Use Of Remote Sensing For Assessing Water Quality In Open-Surface Water Systems In Cyprus

The total agricultural area of Cyprus is about 15% of the total land area ( > 75% as arable farming), setting as a national concern the contamination of groundwater and surface water by the applied agricultural chemicals, which are indispensable in modern agriculture. Agricultural runoff is one of the major sources of nonpoint source pollution. Moreover, a share of the nitrate-N and P enriched water percolates and recharges subjacent aquifers by following natural flow pathways and, finally, discharges in open-surface water systems. Consequently, increased nitrate and phosphorus concentrations are observed in water bodies, which are believed to originate from agricultural lands due to the significant losses of N and P from cropping systems. In Cyprus, a substantial challenge for water resource management is reducing the pollutant load to reservoirs from agricultural areas. Therefore, water quality monitoring could benefit significantly from information derived from Earth observation (EO) satellites