Proposal of a riverbank erosion monitoring method using optical satellite imagery and image analysis

Abstract

Most river maintenance work, such as patrols and inspections, is carried out visually. However, it is difficult to quantitatively and comprehensively assess a wide range of maintenance targets, including trees in the river channel, sandbars, and riverbanks, primarily through on-site visual inspection. This research focuses on riverbank monitoring and proposes a method for monitoring riverbank erosion using satellite imagery, which allows for a comprehensive understanding of the entire riverbank. The feasibility of riverbank interpretation using satellite images was confirmed using high-resolution satellite images (WorldView series) and medium-resolution satellite images (Sentinel-2), demonstrating that it is possible to identify erosion trends. Furthermore, we proposed an automated riverbank erosion monitoring workflow using satellite imagery and image analysis, and confirmed its effectiveness by applying it to erosion sites on the Tenryu River.