Defence of dissertation in geoinformatics, Jenni Attila, M.Sc. (Tech.)

Earth observations (EO), i.e. satellite instrument observations, can capture extensively the spatial and temporal changes in water areas. This thesis analyses how accurately water quality can be estimated using satellite observations in the coastal waters of Finland.

Water quality refers to the characteristics of water, like the level of its turbidity or the amount of algae in the water. Phytoplankton chlorophyll-a – as a direct indicator of eutrophication – is one of the key water quality parameters in the status assessment of for example the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD).

Earth observations capability to cover the spatial and temporal variability of the water quality is beyond the possibilities of conventional station-wise water sampling. Summarising results over the coastal monitoring sites confirm that EO methods perform well to estimate chlorophyll-a. The EO methods accuracies are close to the determination accuracies of contemporary station samples.

Automated flow-through measurement systems on board coastal vessels and merchant ships provided fluent material for EO algorithm validation. In some optically specific estuaries the estimation of chlorophyll-a via EO can still be improved in the future. Similar methods to those developed in this thesis with the past EO instruments – medium resolution satellite and high resolution airborne – are now being used with the new EU Copernicus programme Sentinelseries instruments for the monitoring of Finnish coastal and lakes water areas.

The opponent is Dr. Daniel Odermatt from Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Switzerland. 

The custos is Miina Rautiainen from the Department of Built Environment, Aalto University. 

Electronic dissertation: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/41397 

Doctoral candidate’s contact information: 
Jenni Attila
Finnish Environment Institute, Latokartanonkaari 11, 00790 Helsinki
p.+358 295 251 078
[email protected]

A doctoral dissertation is a public document and shall be available at Aalto University, School of Engineering’s notice board in Otakaari 4, Espoo at the latest 10 days prior to public defence.