Automated mapping of impervious surfaces in urban and suburban areas: Linear spectral unmixing of high spatial resolution imagery

Quantifying impervious surfaces in urban and suburban areas is a key step toward a sustainable urban planning and management strategy. With the availability of fine-scale remote sensing imagery, automated mapping of impervious surfaces has attracted growing attention. However, the vast majority of existing studies have selected pixel-based and object-based methods for impervious surface mapping, with few adopting sub-pixel analysis of high spatial resolution imagery. This research makes use of a vegetation-bright impervious-dark impervious linear spectral mixture model to characterize urban and suburban surface components. A WorldView-3 image acquired on May 9th, 2015 is analyzed for its potential in automated unmixing of meaningful surface materials for two urban subsets and one suburban subset in Toronto, ON, Canada. Given the wide distribution of shadows in urban areas, the linear spectral unmixing is implemented in non-shadowed and shadowed areas separately for the two urban subsets. The results indicate that the accuracy of impervious surface mapping in suburban areas reaches up to 86.99%, much higher than the accuracies in urban areas (80.03% and 79.67%). Despite its merits in mapping accuracy and automation, the application of our proposed vegetation-bright impervious-dark impervious model to map impervious surfaces is limited due to the absence of soil component. To further extend the operational transferability of our proposed method, especially for the areas where plenty of bare soils exist during urbanization or reclamation, it is still of great necessity to mask out bare soils by automated classification prior to the implementation of linear spectral unmixing.     

大别山北缘地质找矿中遥感方法的研究

本项工作着重探讨在植被覆盖、地质背景十分复杂的地区，利用遥感信息寻找金矿及其它多金属矿的方法。即从地层岩系、构造及构造交叉部位、蚀变带这三个方面，进行地质找矿专题信息特征提取方法的研究。最后，通过信息提取及影像综合特征，进行遥感地质制图，圈定找矿有希望的地段。     

Burned area mapping and post-fire impact assessment in the Kassandra peninsula (Greece) using Landsat TM and Quickbird data

The purpose of this study was to assess the environmental impacts of forest fires on part of the Mediterranean basin. The study area is on the Kassandra peninsula, prefecture of Halkidiki, Greece. A maximum likelihood supervised classification was applied to a post-fire Landsat TM image for mapping the exact burned area. Land-cover types that had been affected by fire were identified with the aid of a CORINE land-cover type layer. Results showed an overall classification accuracy of 95%, and 83% of the total burned area was ‘forest areas’. A normalized difference vegetation index threshold technique was applied to a post-fire Quickbird image which had been recorded six years after the fire event to assess the vegetation recovery and to identify the vegetation species that were dominant in burned areas. Four classes were identified: ‘bare soil’, ‘sparse shrubs’, ‘dense shrubs’ and ‘tree and shrub communities’. Results showed that ‘shrublands’ is the main vegetation type which has prevailed (65%) and that vegetation recovery is homogeneous in burned areas.     

Step-wise Land-class Elimination Approach for extracting mixed-type built-up areas of Kolkata megacity

