Automated extraction of meandering river morphodynamics from multitemporal remotely sensed data

We introduce PyRIS, an automated, process-based software for extracting extensive meandering and anabranching river morphodynamics from multitemporal satellite imagery, including a unique ability to quantify river bars dynamics. PyRIS provides three main computations: (i) detection of planform centerline including complex river patterns, (ii) computation of migration vectors between subsequent centerlines, and (iii) analysis of sediment bars dynamics. PyRIS was validated against several test cases in the Amazon River basin, specifically i) main channel extraction from the anabranching Amazon river, ii) migration analysis following a large cutoff on the Ucayali River and iii) detection of sediment bar migration on the Xingu River. Tests prove the capability of PyRIS to detect the main channel in anabranching structures and chute cutoffs. PyRIS can extract extensive morphodynamic information with unprecedented automation levels and reasonable computational effort (5 h for 28 Landsat images of a 240 km reach of the Xingu River on a 3.20 GHz Intel). © 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd.