Methods for retrieving hydrologically significant surface parameters from remote sensing: a review for applications to east Asia region

As human Populations and resource use continue to increase, water quality and water resource management will become major problems. With its advantages of large area coverage, high spatial resolution, frequent update and consistent quality, remote sensing has been widely used for hydrological Studies and water resources management. This paper focuses on three potential functions of remote sensing for hydrological analysis in east Asia: (1) monitoring water quality in turbid lakes; (2) extracting impervious surface areas (ISAs) from watersheds and (3) estimating evapotranspiration in semi-arid areas. Reviewing the results of the above three topics, it becomes clear that the ability of the Current remote sensing technique is still limited in terms of its use in hydrological simulations. An alternative to improving the sensors is developing effective algorithms to compensate for the limitations Of Current satellite sensors. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.