Water surface dynamics of the Studena dam, Pernik using Sentinel 2a and 2b satellite data

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study of the dynamics of the surface water area of the Studena dam using satellite images from Sentinel 2A and 2B. The period considered is from the beginning of 2019 to January 2020. The collected 35 cloud-free images from a total of 80 captured are organized in a spatial database in a GIS environment. A water index - MNDWI (Modified Normalized Difference Water) was used to determine the boundary of the water surface. The calculated areas for all images and their trends are analyzed by graph. For about seven months from the maximum annual area (0.91 km2) in June, a rapid decrease of 0.10 km2 per month is observed until the beginning of 2020, when the lowest value was measured – 0.23 km2.