2010 / 11 / 29-28 ‫ جامعة واسط للفرتة‬/ ‫ كلية العلوم‬/ ‫مقبول للنشر يف املؤمتر التخصصي األول للبيئة‬

Monitoring of Water Pollution in Diyala River using High

Resolution Satellite Image

S. M. Ali, A. S. Mahdi, & A. H. Kadhim

College of Science / Baghdad University, 2010

Abstract
The Remotely digital image has a wide range of applications; it is used in weather
forecasting, biology, medicine and astronomy, to name only a few disciplines. Its
application was greatly developed after the launch of the first Landsat satellite in 1972 (at
that time called Earth Resources Technology Satellite – ERTS). Since then, the number
of digital image sources has increased and the capabilities of computers have grown
while the costs of computer time have decreased. More and more efficient and
sophisticated algorithms had been developed and digital image processing continues to
expand rapidly.
In this paper, the pollution in the Southern part of the Diyala River had been
detected using the high-resolution panchromatic satellite image. The available data was
Quick-Bird high resolution, (0.6) meter Geo-corrected UTM image, covers an area of 0.8
KM2, Zone 38 North. The region of interest was the Southern East of Baghdad City. Two
digital techniques have been used in order to detect the polluted area in the River. The
methods are image classification (Minimum distance-Supervised and K-Mean
Unsupervised), and thresholding methods. The main pollution factor was the sewerage
water pumped by the sewerage and water treatment station. The results were obtained
using the ENVI Version 3.2 (Environmental Visualizing Image), the best remote sensing
application and digital image processing tolls. Also, the Visual Basic 6.0 Facility had
been used to evaluate the results by written a special subroutine.

