Surface water bodies mapping in Zimbabwe using landsat 8 OLI multispectral imagery: A comparison of multiple water indices

摘要

Water is integral for the survival of humans, animals, as well as vegetation and information on its spatial distribution is important for water resources management. Various methods have been applied to detect and map land surface water, especially due to the availability of a large range of satellite sensors. The main methods involved are either general feature classification techniques or thematic water body information extraction. Thematic water body extraction methods make use of band information and in this study; spectral indices are used to delineate land surface water for Zimbabwe using Landsat 8 OLI images. Multiple algorithms i.e. spectral indices were used to extract surface water bodies from Landsat 8 imagery.