Remote Sensing of Estuaries: An Overview

Estuarine applications of remote sensing require a wide assortment of sensors, including aerial film cameras for beach erosion and vegetation mapping, multispectral scanners for wetlands biomass and estuarine water property studies, thermal and infrared scanners for mapping surface water temperatures and currents, microwave devices for salinity or wave measurements, and underwater cameras and acoustic systems for benthic observations. The recent appearance of low-cost microcomputers with user-friendly software for analyzing satellite imagery is enabling more estuarine investigators to use satellite data. High resolution Thematic Mapper and SPOT imagery is improving our ability to detect estuarine and coastal features. However, to meet both spatial and temporal resolution requirements, data from several satellites will have to be combined with aircraft and ship data in a cost-- effective way. In this paper, we attempt to summarize the state of the art of remote sensing of estuarine and coastal properties, and to point out improvements needed for meeting user requirements.