‫مراقبة التلوث في نهر ديالى باستخدام صور فضائية عالية التحليل‬

‫ وأماني حسن كاظم‬،‫ عالء سعود مهدي‬،‫صالح مهدي علي‬
2010 ،‫ كلية العلوم‬/ ‫جامعة بغداد‬
S‫المستخلص‬
،‫أصبح استخدام صور االستشعار عن بعد يدخل في تطبيقات متعددة ابتداء من التطبيقات البايولوجية‬
‫ بدأت التطبيقات باالنتشار الواسع بعد اإلطالق األول الناجح لسلسلة أقمار الندسات‬.‫ وصوال للتطبيقات الفلكية‬،‫الطبية‬
‫ لقد بدأت أعداد الصور الرقمية بالتزايد وتطورت‬.‫ والتي سميت حيتها سواتل مراقبة الموارد األرضية‬، 1972 ‫عام‬
‫ باإلضافة إلى ذلك تطورت الطرق الرياضية واإلحصائية الخاصة بتحليل‬.‫الحاسبات الحديثة مقابل نقصان كلفتها‬
.‫وتحسين وتفسير الصور الفضائية مما أدى إلى ثورة علمية بهذا المجال‬
‫ تم مراقبة وكشف التلوث في الجزء الجنوبي لنهر ديالى باستخدام صورة قضائية عالية‬،‫في هذا البحث‬
UTM ‫ سنتمتر مصححة طبقا للمسقط‬60 ‫ بدقة تمييز بحدود‬Quick-Bird ‫ والتي هي صورة المتحسس‬.‫التحليل‬
‫ منطقة الرستمية والتي تمثل التقاء نهر‬،‫ إن منطقة الدراسة تقع في جنوب بغداد‬.‫ كيلومتر‬0‫ز‬8 ‫وتمثل مساحة مقدارها‬
‫ سبب التلوث الرئيسي‬.‫ والثانية طريقة العتبة‬،‫ األولى التصنيف المرشد‬،‫ استخدمت تقنتين للكشف‬.‫ديالى بنهر دجلة‬
 2010 / 11 / 29-28 ‫ جامعة واسط للفرتة‬/ ‫ كلية العلوم‬/ ‫مقبول للنشر يف املؤمتر التخصصي األول للبيئة‬
‫ تم تحليل النتائج باستخدام برامج‬.‫ناتج من محطة مجري الرستمية من خالل طرح المياه العادمة بشكل مباشر للنهر‬
Introduction
Perhaps one of the most
advantageous uses of remote sensing for
water pollution control is in its
application as a surveillance tool to
detect and identify potential sources of
pollution [3]. That is, to provide the
environmental monitoring with
information on the proximity of
hazardous materials to waterways as
well as on the integrity of structures
designed to contain those materials.
Improved environmental conditions
eventually lead to an improved quality of
life for the local and neighboring
population (s). The intention of
environmental regulation and monitoring
is to provide sustainable economic
development along with the protection of
natural resources, which very often
includes the basic requirements of
human life (i.e., food, shelter, and
clothing).
The synoptic view provided by
remote sensing gives an environmental
scientist very different data from what
can be obtained from surface data
collection and sampling, [11]. what may
not be achieved in absolute accuracy, is
more than made up for by the spatial and
temporal nature of the data. Monitoring
large areas, on a frequent basis, can only
be achieved economically through
remote sensing. Remote sensing is
limited to measurements of surface-
water area, turbidity, suspended
sediment, chlorophyll, cutrophication
and temperatures. However, these
characteristics of water bodies can be
used as indicators of water supply and
more specific pollution problem. It
should be re-emphasized that remote
sensing is seldom the only approach.
.‫ ومكتوبة بلغة فيجوال بيسك‬ENVI ‫صورية جاهزة مثل‬
Effective analysis of remote sensing
measurements can be made when used
with other ancillary data or information
[1].
The Study Area and Available Data
The study area shown was the
Southern East of Baghdad City near to
the Diyala Bridge (not appear in the
image). The area is called Sabaa Nissan
district. The Geographic coordinate of
the region are; (upper left point,
Longitude 44º 31′ 50.95″, Latitude 33º
16′ 1.66″. The down right point,
Longitude 44º 32′ 24.33″, Latitude 33º
16′ 1.66″), Zone. 38 North according to
the Datum WG84. A pent of Al
Rustamiya wastewater treatment plant
appears in the figure disposing the
wastewater untreated to Diyala River
caning heavy pollution load to the River
and consequently the death of the River
down stream.
Diyala River remains up to now
beyond the zone of intensive urban
development. Its mouth at the Tigris
River lies at the southern outskirts of
Baghdad and its lower course formed the
boundary of the planned development of
the town. The areas lying on both sides
of the River are, in general, used by
agriculture. Some smaller areas are
covered by palm groves.
An intensive development of
agriculture in the catchment area of the
Diyala River results in unacceptable
decrease of water flows of the River in
the Baghdad area during dry months.
They occur in spite of construction of
tow large storage reservoirs in the upper
course of the River, and it can not be
accepted because of high concentration
of pollution particularly downstream of
the sewage treatment plant located on
 2010 / 11 / 29-28 ‫ جامعة واسط للفرتة‬/ ‫ كلية العلوم‬/ ‫مقبول للنشر يف املؤمتر التخصصي األول للبيئة‬
the Right Bank of the Diyala River.
Also the salinity of this River constitutes
a serious problem. It is caused by the
discharge into the Diyala River of drain
waters from a number of irrigation
systems of agriculture areas. It can be
observed that there are two types of
water in Diyala River. First type with the
light tone (white) and extended upstream
of AL-Rustumiya west water treatment
plant, while the second type with a dark
tone (black) which located downstream
the above plant. This indicates the
capability of using remote sensing
techniques for classifying and
monitoring River water in a simple way.
The available data was a high-
resolution panchromatic image with
spatial resolution 0.6-meter. The image
size was 1400 column x 1600 line
covered a ground area of 0.8 KM2.
Figure (1) represented the image.
 2010 / 11 / 29-28 ‫ جامعة واسط للفرتة‬/ ‫ كلية العلوم‬/ ‫مقبول للنشر يف املؤمتر التخصصي األول للبيئة‬
N
Figure (1), The Study Area, High Resolution Image in the Southern East of
Baghdad
Properties of Environmental Remote
Sensing Data
The information obtained using
remote sensing techniques is usually
represented as an image, either in the
form of a photograph (analog) or
digitally displayed on the monitor of an
image-processing system, [2]. A visual
image is a representation, using tones of
gray or colors, of the objects present in
the observed scene. These tones permit
the distinction of different objects based
on their brightness differences and
apparent texture.
Digital images in remote sensing
are generally made from a collection of
picture elements, which are normally
referred to as pixels, [6]. This is like
considering a photograph as a large
number of successive lines where each
line contains a large number of square
pixels. A number representing the
average intensity of the scene within the
square is stored. Thus the image is a vast
matrix of numbers. These images are
very often held on computer storage
media, and the simplest way to store the
data is to write all the numbers
corresponding to one line of the image
on to the tape as a ‘block’ followed by a
space and another line block, this
process is repeated until the last line in
the image. A digital image can therefore
be read into a computer, line by line.
Besides being viewed on image display
system attached to the computer, [4].
The advantages of remote sensing
are. (1) area measurements instead of
point measurements; (2) all information
is collected and stored at one place; (3)
rather high resolution in space and/or
time is achieved; (4) data becomes
available in digital form; (5) data
acquisition devices do not interface with
the process being observed; (6)
information may be obtained from
remote areas of the earth where
otherwise no measurements would be
taken; and (7) after installation of remote
sensing network, data can be obtained
quite cheaply, [5].
Classification Comparison
An image is different from a map
in one fundamental respect. Maps
generally represent one surface category
by a specific color or symbol, while
remotely sensed images represent any
image region with a range of digital
numbers. Images, in contrast, provide a
continuous record of land cover in
region, where map may represent it as
blank area. However, land features are
often complex, with several cover types
contributing to the observer signature.
Classification is therefore used to
smooth-out small, insignificant
variations, and simplifies an image into a
thematic map of land cover, [8]. Image
analysis and automatic recognition of
image’s patterns by computer may
greatly depend on the results obtained by
implementing certain classification
method [Cracknell A. P. and Hayes,
1988 and James W. Quinn, 2001]. The
classification process, however, depends
on the spectral characteristics of image
objects and features presented in various
bands of remotely sensed images.
In the literature, image
classification methods as categories into
