Assessing the Spread of Invasive Mussels in Lake Neuchâtel as a Potential Threat to the Les Argilliez Heritage Site with Sentinel-2

Abstract

This paper provides insights into invasive Quagga mussel proliferation on the bottom of lakes around the Alps, considering potential threats to submerged cultural heritage sites such as Les Argilliez in lake Neuchâtel. By observing typical spectral characteristics of mussels and other water constituents and benthic materials, we report that this phenomenon could be observed in shallow waters and monitored over time using Earth Observation data. Preliminary results using Sentinel-2 data, partially validated through underwater surveys, indicate that the detection of these changes should rely on differences in the green portion of the spectrum.