Monitoring waterline variation of the Monte Cotugno lake using dual-polarimetric SAR data

In this study, dual-polarimetric (DP) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data collected by the Sentinel-1 SAR mission are exploited to monitor the change of surface water area of the dam of Monte Cotugno, Basilicata (Italy). The key point is extracting waterline using a reliable technique based on an incoherent combination of co-and cross-polarized SAR channels. Once the water covered area is estimated, an in depth analysis is undertaken to understand the dominant scattering mechanism of the observed scene, i.e. water and surrounding land. Experimental results show that dual-polarization methods allows correctly extracting the water-line. Then the profile of the artificial lake is used to detect the changes.