The extraction of urban built-up areas is an important aspect of urban planning and understanding the complex drivers and biophysical mechanism of urban climate processes. However, built-up area extraction using Landsat data is a challenging task due to spatio-temporal dynamics and spatially intermixed nature of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) in the cities of the developing countries, particularly in tropics. In the light of advantages and drawbacks of the Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) and Built-up Area Extraction Method (BAEM), a new and simple method i.e. Step-wise Land-class Elimination Approach (SLEA) is proposed for rapid and accurate mapping of urban built-up areas without depending exclusively on the band specific normalized indices, in order to pursue a more generalized approach. It combines the use of a single band layer, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) image and another binary image obtained through Logit model. Based on the spectral designation of the satellite image in use, a particular band is chosen for identification of water pixels. The Double-window Flexible Pace Search (DFPS) approach is employed for finding the optimum threshold value that segments the selected band image into water and non-water categories. The water pixels are then eliminated from the original image. The vegetation pixels are similarly identified using the NDVI image and eliminated. The residual pixels left after elimination of water and vegetation categories belong either to the built-up areas or to bare land categories. Logit model is used for separation of the built-up areas from bare lands. The effectiveness of this method was tested through the mapping of built-up areas of the Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA), India from Thematic Mapper (TM) images of 2000, 2005 and 2010, and Operational Land Imager (OLI) image of 2015. Results of the proposed SLEA were 95.33% accurate on the whole, while those derived by the NDBI and BAEM approaches returned an overall accuracy of 83.67% and 89.33%, respectively. Comparisons of the results obtained using this method with those obtained from NDBI and BAEM approaches demonstrate that the proposed approach is quite reliable. The SLEA generates new patterns of evidence and hypotheses for built-up areas extraction research, providing an integral link with statistical science and encouraging trans-disciplinary collaborations to build robust knowledge and problem solving capacity in urban areas. It also brings landscape architecture, urban and regional planning, landscape and ecological engineering, and other practice-oriented fields to bear together in processes for identifying problems and analyzing, synthesizng, and evaluating desirable alternatives for urban change. This method produced very accurate results in a more efficient manner compared to the earlier built-up area extraction approaches for the landscape and urban planning.     

Timing of erosion and satellite data: A multi-resolution approach to soil erosion risk mapping

Erosion reduces soil productivity and causes negative downstream impacts. Erosion processes occur on areas with erodible soils and sloping terrain when high-intensity rainfall coincides with limited vegetation cover. Timing of erosion events has implications on the selection of satellite imagery, used to describe spatial patterns of protective vegetation cover. This study proposes a method for erosion risk mapping with multi-temporal and multi-resolution satellite data. The specific objectives of the study are: (1) to determine when during the year erosion risk is highest using coarse-resolution data, and (2) to assess the optimal timing of available medium-resolution images to spatially represent vegetation cover during the high erosion risk period. Analyses were performed for a 100-km² pasture area in the Brazilian Cerrados. The first objective was studied by qualitatively comparing three-hourly TRMM rainfall estimates with MODIS NDVI time series for one full year (August 2002–August 2003). November and December were identified as the months with highest erosion risk. The second objective was examined with a time series of six available ASTER images acquired in the same year. Persistent cloud cover limited image acquisition during high erosion risk periods. For each ASTER image the NDVI was calculated and classified into five equally sized classes. Low NDVI was related to high erosion risk and vice versa. A DEM was used to set approximately flat zones to very low erosion risk. The six resulting risk maps were compared with erosion features, visually interpreted from a fine-resolution QuickBird image. Results from the October ASTER image gave highest accuracy (84%), showing that erosion risk mapping in the Brazilian Cerrados can best be performed with images acquired shortly before the first erosion events. The presented approach that uses coarse-resolution temporal data for determining erosion periods and medium-resolution data for effective erosion risk mapping is fast and straightforward. It shows good potential for successful application in other areas with high spatial and temporal variability of vegetation cover.     

数字正射影像结合LiDAR数据在山区测绘中的应用

随着信息化社会的到来，现代水利测绘已经由传统测绘向信息化测绘发展，无人机技术应用于测绘行业推进了信息化测绘进程。本文探讨了如何有效利用无人机技术解决测绘领域在山区遇到的问题。固定翼无人机能及时获取地面数字正射影像数据，捕获裸露地面的平面和高程，但是无法获取植被覆盖下的地表高程信息，因此，本文通过机载激光雷达获取植被覆盖下的LiDAR点云数据；将二者数据相结合，再通过EPS软件生成三维地表模型，可以快速获取任何测区地物和地形数据，不仅提高了工作效率，还降低了外业劳动强度。     

High spatial resolution image object classification for terrestrial oil spill contamination mapping in West Siberia

