Abstract
Fenhe River (FR) basin in China has been suffering from water shortage, and FR began to experience dry-up from the early 1980s. Due to the lack of hydrological observations or poor quality of gauged record, it is difficult to understand its hydrological process. In this study, the river channel width (CW) and weighted river width (WRW) of the FR in 1976, 1990, 2000 and 2004 were defined and extracted through linear-unmixing of MSS, TM and ETM + data of satellite Landsat. The results were proved by man-made dam and reservoir, but quantitative validation need accurate measurements in situ. The method has the potential to provide proxy information for poorly gauged basin.
