{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,21]],"date-time":"2026-04-21T13:15:06Z","timestamp":1776777306320,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,28]],"date-time":"2023-12-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1703721600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"French National Research Agency (ANR)","award":["ANR-17-EURE-0018"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ANR-17-EURE-0018"]}]},{"name":"French National Research Agency (ANR)","award":["U2243214"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U2243214"]}]},{"name":"French National Research Agency (ANR)","award":["XSKJ2022068-12"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["XSKJ2022068-12"]}]},{"name":"French National Research Agency (ANR)","award":["2023BCB110"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023BCB110"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["ANR-17-EURE-0018"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ANR-17-EURE-0018"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["U2243214"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U2243214"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["XSKJ2022068-12"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["XSKJ2022068-12"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2023BCB110"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023BCB110"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Major Water Resources Science and Technology Project of Hunan Province","award":["ANR-17-EURE-0018"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ANR-17-EURE-0018"]}]},{"name":"Major Water Resources Science and Technology Project of Hunan Province","award":["U2243214"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U2243214"]}]},{"name":"Major Water Resources Science and Technology Project of Hunan Province","award":["XSKJ2022068-12"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["XSKJ2022068-12"]}]},{"name":"Major Water Resources Science and Technology Project of Hunan Province","award":["2023BCB110"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023BCB110"]}]},{"name":"Key R&amp;D Program of Hubei Province","award":["ANR-17-EURE-0018"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ANR-17-EURE-0018"]}]},{"name":"Key R&amp;D Program of Hubei Province","award":["U2243214"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U2243214"]}]},{"name":"Key R&amp;D Program of Hubei Province","award":["XSKJ2022068-12"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["XSKJ2022068-12"]}]},{"name":"Key R&amp;D Program of Hubei Province","award":["2023BCB110"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023BCB110"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The use of water detection (WD) indices to infer daily discharge (Qd) has a great potential to enrich needed hydrological data for understanding fluvial processes driving the morphological changes of braided rivers. However, no consensus has been reached on which one stands out for use in mid-sized braided rivers. In this study, we compared the physical characteristics of three most commonly used WD indices, the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI), and Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), for two mid-sized braided reach segments in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China, that have different morphological structures. Relying on the Google Earth Engine web interface, we calculated the total mean water width (WWt) based on the detected surface-water areas (As) and braiding index (BI), as well as the mean values (m) of these indices over about four decades at the braided corridor scale (cs) (mNDWIcs, mMNDWIcs, and mNDMIcs). We then examined different responses of these indices to water and non-water features and their best threshold values for characterizing channel structures. Our analyses demonstrated that (1) NDWI and MNDWI perform well for detecting braided channel structures with the threshold of zero; (2) WWt is generally better correlated to Qd in a linear style than WD indices do, particularly when calculated from MNDWI; and (3) among WD indices calculated at the braided corridor scale, mMNDWIcs shows a better relationship with Qd than mNDMIcs does. Finally, we provided mechanisms that may explain these differences in terms of photometric discrepancies in calculating WWt and WD indices and the impact of image resolution on their calculations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs16010137","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,28]],"date-time":"2023-12-28T09:35:21Z","timestamp":1703756121000},"page":"137","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Can Water-Detection Indices Be Reliable Proxies for Water Discharges in Mid-Sized Braided Rivers Using Coarse-Resolution Landsat Archives?"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5323-9398","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Peng","family":"Gao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography and the Environment, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA"},{"name":"EUR H<sub>2<\/sub>O\u2019Lyon, University of Lyon, Site of ENS, 15 Parvis R. Descartes, F-69362 Lyon, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6247-7619","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Barbara","family":"Belletti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"UMR 5600 CNRS\u2014EVS, University of Lyon, Site of ENS, 15 Parvis R. Descartes, F-69362 Lyon, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3864-2119","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Herv\u00e9","family":"Pi\u00e9gay","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"UMR 5600 CNRS\u2014EVS, University of Lyon, Site of ENS, 15 Parvis R. Descartes, F-69362 Lyon, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yuchi","family":"You","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Water Resources & Civil Engineering, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2870-7265","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhiwei","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2021WR029925","DOI":"10.1029\/2021WR029925","article-title":"Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Hydrology and Water Management: Applications, Challenges, and Perspectives","volume":"57","author":"Acharya","year":"2021","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Acharya, T.D., Subedi, A., and Lee, D.H. (2018). Evaluation of Water Indices for Surface Water Extraction in a Landsat 8 Scene of Nepal. Sensors, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/s18082580"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Allen, G.H., Yang, X., Gardner, J., Holliman, J., David, C.H., and Ross, M. (2020). Timing of Landsat Overpasses Effectively Captures Flow Conditions of Large Rivers. Remote Sens., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12091510"},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Shroder, J., and Wohl, E. (2013). Treatise on Geomorphology, Academic Press."