two types; i.e. “Supervised and
Unsupervised”. Supervised classification
 2010 / 11 / 29-28 ‫ جامعة واسط للفرتة‬/ ‫ كلية العلوم‬/ ‫مقبول للنشر يف املؤمتر التخصصي األول للبيئة‬
involves a considerable amount of input the extent of the similarity between a
from the analyst and knowledge of the pixel and a class. In fact, different
types of surface that found in the study classifiers may assign the same unknown
area. On the contrary, the unsupervised pixel to a different class. The following
classification method groups image represent the most common used
points (i.e. pixels) into clusters based on classifiers, usually used to differentiate
upon the distribution of the gray tones between image regions.
within the image, [8]. Minimum-Distance-Mean
Classifier. It is the most common and
simplest classification method,
The supervised methods are more
sometimes referred as nearest neighbor
preferable for classifying remotely
classifier. The minimum distance
sensed images, [7]. Initially the operator
classification uses the mean vectors of
projects the image to be classified onto
each ROI and calculates the Euclidean
the display monitor and outlines sample
distance from each unknown pixel to the
of training areas for each surface class,
mean vector for each class. All pixels are
usually referred as “Region Of Interest
classified to the closest ROI class unless
(ROI)”. These “ROI” are, then, used to
the user specifies standard deviation or
provide the classification program with
distance thresholds, in which case some
typical examples of each kind of land-
pixels may be unclassified if they do not
cover to be used in the classification. In
meet the selected criteria, [6, &7].
fact, the computer program generates
Parallelepiped (or box) Classifier.
statistical parameters from these “ROI”
Parallelepiped or the box classifier uses
and compares the digital numbers of
a simple decision rule to classify multi-
every pixels within the image with these
spectral data. The decision boundaries
statistical parameters. If the distribution
form an n-dimensional parallelepiped in
values of image points, surrounded
the image data space. The dimensions of
certain pixel, fall within a predefined
the parallelepiped are defined based
ROI, the pixel is assumed to belong to
upon a standard deviation threshold from
the same surface class. In fact, selecting
the mean of each selected class. This
the interest regions is not, always, an
algorithm is sensitive to category
easy task, it may require to perform field
variance and the range of values in each
surveys, or utilizing available aerial
category of the training set. This range
photographs and existed maps, [10].
may be defined by the highest and
However, in many cases, it may be
lowest digital number values in each
impossible to select homogeneous site,
band, and appear as rectangular area in a
as an example, a common problem in
two-channel scatter diagram. Unknown
sparse vegetation that complicates
pixels are classified according to the
attempts to map both vegetation and soil.
category range in which its lies.
To overcome this problem, threshold
Otherwise, the class of this pixel is
value can be suggested to differentiate
assigned as “unknown” if it lies outside
between overlapped classes.
all range, [6, & 7].
Gaussian Maximum Likelihood
Classification Algorithms Classifier. Maximum likelihood
There are a number of statistical classifier assumes that the statistics for
algorithms that can be used to measure each class in each band are normally
 2010 / 11 / 29-28 ‫ جامعة واسط للفرتة‬/ ‫ كلية العلوم‬/ ‫مقبول للنشر يف املؤمتر التخصصي األول للبيئة‬
distributed and calculates the probability
that a given pixel belongs to a specific
class. Unless a probability threshold is
selected, all pixels are classified. Each
pixel is assigned to the class that has the
highest probability (i.e., the “maximum
likelihood”). For technical details, see,
[9]. In fact, the maximum likelihood
classifier quantitatively evaluates both
the variance and covariance of the
category when classifying an unknown
pixel. However, under the assumption of
normal distribution of the category
training data, the distribution of a
category response pattern can be
completely described by the mean vector
and the covariance matrix. Given these
parameters, the statistical probability of
a given pixel value being a member of a
particular land cover category can be
computed, and the probability density
function for each category can be
created. The probability density
functions are used to classify an
unidentified pixel by computing the
probability of the pixel value belonging
to each category. The pixel would be
assigned to the most likely category
(highest probability). Or “unknown” if
the probability values are all below a
threshold set by the analyst, [7].
K-Mean Classifier. Also called
Isodata unsupervised classification,
which calculates class means evenly
distributed in the data space and then
iteratively clusters the remaining pixels
using minimum distance techniques.
Each iteration recalculates means and
reclassifies pixels with respect to the
new means. Iterative class splitting,
merging, and deleting are done based on
input threshold parameters. All pixels
are classified to the nearest class unless a
standard deviation or distance threshold
is specified, in which case some pixels
may be unclassified if they do not meet
the selected criteria. This process
continues until the number of pixels in
each class changes by less than the
selected pixel change threshold or the
maximum number of iterations is
reached. For the details see [Tou, and
Gonzalez, 1974].
Pollution Detection and Results
Analysis
All naturally occurring water
contains some impurities. Water is
considered polluted when the present of
impurities is sufficient to limit its use for
a given domestic point sources is highly
localized such as wastewater out falls.
In figure (1) the whole area affected by
an out fall can be monitored in a matter
of minutes. Al_Rustamiya power plant
and its out fall into Diyala river can be
observed using the photograph of study
area, also the dispersion of wastewater
into Diyala river can be detected, which
can be recognized by light tones (white)
comparing with the Diyala river tones.
The classification results are
shown in figures (3, 4, and 5). In
supervised classification, figure (3), the
computer was able to separate 7 class,
the boundaries of wastewater can be
observed recognized easily from clear
water (i.e. two water pollution densities
can be detected in using this method) .
The supervised classification was
based upon 7 selected classes in region
of interest definition, see figure (2). The
statistical parameters of supervised
method s given in table (1). On the other
hand, the unsupervised classification
figure (4, & 5) was unable to give the
best result for discrimination process.
Another technique was applied
using binary thresholding values (black
and white) so the clear river water
 2010 / 11 / 29-28 ‫ جامعة واسط للفرتة‬/ ‫ كلية العلوم‬/ ‫مقبول للنشر يف املؤمتر التخصصي األول للبيئة‬
appear in dark tones (black), while the
polluted area appear in light tones
(intermediate gray signature). This
indicates the capability of remote
sensing technique for water monitoring,
see figure (6).
Conclusions
1. Water pollution detection using
aerial and satellite images whether
that pollution is caused by
wastewater treatment plant disposal
or industrial pollution, this is to
increase the capability and to detect
and monitor effectively and
quantitatively the quality of water
resources.
2. Classify the selected water bodies
using digital image processing
(supervised and unsupervised) by
discriminating several spectrally
different classes of water using the
selected images in this study.
3. Computer-aided remote sensing
analysis method has several
advantages over traditional methods
for the analysis of phenomena
occurring on the ground: it can
analyze by frequently and widely
observing the situation on the
ground, it can quickly use the newly
sensed data, the processing is high
speed and it is relatively inexpensive.
Therefore, remote-sensing analysis is
increasingly applied to investigations
of global resources, to estimations of
land use, and for monitoring of
environmental quality such as water
pollution.
2010 / 11 / 29-28 ‫ جامعة واسط للفرتة‬/ ‫ كلية العلوم‬/ ‫مقبول للنشر يف املؤمتر التخصصي األول للبيئة‬

Figure (2), The Selected Classes of ROI

Figure (3), The Supervised Classification Result

‫مقبول للنشر يف املؤمتر التخصصي األول للبيئة ‪ /‬كلية العلوم ‪ /‬جامعة واسط للفرتة ‪2010 / 11 / 29-28‬‬

‫‪Figure (4), 7-Class Unsupervised Classification‬‬

‫مقبول للنشر يف املؤمتر التخصصي األول للبيئة ‪ /‬كلية العلوم ‪ /‬جامعة واسط للفرتة ‪2010 / 11 / 29-28‬‬

‫‪Figure (5), 9-Class Unsupervised Classification‬‬

 2010 / 11 / 29-28 ‫ جامعة واسط للفرتة‬/ ‫ كلية العلوم‬/ ‫مقبول للنشر يف املؤمتر التخصصي األول للبيئة‬
Figure (6), Threshold Value Pollution Detection

Table (1) The Supervised Selected Classes Statistical Values

Band Min Max Mean Std. div. Class Description

1 130 214 179.253923 13.138319 Road, red 701points

1 2 8 4.472329 1.731178 Clear water, blue 777points

1 19 52 37.624567 6.428500 Urban and construction, Yellow 6645

points]
1 6 196 68.093103 30.547423 Vegetation, Sea Green [580 points]

1 85 177 141.829825 11.702162 Soil, Sienna,1710 points

1 172 255 254.540752 5.378374 Material of pollution, Cyan, 638points

1 19 52 37.62 6.48 Polluted Water, Green, 5194 points

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