The UTC Graduate School is pleased to announce that Connor Firat will present Master's research titled, Studying Aquatic Sedimentation in Chattanooga, Tennessee Using Gis and Remote Sensing Technology Integrated With Hydrodynamic and Watershed Models on 03/19/2024 at 1-3pm in Virtual (Zoom)  https://tennessee.zoom.us/j/828450313. Everyone is invited to attend. 

Environmental Science

Chair: Dr. Azad Hossain

Co-Chair: Dr. Xiaobo Chao

Abstract:

Suspended sediments are naturally occurring in streams and can have benefits and drawbacks on aquatic ecosystems depending on the concentrations. Excessive sediment has the impact to obstruct water treatment processes, degrade natural habitats, cause aesthetic impairments for recreation, increase costs for dredging on dams, picks up nutrients that can lead to the over reproduction of microorganisms, and can carry harmful chemicals. The need to quantitatively monitor water bodies and watersheds is key to reduce excessive suspended sediment concentrations. One approach to quantifying suspended sediments is using remote sensing regression techniques on spectral signatures, and suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) have been calculated successfully in the past. However, during high rainfall/flood events, traditional remote sensing satellites such as Landsat can miss the time window to capture these events. Numerical models can provide hydrodynamically computed water quality data on the water surface as well as in the water column, but they have issues with initializations, boundary conditions, calibration, and validation. This study aims to apply both techniques together on the Tennessee River and the surrounding tributaries to obtain more accurate results of the nature of the fate and transport of SSC by incorporating remotely sensed SSC into Numerical models.