Remote Sensing in Hydrology
Bahareh Qanati, Javad Mohammadi
Abstract
Hydrology is the scientific study of the occurrence, distribution, movement and the physical and chemical properties of water, and its relationship with the living and material components of the environment. Due to water scarcity, population growth, improved quality of life, enhanced quality of healthcare, ever-increasing water consumption and food shortages in the future decades, many countries will face a crisis, that there will be no promising solution for it. Therefore, to investigate the various water resources and to monitor those parameters influencing the hydrological cycle, those sensors capable of estimating different patterns of these parameters are used. One of the most important applications of radar data is to use them in hydrologic models. Those methods used for the estimation of hydrometeorological fluxes, i.e. evapotranspiration and snowmelt runoff, are also described using these state variables. Remote sensing is the process of deduction of surface parameters based on the measurement of electromagnetic radiation upwelling from the Earth's surface. The present study focuses on those applications of remote sensing that are more promising in hydrology in our belief.