Student:	Mustafa DİHKAN
Supervisor:	Asst. Prof. Dr. Fevzi KARSLI
Department:	Harita Mühendisliği
Institution:	Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences
University:	Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey

Title of the Thesis:	Detection of TSM Parameter in Coastal Waters of Blacksea with Remotely Sensed Images
Level:	M.Sc.
Acceptance Date:	21/1/2009
Number of Pages:	70
Registration Number:	i2128

Summary:

Black Sea is an important basin in terms of the Turkish Economy which has been

exposed to the effect of the anthropogenic origin pollutants for long years. Many large and

small rivers and streams along the Black Sea coast affect the quality of the coastal waters

with the carried loads by them. One of these loads effecting on the water quality is the total

suspended matter (TSM). TSM with many aspects affects water’s physical, chemical and

biological structure. Monitoring of the TSM parameter is extremely important in terms of

putting forward of the quality of the coastal waters. This study intended that calculate the

TSM concentration with the remote sensing techniques, propound its distribution and

investigate algorithms that will allow this.

TSM is one of the most important matters in determining the optical characteristics

of water. Hence, determination of concentration and distribution in water is of great

importance. This process can be applied by traditionally taken in-situ data in water or

today; by also using remote sensing techniques via the sensors which have high spatial,

spectral, radiometric and temporal resolutions used in remote sensing technologies. In the

literature many TSM estimation algorithm developed by using different methods for

different waters and different sensors is available. However, an algorithm developed in this

sense for the Black Sea coasts of Turkey is not available.

In this sense in study, regression analysis was implemented between the processed

Landsat TM images containing the coast zone and synchronous in-situ data in the same

area. As a result of this process, an empirical TSM estimation algorithm which has 0.67 R2

value was developed for the coastal waters of the Black Sea region. TSM concentration

and distribution images obtained by using the developed algorithm were generated and

explained. It can be concluded that this is a unique algorithm developed for determining

TSM concentration and distribution via the remote sensing techniques in the study region.