This work is a part of the OSCaR pilot study (Oil Spill Contamination mapping in Russia). A synergetic concept for an object based and multi temporal mapping and classification system for terrestrial oil spill pollution using a test area in West Siberia is presented. An object oriented image classification system is created to map contaminated soils, vegetation and changes in the oil exploration well infrastructure in high resolution data. Due to the limited spectral resolution of Quickbird data context information and image object structure are used as additional features building a structural object knowledge base for the area. The distance of potentially polluted areas to industrial land use and infrastructure objects is utilized to classify crude oil contaminated surfaces. Additionally the potential of Landsat data for dating of oil spill events using change indicators is tested with multi temporal Landsat data from 1987, 1995 and 2001. OSCaR defined three sub-projects: (1) high resolution mapping of crude oil contaminated surfaces, (2) mapping of industrial infrastructure change, (3) dating of oil spill events using multi temporal Landsat data. Validation of the contamination mapping results has been done with field data from Russian experts provided by the Yugra State University in Khanty-Mansiyskiy. The developed image object structure classification system has shown good results for the severely polluted areas with good overall classification accuracy. However it has also revealed the need for direct mapping of hydrocarbon substances. Oil spill event dating with Landsat data was very much limited by the low spatial resolution of Landsat TM 5 data, small scale character of oil spilled surfaces and limited information about oil spill dates.     

新疆巴里坤ETM数据遥感地质填图的探索

 对新疆巴里坤县八墙子一带ETM数据进行主成分分析、彩色，空间变换及假彩色合成等图像处理，同时，依据野外踏勘、实测 剖面等资料不断调整图像处理方法； 以最大程度突出已知岩性单元间影像区别为目的，通过全色谱段融合方式将图像比例尺提高到1 ︰5万； 在ArcView等平台上进行综合分析、解译和填图，并经过实地查验进一步修改填图方法与结果，最后编辑形成地质图。     

中等程度植被覆盖区岩石蚀变信息提取技术及其应用

各种类型的热液型矿产经常与围岩蚀变相伴生,蚀变岩类是找矿标志之一。陆地卫星TM数据在短波近红外范围内有二个波段,这两个波段的信息可用来进行蚀变岩的制图。可是在有部分或中等密度的植被复盖区,由于植被和蚀变岩类的反射光谱特性比较相似,影响了TM数据的制图能力。笔者开发了三种用来在中等程度植被复盖区进行蚀变岩类信息提取方法。这三种方法是:直接主成分分析法、最小平方拟合法和混合单元分解法。在滇黔桂微细浸染型金矿勘查中,这三种方法被成功地用来提取与金矿化有关的粘土蚀变岩类信息和制图。     

Recognition of arid zone soil features from Landsat imagery

Usefulness of Landsat imagery in discerning major arid zone soils has been studied. Results are based on analysis of Band 7 coverage and Band 5 and 7 for a limited area followed by a comparison of these with the known soil distribution as seen in Bikaner, Jodhpur and part of Jalore, Pali and Nagaur districts. Results show that at Band 7 the dominant course loamy Typic Camborthids in association with dunes could be recognised. Vegetation was found non-interfering though surface soil moisture variation of the period immediately following monsoon months (Sept.–Dec.) appeared to do so. Hardpan soils were identifiable largely by their associated features than by soil characteristics proper. Fine loamy typic Camborthids could not be recognised at series level and as a group also these could be identified only in post-monsoon period when the land is devoid of much of its vegetation cover. Saline areas could be recognised but those occurring in South-eastern tract were largely inseparable from adjoining shallow soils. For these, Band 5 image of monsoon months was quite satisfactory. For all other soils, Band 7 was better than Band 5. Though light brown sandy soils in association with dunes are the dominant formations, past evolutionary history and source rock variability have given considerable heterogeniety to the soil cover of the arid zone. Natural resource survey activity over the years has provided ground information for nearly 30 percent of Westren Rajasthan and this incidentally covers major soils of the area albeit with few exceptions. With the Landsat imagery now becoming accessible, it was thought befitting to see how far soil variations as recognised in the course of above surveys could be discerned from the Landsat. Some encouraging reports on the use of the Landsat or similar data in small cale soil mapping are available in literature (Kristof and Zachary, 1970; El-Baz, 1978; Everitt and Gerbermann 1977). In our own country also usefulness of this tool has been demonstrated by Krishnamurthy and Srinivanan (1973) and Hilwig (1975). Recently Bhandariet al; (1976) while working in northern part of arid zone have shown that soil salinity mapping could be attempted with the help of Landsat data.     