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ashmore, P., and Sauks, E. (2006). Prediction of discharge from water surface width in a braided river with implications for at-a-station hydraulic geometry. Water Resour. Res., 42.","DOI":"10.1029\/2005WR003993"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"84","DOI":"10.1016\/j.earscirev.2012.05.003","article-title":"How do big rivers come to be different?","volume":"114","author":"Ashworth","year":"2012","journal-title":"Earth-Sci. Rev."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2645","DOI":"10.1016\/j.procs.2020.04.287","article-title":"Analysis of Surface Water Resources Using Sentinel-2 Imagery","volume":"171","author":"Bhangale","year":"2020","journal-title":"Procedia Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2439","DOI":"10.1002\/2015WR017296","article-title":"Benchmarking wide swath altime-try-based river discharge estimation algorithms for the Ganges river system","volume":"52","author":"Bonnema","year":"2016","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"657354","DOI":"10.3389\/fenvs.2021.657354","article-title":"Deriving Planform Morphology and Vegetation Coverage from Remote Sensing to Support River Management Applications","volume":"9","author":"Boothroyd","year":"2021","journal-title":"Front. Environ. Sci."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e21496","DOI":"10.1002\/wat2.1496","article-title":"Applications of Google Earth Engine in fluvial geomorphology for detecting river channel change","volume":"8","author":"Boothroyd","year":"2020","journal-title":"WIREs Water"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Brakenridge, G.R., Nghiem, S.V., Anderson, E., and Mic, R. (2007). Orbital microwave measurement of river discharge and ice status. Water Resour. Res., 43.","DOI":"10.1029\/2006WR005238"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Coe, M.T., and Birkett, C.M. (2004). Calculation of river discharge and prediction of lake height from satellite radar altimetry: Example for the Lake Chad basin. Water Resour. Res., 40.","DOI":"10.1029\/2003WR002543"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"553","DOI":"10.1029\/1999GL006087","article-title":"measuring stream discharge by non-contact methods: A Proof-of-Concept Experiment","volume":"27","author":"Costa","year":"2000","journal-title":"Geophys. Res. Lett."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4527","DOI":"10.1002\/2015WR018434","article-title":"An intercom-parison of remote sensing river discharge estimation algorithms from measurements of river height, width, and slope","volume":"52","author":"Durand","year":"2016","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2121","DOI":"10.1002\/esp.1658","article-title":"Defining and measuring braiding intensity","volume":"33","author":"Egozi","year":"2008","journal-title":"Earth Surf. Process. Landf."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2021WR030277","DOI":"10.1029\/2021WR030277","article-title":"Spaceborne River Discharge from a Nonparametric Stochastic Quantile Mapping Function","volume":"57","author":"Elmi","year":"2021","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7753","DOI":"10.1029\/2019WR025599","article-title":"Comparing Discharge Estimates Made via the BAM Algorithm in High-Order Arctic Rivers Derived Solely From Optical CubeSat, Landsat, and Sentinel-2 Data","volume":"55","author":"Feng","year":"2019","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"257","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(96)00067-3","article-title":"NDWI\u2014A normalized difference water index for remote sensing of vegetation liquid water from space","volume":"58","author":"Gao","year":"1996","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"243","DOI":"10.1177\/0309133308094849","article-title":"Understanding watershed suspended sediment transport","volume":"32","author":"Gao","year":"2008","journal-title":"Prog. Phys. Geogr. Earth Environ."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"108180","DOI":"10.1016\/j.geomorph.2022.108180","article-title":"Assessing functional characteristics of a braided river in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China","volume":"403","author":"Gao","year":"2022","journal-title":"Geomorphology"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gleason, C.J., and Durand, M.T. (2020). Remote Sensing of River Discharge: A Review and a Framing for the Discipline. Remote Sens., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12071107"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9604","DOI":"10.1002\/2014WR016109","article-title":"Retrieval of river discharge solely from satellite imagery and at-many-stations hy-draulic geometry: Sensitivity to river form and optimization parameters","volume":"50","author":"Gleason","year":"2014","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7107","DOI":"10.1002\/2015GL064935","article-title":"Theoretical basis for at-many-stations hydraulic geometry","volume":"42","author":"Gleason","year":"2015","journal-title":"Geophys. Res. Lett."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1839","DOI":"10.1130\/GSAB-P2-90-1839","article-title":"A study of stream braiding","volume":"90","author":"Hong","year":"1979","journal-title":"Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 90"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"333","DOI":"10.1029\/2018RG000598","article-title":"Detecting, Extracting, and Monitoring Surface Water from Space Using Optical Sensors: A Review","volume":"56","author":"Huang","year":"2018","journal-title":"Rev. Geophys."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2020WR027794","DOI":"10.1029\/2020WR027794","article-title":"Combining Optical Remote Sensing, McFLI Discharge Estimation, Global Hydrologic Modeling, and Data Assim-ilation to Improve Daily Discharge Estimates Across an Entire Large Watershed","volume":"57","author":"Ishitsuka","year":"2021","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"475","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2003.10.021","article-title":"Vegetation water content mapping using Landsat data derived normalized difference water index for corn and soybeans","volume":"92","author":"Jackson","year":"2004","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"137","DOI":"10.1080\/22797254.2017.1297540","article-title":"Object-based water body extraction model using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery","volume":"50","author":"Kaplan","year":"2017","journal-title":"Eur. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"Knighton, D. (1998). Fluvial Forms & Processes: A New Perspective, Arnold."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"LeFavour, G., and Alsdorf, D. (2005). Water slope and discharge in the Amazon River estimated using the shuttle radar topography mission digital elevation model. Geophys. Res. Lett., 32.","DOI":"10.1029\/2005GL023836"},{"key":"ref_31","first-page":"912","article-title":"Some relations among velocity, depth and slope in braided rivers","volume":"66","author":"Leopoid","year":"1985","journal-title":"EOS Trans. AGU"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Carbonneau, P.E., and Pi\u00e9gay, H. (2012). Fluvial Remote Sensing for Science and Management, Wiley.","DOI":"10.1002\/9781119940791"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1425","DOI":"10.1080\/01431169608948714","article-title":"The use of the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) in the delineation of open water features","volume":"17","author":"McFeeters","year":"1996","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"44","DOI":"10.1016\/j.geomorph.2018.12.007","article-title":"Revisiting the drivers of at-a-station hydraulic geometry in stream reaches","volume":"328","author":"Morel","year":"2019","journal-title":"Geomorphology"},{"key":"ref_35","first-page":"18","article-title":"Response of braided rivers to changing discharge","volume":"22","author":"Mosley","year":"1983","journal-title":"J. Hydrol. N. Z."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mutanga, O., and Kumar, L. (2019). Google Earth Engine Applications. Remote Sens., 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11050591"},{"key":"ref_37","unstructured":"Freden, S.C., Mercanti, E.P., and Becker, M.A. (1974). NASA Third Earth Resources Technology Satellite-1 Symposium\u2014Volume 1: Technical Presentations."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"368","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhydrol.2015.01.036","article-title":"Decadal monitoring of the Niger Inner Delta flood dynamics using MODIS optical data","volume":"523","author":"Ogilvie","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1591","DOI":"10.1007\/s11269-011-9974-z","article-title":"The use of NDVI and its Derivatives for Monitoring Lake Victoria\u2019s Water Level and Drought Conditions","volume":"26","author":"Omute","year":"2012","journal-title":"Water Resour. Manag."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"418","DOI":"10.1038\/nature20584","article-title":"High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes","volume":"540","author":"Pekel","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"371","DOI":"10.1007\/s00027-009-9220-4","article-title":"Census and typology of braided rivers in the French Alps","volume":"71","author":"Alber","year":"2009","journal-title":"Aquat. Sci."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rhoads, B.L. (2020). River Dynamics: Geomorphology to Support Management, Cambridge University Press.","DOI":"10.1017\/9781108164108"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105254","DOI":"10.1016\/j.envsoft.2021.105254","article-title":"RODEO: An algorithm and Google Earth Engine application for river discharge retrieval from Landsat","volume":"148","author":"Riggs","year":"2022","journal-title":"Environ. Model. Softw."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4173","DOI":"10.3390\/rs6054173","article-title":"Water Feature Extraction and Change Detection Using Multitemporal Landsat Imagery","volume":"6","author":"Rokni","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1325","DOI":"10.1029\/95WR00145","article-title":"Estimation of discharge from braided gla-cial rivers using ers-1 synthetic-aperture radar-first results","volume":"31","author":"Smith","year":"1995","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Smith, L.C., and Pavelsky, T.M. (2008). Estimation of river discharge, propagation speed, and hydraulic geometry from space: Lena River, Siberia. Water Resour. Res., 44.","DOI":"10.1029\/2007WR006133"},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3757","DOI":"10.5194\/essd-14-3757-2022","article-title":"Improved maps of surface water bodies, large dams, reservoirs, and lakes in China","volume":"14","author":"Wang","year":"2022","journal-title":"Earth Syst. Sci. Data"},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"385","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(01)00318-2","article-title":"Detection of forest harvest type using multiple dates of Landsat TM imagery","volume":"80","author":"Wilson","year":"2002","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3025","DOI":"10.1080\/01431160600589179","article-title":"Modification of normalised difference water index (NDWI) to enhance open water features in remotely sensed imagery","volume":"27","author":"Xu","year":"2006","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1927","DOI":"10.1002\/hyp.1458","article-title":"Estimating river discharge from very high-resolution satellite data: A case study in the Yangtze River, China","volume":"18","author":"Xu","year":"2004","journal-title":"Hydrol. Process."},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"278","DOI":"10.1002\/2015WR017319","article-title":"Improved error estimates of a discharge algorithm for remotely sensed river measurements: Test cases on Sacramento and Garonne Rivers","volume":"52","author":"Yoon","year":"2016","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"214","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijsrc.2021.07.003","article-title":"Impacts of dams and land-use changes on hydromorphology of braided channels in the Lhasa River of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China","volume":"37","author":"You","year":"2022","journal-title":"Int. J. Sediment Res."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/16\/1\/137\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T21:43:34Z","timestamp":1760132614000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/16\/1\/137"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,28]]},"references-count":52,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,1]]}},"alternative-id":["rs16010137"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs16010137","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,28]]}}}