Machine Learning for Detection of Macroalgal Blooms in the Mar Menor Coastal Lagoon Using Sentinel-2

The Mar Menor coastal lagoon in southeastern Spain has experienced a decline in water quality due to increased nutrient input, leading to the eutrophication of the lagoon and the occurrence of microalgal and macroalgal blooms. This study analyzes the macroalgal bloom that occurred in the lagoon during the spring-summer of 2022. A set of machine learning techniques are applied to Sentinel-2 satellite imagery in order to obtain indicators of the presence of macroalgae in specific locations within the lagoon. This is supported by in situ observations of the blooming process in different areas of the Mar Menor. Our methodology successfully identifies the macroalgal bloom locations (accuracies above 98%, and Matthew's Correlation Coefficients above 78% in all cases), and provides a probabilistic approach to understand the likelihood of occurrence of this event in given pixels. The analysis also identifies the key parameters contributing to the classification of pixels as algae, which could be used to develop future algorithms for detecting macroalgal blooms. This information can be used by environmental managers to implement early warning and mitigation strategies to prevent water quality deterioration in the lagoon. The usefulness of satellite observations for ecological and crisis management at local and regional scales is also highlighted.

Data and Resources

This dataset has no data

Metadata
Download
DCAT-AP/NTI-RISP

Basic information
Resource type Text
Date of creation 2024-09-17
Date of last revision 2024-09-17
Show changelog
Metadata identifier 8fbf853f-8160-52d9-954d-1a184d6c3545
Metadata language Spanish
Themes (NTI-RISP)
High-value dataset category
ISO 19115 topic category biota
Other identifier DOI 10.3390/rs15051208
Keyword URIs
Character encoding UTF-8
Spatial information
INSPIRE identifier ESPMITECOIEPNBMMENOR866
INSPIRE Themes
Geographic identifier Murcia
Coordinate Reference System
Spatial representation Type
Bounding Box
"{\"type\": \"Polygon\", \"coordinates\": [[[-2.34, 37.38], [-0.69, 37.38], [-0.69, 38.76], [-2.34, 38.76], [-2.34, 37.38]]]}"
Spatial resolution of the dataset (m)
Provenance
Lineage statement
Metadata Standard
Conformity
Source dataset
Update frequency
Sources
  1. Remote sensing
  2. vol 15
  3. no 5
Purpose
Process steps
Temporal extent (Start)
Temporal extent (End)
Version notes
Version
Dataset validity
Responsible Party
Name of the dataset creator Medina-Lopez, E., Navarro, G., Santos-Echeandia, J., Bernardez, P. y Caballero, I.
Name of the dataset maintainer
Identifier of the dataset creator
Email of the dataset creator isabel.caballero@icman.csic.es
Website of the dataset creator
Identifier of the dataset maintainer
Email of the dataset maintainer
Website of the dataset maintainer