Delineation of Surface Water in Mining Dominated Region of Angul District of Odisha State, India Using Sentinel-2A Satellite Data

Water is one of the basic requirements for living beings, but the quantity and quality of drinking water resources are degrading day by day. In the current time, it is an urgent need to monitor the status of water quantity regularly across the country. However, it is quite difficult and cumbersome to physically monitor the water quantity across a large geographical area. The present study aims to quantify the annual and monthly/seasonal coverage area of surface water over the mining‐dominated region of Angul district, Odisha, using satellite data. The study used high‐resolution Sentential‐2A satellite data to estimate the annual change in water quantity from 2016 to 2019 and monthly change from January to December 2019. The study designed a decision tree–based water detection method using normalized difference pond index (NDPI) and mid‐infrared (MIR) band to identify all water‐bearing pixels in the study area. In a nutshell, satellite remote sensing data plays an essential role in estimating the variation in area coverage of surface water with time and space. The proposed method may help in the decision‐making process for sustainable water management.