基于最佳小波包基的高光谱影像特征制图

鉴于在时频局部化能力方面小波包变换优于小波变换,将高光谱影像像元光谱曲线作为1维信号并对其进行多尺度小波包变换分解,得到不同尺度上的低频和高频成分向量。根据不同地物像元光谱小波包分解最佳基有很大差异,而同一地物像元光谱小波包分解的前若干个最佳基完全相同的特点,提出一种基于前若干个最佳小波包基特征参量数组的分类特征参量和目标识别方法,并对AVIRIS影像中的特征如地物植被、水体、岩石及某些阴影等进行提取与制图。     

Spatial application of Random Forest models for fine-scale coastal vegetation classification using object based analysis of aerial orthophoto and DEM data

High spatial resolution mapping of natural resources is much needed for monitoring and management of species, habitats and landscapes. Generally, detailed surveillance has been conducted as fieldwork, numerical analysis of satellite images or manual interpretation of aerial images, but methods of object-based image analysis (OBIA) and machine learning have recently produced promising examples of automated classifications of aerial imagery. The spatial application potential of such models is however still questionable since the transferability has rarely been evaluated.We investigated the potential of mosaic aerial orthophoto red, green and blue (RGB)/near infrared (NIR) imagery and digital elevation model (DEM) data for mapping very fine-scale vegetation structure in semi-natural terrestrial coastal areas in Denmark. The Random Forest (RF) algorithm, with a wide range of object-derived image and DEM variables, was applied for classification of vegetation structure types using two hierarchical levels of complexity. Models were constructed and validated by cross-validation using three scenarios: (1) training and validation data without spatial separation, (2) training and validation data spatially separated within sites, and (3) training and validation data spatially separated between different sites.Without spatial separation of training and validation data, high classification accuracies of coastal structures of 92.1% and 91.8% were achieved on coarse and fine thematic levels, respectively. When models were applied to spatially separated observations within sites classification accuracies dropped to 85.8% accuracy at the coarse thematic level, and 81.9% at the fine thematic level. When the models were applied to observations from other sites than those trained upon the ability to discriminate vegetation structures was low, with 69.0% and 54.2% accuracy at the coarse and fine thematic levels, respectively.Evaluating classification models with different degrees of spatial correlation between training and validation data was shown to give highly different prediction accuracies, thereby highlighting model transferability and application potential. Aerial image and DEM-based RF models had low transferability to new areas due to lack of representation of aerial image, landscape and vegetation variation in training data. They do, however, show promise at local scale for supporting conservation and management with vegetation mappings of high spatial and thematic detail based on low-cost image data.     

Small-scale surface mining of gold placers: Detection,mapping, and temporal analysis through the use of free satellite imagery

Informal small-scale mining is spread in many countries and provides livelihood to numerous families in rural areas yet often with devastating social and environmental impacts. The alluvial gold mining process in Colombia, also known as placer mining, involves excavations using heavy machinery and creates large footprints of bare soil and mining ponds. The very dynamic nature of this extractive activity and its spread in rural and remote areas make its mapping and monitoring very challenging. The use of freely available satellite data of the Copernicus programme provides great new possibilities to study these activities and provides stakeholders integrated data to better understand the spatial and temporal extent of the activities and mitigate affected areas. The objective of this work is to assess the potential of Sentinel-2 data to identify mining areas and to understand the dynamics in landcover change over a study area located at the border of the municipalities of El Bagre and Zaragoza in Bajo Cauca, Colombia. The study utilizes a classification approach followed by post-processing using field knowledge on a set of images from 2016 to 2019. Sequential pattern mining of classified images shows the likelihood of certain annual and seasonal changes in mining-impacted landcover and in the natural vegetation. The results show a slight reduction in the detected mining areas from 2016 to 2019. On the other hand, there are more mining activities in the dry season than in the wet season. Excavated areas of bare soil have a 50% chance to remain in excavation over the considered period or they transition to non-vegetated areas or mining ponds. Vegetation loss due to the extractive activities corresponds to about 35% while recovered vegetated areas are 7% of the total excavated areas in June 2019. An analysis of abandoned sites using NDVI shows that it takes a much longer period than the one considered in this paper for potential natural recovery of vegetation. Finally, the work was disseminated among stakeholders and the public on MapX (https://mapx.org), an online open platform for mapping and visualizing geospatial data on natural resources. It is a pilot study the will be the basis of the analysis of more regions in the department of Antioquia.     

