Utah State University professors are using a satellite to map urban areas and the impact they have on water quality. Increased urbanization can cause water quality problems, because artificial surfaces such as asphalt are causing water pollution, USU professor Robert Gillies said. These surfaces aren’t letting rainwater flow properly, said Nancy Mesner, a USU professor and water quality expert.
An experiment has been conducted, with graduate student Penny Arentsen comparing water from high-and low-density urban areas while Gillies and Mesner evaluated the data. Arentsen said she collected water from five storm events and sampled it for various pollutants. Experiments have been conducted in eastern watersheds, but this is the first time they have been performed in a semiarid region like Utah, Arentsen said.
Satellites are used to show where the artificial surfaces are located and the water testing shows how the surfaces are affecting water quality in that particular area, Gillies said.
Arentsen said satellites cover large spatial and temporal spans. Using remote sensing data makes experimenting less expensive to acquire information. The satellite takes an image every 16 days. If the photography were done by plane, a pilot would have to be paid each time to go up and photograph the land. The cost and technology of satellite imagery are much better, Arentsen said.
“We’re finding we have good correlation for sampling sites and water quality data,” Arentsen said.
