Investigation on River Thermal Regime under Dam Influence by Integrating Remote Sensing and Water Temperature Model

River water temperature (RWT), a primary parameter for hydrological and ecological processes, is influenced by both climate change and anthropogenic intervention. Studies on such influences have been severely restricted due to the scarcity of river temperature data. This paper proposed a three-stage method to obtain long-term daily water temperature for rivers and river-type reservoirs by integrating remote sensing technique and river water temperature modelling. The proposed three-stage method was applied to the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) and validated against in situ measured RWTs in the two study sites, Cuntan and Huanglingmiao. The result showed improvements in the method: the quadrate window selection and RWT correction jointly reduce RMSE from 1.8 to 0.9 degrees C in Cuntan and from 2.1 to 1.2 degrees C in Huanglingmiao. As a whole, the estimated daily RWT has a consistent RMSE of 1.1-1.9 degrees C. Meanwhile, by analysing the Landsat-derived daily RWT, we demonstrated that the TGR had a significant impact on the outflow's thermal regime. At the downstream reach of TGR, an apparent increase in RWT in the cold season and interannual thermal regime delay compared to inflow were found with the increasing water level after the dam construction. All the results and analyses indicate that the proposed three-stage method could be applied to obtain long time series of daily RWT and provide a promising approach to qualitatively analyse RWT variation in the poorly gauged catchment for river water quality monitoring and management.

Automated summary

This study proposed a three-stage method integrating remote sensing technique and river water temperature modeling to obtain long-term daily water temperature for rivers and river-type reservoirs. The method showed improvements in estimating river water temperatures, with a consistent RMSE of 1.1-1.9 degrees C. Analysis also indicated the impact of the Three Gorges Reservoir on thermal regime, providing a promising approach for river water quality monitoring and management.