A multi-temporal analysis for change assessment and estimation of algal bloom in Sambhar Lake, Rajasthan, India

Abstract

Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan, India is the major inland salt water lake producing salt for centuries. The present study addresses the monitoring changes in and around the lake and its consequent effect on the lake water ecology. For this, satellite images of the years 1976, 1981, 1997, and 2013 are analyzed for land use land cover classes. Significant reduction in the water body is observed in contrast with the increase in salt pan around the periphery of lake and wetland classes. Further, the extent of water body and algae in the lake are delineated as per normalized difference water index and normalized difference vegetation index. Rainfall data do not indicate any major change in the pattern, but drastic decrease in the extent of water body and significant increase in algal bloom are serious concerns for the lake's existence. This may be due to surrounding anthropogenic activities and construction of check dams and anicuts in the lake catchment which curtail the runoff into the lake and provide favorable growth of algae. Sambhar Lake, being declared as a wetland according to the Ramsar Convention, is necessary to protect and conserve the ecological importance of the lake through sustainable planning and management.

Dynamic variations of cyanobacterial blooms and their response to urban development and climate change in Lake Chaohu based on Landsat observations

“…Ma et al (2021) employed the NDVI method to extract information on harmful algal blooms in Lake Chaohu, with an accuracy of 96.1%. Vijay et al (2016) de ned the NDVI as an index of algae density and assessed the correlation between the NDVI and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). In a word, the NDVI can effectively re ect the information on cyanobacteria in lakes and can combine cyanobacteria dynamics, human activities, and climate changes for research.…”

Monitoring migratory birds of India's largest shallow saline Ramsar site (Sambhar Lake) using geospatial data for wetland restoration

“…To emphasize feeding habits, it is clear that the lake had always been dominated by carnivores, followed by omnivores and least by herbivores. The trophic structure of this lake starts with the phytoplankton, which survives in the lake during monsoon to winter (Vijay et al 2016 ). The lake receives rainfall of about 500 mm from July to October during monsoon season.…”

A Fusion Water Quality Soft-Sensing Method Based on WASP Model and Its Application in Water Eutrophication Evaluation

“…The appearance of algal blooms is a feature of water eutrophication, whose formation process can be divided into three stages, namely, recovery, biomass increase and accumulation, dormancy [34]. In this paper, January to March is the recovery period of algae bloom, April to mid-October is the second stage, and the remaining part is the dormancy stage.…”