed within the framework of the cooperation between Italian Foreign Affair Ministry (through the University of Rome) and Kenyan Authorities has been carried out on the Kenyan part of the Lake Victoria. This lake is one of the largest freshwater bodies of the world where, over the last few years environmental challenges and human impact have perturbed the ecological balance affecting the biodiversity. The objective of this research study is to define the thematic products, retrievable from satellite images, like weed abundance maps and water compound concentrations. These products, if provided with an appropriate time frequency, are useful to identify the preconditions for the occurrence of hazard events like abnormal macrophyte proliferation and to develop an up-to-date decision support system devoted to an apprised territory, environment and resource management.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Atmospheric Pollution, LARA Section, CNR, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, Rome, Italy. cavalli@lara.rm.cn.it
authors.forename: Rosa Maria
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Cavalli
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Laneve
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fusilli
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pignatti
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Santini
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005618:Fresh Water; D005843:Geography; D017215:Satellite Communications; D014872:Water Movements