A semi-analytic model for estimating total suspended sediment concentration in turbid coastal waters of northern Western Australia using MODIS-Aqua 250 m data

© 2016 by the authors. Knowledge of the concentration of total suspended sediment (TSS) in coastal waters is of significance to marine environmental monitoring agencies to determine the turbidity of water that serve as a proxy to estimate the availability of light at depth for benthic habitats. TSS models applicable to data collected by satellite sensors can be used to determine TSS with reasonable accuracy and of adequate spatial and temporal resolution to be of use for coastal water quality monitoring. Thus, a study is presented here where we develop a semi-analytic sediment model (SASM) applicable to any sensor with red and near infrared (NIR) bands. The calibration and validation of the SASM using bootstrap and cross-validation methods showed that the SASM applied to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-Aqua band 1 data retrieved TSS with a root mean square error (RMSE) and mean averaged relative error (MARE) of 5.75 mg/L and 33.33% respectively. The application of the SASM over our study region using MODIS-Aqua band 1 data showed that the SASM can be used to monitor the on-going, post and pre-dredging activities and identify daily TSS anomalies that are caused by natural and anthropogenic processes in coastal waters of northern Western Australia.