River discharge estimation using channel width from satellite imagery

Availability of simultaneous in situ river discharge measurements and satellite image acquisitions is the biggest restriction of remote sensing based river discharge estimation methods. In this paper, we propose a width-discharge method for river discharge estimation, that does not need coinciding observations. The method constructs the rating curve through the quantile functions of measured discharge and calculated river width. Because the time of measurement does not play a role in quantile function of time series, there is no need for simultaneous data. The method is employed for Niger River in Africa. Our validation results show that the error in discharge estimation (10 % root mean squared error) is at the same level as the conventional method.