Cher Petersen graduates with Honours in Geography

GCRO GIS intern, Cher Petersen, graduated on the 19th of April for her BSc Honours in Geography in the Science faculty. at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her Honours research project focused on the use of multi-temporal satellite images to map surface water variability and determine the effects of rainfall in Gauteng, South Africa over time.

Her research project assessed the spatial distribution of surface within the Vaal Dam for the summer-rainfall months of 2018 – 2020. The study explored the application of the Landsat-8 OLI- and Sentinel-2 MSI-extracted water indices and how well they detect and monitor the surface water dynamics of the Vaal Dam. The study concluded that the Sentinel-2 extracted NDWI, and the Landsat-8 extracted MNDWI yielded the highest accuracies with an overall accuracy of 91.5% and 91.2% respectively. Overall, the study demonstrates the potential of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 extracted indices to monitor and map surface water, in particularly water scarce regions. GCRO celebrates Cher's achievement.