Sensitivity of spectral reflectance values to different burn and vegetation ratios: A multi-scale approach applied in a fire affected area

The aim of our study was to explore the spectral properties of fire-scorched (burned) and non fire-scorched (vegetation) areas, as well as areas with different burn/vegetation ratios, using a multisource multiresolution satellite data set. A case study was undertaken following a very destructive wildfire that occurred in Parnitha, Greece, July 2007, for which we acquired satellite images from LANDSAT, ASTER, and IKONOS. Additionally, we created spatially degraded satellite data over a range of coarser resolutions using resampling techniques. The panchromatic (1 m) and multispectral component (4 m) of IKONOS were merged using the Gram-Schmidt spectral sharpening method. This very high-resolution imagery served as the basis to estimate the cover percentage of burned areas, bare land and vegetation at pixel level, by applying the maximum likelihood classification algorithm. Finally, multiple linear regression models were fit to estimate each land-cover fraction as a function of surface reflectance values of the original and the spatially degraded satellite images.The main findings of our research were: (a) the Near Infrared (NIR) and Short-wave Infrared (SWIR) are the most important channels to estimate the percentage of burned area, whereas the NIR and red channels are the most important to estimate the percentage of vegetation in fire-affected areas; (b) when the bi-spectral space consists only of NIR and SWIR, then the NIR ground reflectance value plays a more significant role in estimating the percent of burned areas, and the SWIR appears to be more important in estimating the percent of vegetation; and (c) semi-burned areas comprising 45–55% burned area and 45–55% vegetation are spectrally closer to burned areas in the NIR channel, whereas those areas are spectrally closer to vegetation in the SWIR channel. These findings, at least partially, are attributed to the fact that: (i) completely burned pixels present low variance in the NIR and high variance in the SWIR, whereas the opposite is observed in completely vegetated areas where higher variance is observed in the NIR and lower variance in the SWIR, and (ii) bare land modifies the spectral signal of burned areas more than the spectral signal of vegetated areas in the NIR, while the opposite is observed in SWIR region of the spectrum where the bare land modifies the spectral signal of vegetation more than the burned areas because the bare land and the vegetation are spectrally more similar in the NIR, and the bare land and burned areas are spectrally more similar in the SWIR.     

High altitude aircraft remote sensing during the 1988 Yellowstone national park wildfires

Abstract

The advancement of satellite remote sensing has offered greater potential for mapping volcanic deposits. Although the development of weather‐independent microwave remote sensing has made the frequent detection over large area detection of deposits using SAR intensity image is sometimes hindered by ambiguities and noise. The ambiguities occur in volcanic deposit areas covered by young vegetation and that give either high or low backscatter depending upon their orientation. For this reason coherent images were integrated with SAR intensity images to extract more reliable information about volcanic deposited area. Besides, the layover areas due to the viewing geometry of SAR make difficulties to map the volcanic deposits on every side of the mountain. To avoid the influence of layover effects fusion techniques of ascending and descending pass SAR intensity and coherent images were developed. Using the fused images with an optical image, a color composite was developed to identify the areas affected by an eruption. In this color composite, especially vegetation damages can be easily identified.     

