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Water quality monitoring and assessment of an urban Mediterranean lake facilitated by remote sensing applications

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Abstract

Degradation of water quality is a major problem worldwide and often leads to serious environmental impacts and concerns about public health. In this study, the water quality monitoring and assessment of the Koumoundourou Lake, a brackish urban shallow lake located in the northeastern part of Elefsis Bay (Greece), were evaluated. A number of water quality parameters (pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, electrical conductivity, turbidity, nutrients, and chlorophyll-a concentration) were analyzed in water samples collected bimonthly over a 1-year period from five stations throughout the lake. Moreover, biological quality elements were analysed seasonally over the 1-year period (benthic fauna). Statistical analysis was performed in order to evaluate the water quality of the lake and distinguish sources of variation measured in the samples. Furthermore, the chemical and trophic status of the lake was evaluated according to the most widely applicable classification schemes. Satellite images of Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper were used in order for algorithms to be developed and calculate the concentration of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a). The trophic status of the lake was characterized as oligotrophic based on phosphorus and as mesotrophic–eutrophic based on Chl-a concentrations. The results of the remote sensing application indicated a relatively high coefficient of determination (R 2) among point sampling results and the remotely sensed data, which implies that the selected algorithm is reliable and could be used for the monitoring of Chl-a concentration in the particular water body when no field data are available.

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Acknowledgments

This study has been conducted under the project entitled “Monitoring of the ecological quality of the Koumoundourou Lake and designing of management, restoration and developmental actions” and has been funded by HELLENIC PETROLEUM SA. We would like to express our gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments toward the improvement of this manuscript.

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  1. Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, 46.7 km Athens–Sounio Av, 19013, Anavyssos, Greece

    V. Markogianni, E. Dimitriou & I. Karaouzas

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  1. V. Markogianni
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  2. E. Dimitriou
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Correspondence to V. Markogianni.

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Markogianni, V., Dimitriou, E. & Karaouzas, I. Water quality monitoring and assessment of an urban Mediterranean lake facilitated by remote sensing applications. Environ Monit Assess 186, 5009–5026 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-014-3755-0

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