Analysis of riverbank changes in Ho Chi Minh city in the period 1989 – 2015

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze the changes of riverbanks in Ho Chi Minh City for the period 1989-2015 using remote sensing and GIS. Combination of Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) and thresholding method was used to extract the river bank based on the multi-temporal Landsat satellite images, including 12 Landsat 4-5 (TM) images and 2 Landsat 8 images in the period 1989-2015. Then, DSAS tool was used to calculate the change rates of river bank. The results showed that, the processes of erosion and accretion intertwined but most of the main riverbanks had erosion trend in the period 1989-2015. Specifically, the Long Tau River, Sai Gon River, Soai Rap River had erosion trends with a rate of about 10.44 m/year. The accretion process mainly occurred in Can Gio area, such as Dong Tranh river and Soai Rap river with a rate of 8.34 m/year. Evaluating the riverbank changes using multi-temporal remote sensing data may contribute an important reference to managing and protecting the riverbanks.