基于OLI数据的云南禄劝县石漠化敏感性评价

石漠化敏感性指的是区域在自然状况下发生石漠化现象的可能性大小,开展石漠化敏感性评价对区域生态环境的建设和可持续发展具有重要意义。本文以OLI影像为数据源,选取植被覆盖率、裸岩率和坡度作为评价指标,以地理信息技术为支撑开展禄劝县石漠化敏感性评价。评价结果显示:禄劝县轻度敏感面积为2 091 km~2,占总面积的57.492%;中度敏感面积为1 470 km~2,占总面积的40.418%;重度敏感面积为75.46 km~2,占总面积的2.075%;极度敏感面积为0.533 km~2,占总面积的0.015%。从空间分布上看,轻度敏感区主要分布于中西部地区;中度敏感集中分布于北部及南部地区;重度敏感主要分布于北部金沙江流域、东南部普渡河流域和云龙水库内流河沿线区域;极度敏感区主要分布在普渡河下游地区。总体而言,禄劝县石漠化敏感性相对较高,在区域开发与保护过程中应引起高度重视。     

Semi-automatic delineation of badlands using contrast in vegetation activity: a case study in the lower Chambal valley,India

Population growth worldwide leads to an increasing pressure on the land. Recent studies reported that many areas covered by badlands are decreasing because parts of badlands are being levelled and converted into arable land. It is important to monitor these changes for environmental planning. This paper proposes a remote-sensing-based detection method which allows mapping of badland dynamics based on seasonal vegetation changes in the lower Chambal valley, India. Supervised classification was applied on three Landsat (Thematic Mapper) images, from 3 different seasons; January (winter), April (summer) and October (post-monsoon). Different band selection methods were applied to get the best classification. Validation was done by ground referencing and a GeoEye-1 satellite image. The image from January performed best with overall accuracy of 87% and 0.69 of kappa. This method opens the possibilities of using semi-automatic classification for the Chambal badlands which is so far mapped with manual interpretations only.     

Lithologic mapping of a forested montane terrain from Landsat 5 TM image

Thick forest cover and poor infrastructures are the major hindrances for detailed lithologic mapping in an inaccessible montane landscape. To overcome these limitations, we utilize a Landsat 5 TM image to map lithology using vegetation and drainage pattern as an indicator of underlying rock types in a heavily forested region of the Chittagong Hill Tracts area located in southeastern Bangladesh. We use supervised and unsupervised classifiers for a vegetation-based approach while on-screen digitization is used for drainage patterns-based mapping. Field observations were used for mapping lithology and evaluating accuracy. Overall, our results agree well with the current geologic map and improve it by providing a more spatially detailed distribution of the sandstone and shale. The performances of all approaches are good at the inner and outer flanks of anticlines located in the study area while the drainage pattern mapping performs best at the mid-flank area.     

城市植被制图中SPOT5影像融合方法研究

不同的融合方法用于不同应用目的融合效果不同,本文采用主成分分析、HIS变换以及基于小波变换的主成分分析和HIS变换四种融合方法对SPOT5全色波段和多光谱波段进行融合,并针对城市植被制图特点对融合结果进行质量评价。结果表明,基于小波变换的PCA和HIS变换融合法光谱保持能力最好,但是空间结构特征较差,不适于城市植被零星分布的特点。主成分分析既有较好的空间结构特征,细小地物纹理清晰,同时又具有较好的光谱保持能力,最适合于城市植被制图研究。     

An assessment of the impact of urbanization and land use changes in the fast-growing cities of Saudi Arabia

Understanding rates, patterns and types of land use and land cover (LULC) changes are essential for various decision-making processes. This study quantified LULC changes and the effect of urban expansion in three Saudi Arabian cities: Riyadh, Jeddah and Makkah using Landsat images of 1985, 2000 and 2014. Seasonal change of vegetation cover was conducted using normalised difference vegetation index, and object-based image analysis was used to classify the LULC changes. The overall accuracies of the classified maps ranged from 84 to 95%, which indicated sufficiently robust results. Urban area was the most changed land cover, and most of the converted land to urban was from bare soil. The seasonal analysis showed that the change of vegetation cover was not constant due to climatic conditions in these areas. The agricultural lands were significantly decreased between 1985 and 2014, and most of these lands were changed to bare soil due to dwindling groundwater resources.