**2.1. "Southern Conveyor Project"**

Water resources development in Cyprus initially focused on groundwater and, until 1970, groundwater was the main source of water supply for both drinking and irrigation purposes. As a result, almost all aquifers were seriously depleted because of over pumping. In addition, seawater intrusion was observed in most of the coastal aquifers. The increase of population as well as the increase in the tourist and industrial activities have led to an increase in the demand for water and have created an acute shortage of potable water.

Under these conditions, the implementation of the *"Southern Conveyor Project"* was a necessity and a basic prerequisite for the further agricultural and economic development of the island. The *"Southern Conveyor Project"* is the largest water development project ever undertaken by the Government of Cyprus. The basic objective of the project is to collect and store surplus water flowing to the sea and convey it to areas for both domestic water supply and irrigation. Essentially, the project aims to support the agricultural development of the coastal region between Limassol and Famagusta, as well as to meet the domestic water demand of Limassol, Larnaca, Famagusta, Nicosia, and a number of villages. In addition it supports the tourist and industrial demand of the southern, eastern and central areas of the island. The project is able to supply 33 million cubic metres of water for the irrigation of 13 926 hectares and another 33 million cubic metres of water for domestic purposes (Cyprus Water Development Department, 2000). In this case study, a part in the SE of Cyprus was examined (Figure 1).

## **2.2.** *"Lakatameia"* **pipeline**

An existing pipeline in the area of Lakatameia (central Cyprus) was selected to be used for the pilot study (Figure 2). The existing pipeline, with a length of less than 5 km, has been system‐ atically reported as problematic due to several leakages and is therefore no longer in use by local authorities. The waterpipe runs through both urban and rural areas (see Figure 2). A section of the pipeline with a length of over 2km and located in a rural area, has been used to apply the different remote sensing techniques for the detection of leakages. Since the existing waterpipe is not currently used, it was necessary to fill the pipe with water periodically in order to observe the effectiveness of such remote sensing techniques.

**2.3. "Frenaros — Choirokoitia" water pipe**

The next area of interest is a major rural pipeline in Cyprus, which runs from the Choirokoitia area to the Frenaros area (Figure 3). The existing pipeline, which passes through the central and central-east part of Cyprus, has a length of over 65 km. The pipeline is located 1-3 meters below ground surface. Various geological formations, including calcaric cambisols, calcaric rego‐ sols, and epipetric calcisols exist in the area. elevation of the pipeline (ground surface) varies between 10 m and 200 m above sea level (Figure 4). In addition, the waterpipe passes through different types of land cover, as recorded from the CORINE 2000 land use map (Figure 5).

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**Figure 3.** The *"Frenaros - Choirokoitia"* water pipe (solid line) used as the case study area.

**Figure 4.** The elevation profile of the "Frenaros - Choirokoitia " waterpipe.

**Figure 1.** Map of the SE of Cyprus showing parts of "Southern Conveyor Project" (blue line) (© Google Earth)

The water pipe is made of UPVC and has 315mm diameter. It is between 1.80m and 2.00m below the ground surface and runs along the *Pediaos* river for a large part of its length. It is not currently being used due to water leakages occurring throughout almost the entire length of the pipeline. Information regarding the specific dates of the leakages is not available from local authorities.

**Figure 2.** The *"Lakatameia"* waterpipe (dash line) used as the pilot study area.

#### **2.3. "Frenaros — Choirokoitia" water pipe**

The water pipe is made of UPVC and has 315mm diameter. It is between 1.80m and 2.00m below the ground surface and runs along the *Pediaos* river for a large part of its length. It is not currently being used due to water leakages occurring throughout almost the entire length of the pipeline. Information regarding the specific dates of the leakages is not available from local

**Figure 1.** Map of the SE of Cyprus showing parts of "Southern Conveyor Project" (blue line) (© Google Earth)

**Figure 2.** The *"Lakatameia"* waterpipe (dash line) used as the pilot study area.

authorities.

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The next area of interest is a major rural pipeline in Cyprus, which runs from the Choirokoitia area to the Frenaros area (Figure 3). The existing pipeline, which passes through the central and central-east part of Cyprus, has a length of over 65 km. The pipeline is located 1-3 meters below ground surface. Various geological formations, including calcaric cambisols, calcaric rego‐ sols, and epipetric calcisols exist in the area. elevation of the pipeline (ground surface) varies between 10 m and 200 m above sea level (Figure 4). In addition, the waterpipe passes through different types of land cover, as recorded from the CORINE 2000 land use map (Figure 5).

**Figure 3.** The *"Frenaros - Choirokoitia"* water pipe (solid line) used as the case study area.

**Figure 4.** The elevation profile of the "Frenaros - Choirokoitia " waterpipe.

**Point Position Name Date of pipe fixing**

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The detection of the footpirnt of the *"Southern Conveyor Project"* was made based on interpre‐ tation techniques. The interpretation was conducted using free data from Google Earth database and using high resolution satellite images. Several histogram enhancement techni‐ ques were applied along with filters in order to improve the interpretation. As well, Principal

In order to explore the capabilities of remote sensing for the detection of water leakages, two different methodologies were followed. For the *"Lakatameia"*waterpipe pilot study, ground spectroradiometric measurements were taken using a handheld spectroradiometer. A leakage event was created by filling several sections of the pipeline with water so that ground spectral signatures could be taken before and after the leakage. Spectroradiometric data were also recorded from different heights using a low altitude system. In this way, spectral signatures were able to simulate variation in spatial resolution (pixel size) before any other further

For the "*Frenaros - Choirokoitia* " water pipe case study, three major leakages have been recorded (see Table 1). Several Landsat 7 ETM+ medium resolution images, showing each leakage before and after the day the leakage was repaired, were used. A geometric and radiometric calibration of the images was performed, following by a multi-temporal analysis of all dataset based on

In this section, the resources and processing used for each case study are presented. The resources are grouped into three main categories: (a) high resolution satellite data used for the *"Southern Conveyor Project"* area; (b) spectroradiometric ground data used for the "*Lakata‐ meia*" pipeline and (c) medium resolution satellite data used for the "*Choirokoitia- Fre‐*

Component Analysis (PCA) and classification techniques were also conducted.

Point 1 Km 43.265\* Pyla Area 20-07-2007 Point 2 Km 55.346\* Avgorou area 18-02-2010 Point 3 Km 12.769\* Anglisides area 17-09-2008

**\*** Km positions along the pipeline, starting point Choirokoitia

either false composites or vegetation indices.

**3. Methodology**

application.

**4. Resources**

*naros*" pipeline.

**Table 1.** The leakages of the Frenaros – Choirokoitia water pipeline

**Figure 5.** CORINE 2000 land use (Level 1) in the area of interest ("*Choirokoitia- Frenaros*" waterpipe)

During the period 2007 to 2010, three major leakages were observed along different sections of the pipe (Figure 6). The locations of these leakages were not detected until 2 months after the leakage occurred due to the difficulty of the local authorities in identifying the problematic areas. The leakages occurred during 2007; 2008 and 2010; further details for these events are presented in Table 1.

**Figure 6.** The "*Frenaros - Choirokoitia* " waterpipe (in blue). Points 1-3 indicate the three areas were water leakages have been reported.


**Table 1.** The leakages of the Frenaros – Choirokoitia water pipeline
