Satellite and geometry-based hypsometric relationships: A new approach for enhancing reservoir storage estimates

Reservoir hypsometric relationship plays a crucial role in determining water storage changes, guiding decisions on water release, and modeling hydrological processes such as inundation mapping, evaporation loss estimation, and streamflow modeling. Current hypsometric approaches face significant limitations, encompassing the inability to observe below hydro-flattened water surfaces, difficulty in accurately representing small reservoirs, and challenges in capturing the real reservoir structures. In this study, we developed a novel hypsometric satellite and geometry-based (SAGE) approach by combining a remote sensing-based method and a geometry-based method to reduce uncertainties and improve the accuracy of reservoir dynamics monitoring.