Characterization of the flow regime of temporary rivers using Sentinel-2 satellite data

Given their extremgely high biodiversity and various ecosystem services, temporary rivers require careful management. Reliable methods are needed to assess their ecological status, as required by the European Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC. The main obstacle is constituted by the lack of information about the duration and frequency of zero-flow periods that are the primary determinants of ecosystem processes in these streams. In this work, we investigated the potential of Sentinel-2 multispectral images to monitor land cover changes along non-perennial rivers. In particular, a double threshold segmentation method was developed to distinguish three different land cover classes: vegetation, sediments and water. The comparison with the field survey showed that the proposed method is able to assess channel dynamics and derive information for the classification of flow regime.