Spectral mixture analysis to assess post-fire vegetation regeneration using Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery: Accounting for soil brightness variation

Post-fire vegetation cover is a crucial parameter in rangeland management. This study aims to assess the post-fire vegetation recovery 3 years after the large 2007 Peloponnese (Greece) wildfires. Post-fire recovery landscapes typically are mixed vegetation-substrate environments which makes spectral mixture analysis (SMA) a very effective tool to derive fractional vegetation cover maps. Using a combination of field and simulation techniques this study aimed to account for the impact of background brightness variability on SMA model performance. The field data consisted out of a spectral library of in situ measured reflectance signals of vegetation and substrate and 78 line transect plots. In addition, a Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) scene was employed in the study. A simple SMA, in which each constituting terrain feature is represented by its mean spectral signature, a multiple endmember SMA (MESMA) and a segmented SMA, which accounts for soil brightness variations by forcing the substrate endmember choice based on ancillary data (lithological map), were applied. In the study area two main spectrally different lithological units were present: relatively bright limestone and relatively dark flysch (sand-siltstone). Although the simple SMA model resulted in reasonable regression fits for the flysch and limestones subsets separately (coefficient of determination R² of respectively 0.67 and 0.72 between field and TM data), the performance of the regression model on the pooled dataset was considerably weaker (R² = 0.65). Moreover, the regression lines significantly diverged among the different subsets leading to systematic over-or underestimations of the vegetative fraction depending on the substrate type. MESMA did not solve the endmember variability issue. The MESMA model did not manage to select the proper substrate spectrum on a reliable basis due to the lack of shape differences between the flysch and limestone spectra,. The segmented SMA model which accounts for soil brightness variations minimized the variability problems. Compared to the simple SMA and MESMA models, the segmented SMA resulted in a higher overall correlation (R² = 0.70), its regression slope and intercept were more similar among the different substrate types and its resulting regression lines more closely resembled the expected one-one line. This paper demonstrates the improvement of a segmented approach in accounting for soil brightness variations in estimating vegetative cover using SMA. However, further research is required to evaluate the model's performance for other soil types, with other image data and at different post-fire timings.     

Mapping Wildfire Burn Severity in Southern California Forests and Shrublands Using Enhanced Thematic Mapper Imagery

Abstract

Wildfire is a major disturbance agent in Mediterranean Type Ecosystems (MTEs). Providing reliable, quantitative information on the area of burns and the level of damage caused is therefore important both for guiding resource management and global change monitoring. Previous studies have successfully mapped burn severity using remote sensing, but reliable accuracy has yet to be gained using standard methods over different vegetation types. The objective of this research was to classify burn severity across several vegetation types using Landsat ETM imagery in two areas affected by wildfire in southern California in June 1999. Spectral mixture analysis (SMA) using four reference endmembers (vegetation, soil, shade, non‐photosynthetic vegetation) and a single (charcoal‐ash) image endmember were used to enhance imagery prior to burn severity classification using decision trees. SMA provided a robust technique for enhancing fire‐affected areas due to its ability to extract sub‐pixel information and minimize the effects of topography on single date satellite data. Overall kappa classification accuracy results were high (0.71 and 0.85, respectively) for the burned areas, using five canopy consumption classes. Individual severity class accuracies ranged from 0.5 to 0.94.     

Advanced image processing methods as a tool to map and quantify different types of biological soil crust

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) modify numerous soil surface properties and affect many key ecosystem processes. As BSCs are considered one of the most important components of semiarid ecosystems, accurate characterisation of their spatial distribution is increasingly in demand. This paper describes a novel methodology for identifying the areas dominated by different types of BSCs and quantifying their relative cover at subpixel scale in a semiarid ecosystem of SE Spain. The approach consists of two consecutive steps: (i) First, Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification to identify the main ground units, dominated by homogenous surface cover (bare soil, cyanobacteria BSC, lichen BSC, green and dry vegetation), which are of strong ecological relevance. (ii) Spectral mixture analysis (SMA) of the ground units to quantify the proportion of each type of surface cover within each pixel, to correctly characterize the complex spatial heterogeneity inherent to semiarid ecosystems. SVM classification showed very good results with a Kappa coefficient of 0.93%, discriminating among areas dominated by bare soil, cyanobacteria BSC, lichen BSC, green and dry vegetation. Subpixel relative abundance images achieved relatively high accuracy for both types of BSCs (about 80%), whereas general overestimation of vegetation was observed. Our results open the possibility of introducing the effect of presence and of relative cover of BSCs in spatially distributed hydrological and ecological models, and assessment and monitoring aimed at reducing degradation in these areas.     

Developing a spectral library of mangrove species of Indian east coast using field spectroscopy

Development of a spectral library is a prerequisite for the higher order classification of satellite data and hyperspectral image analysis to map any ecosystem with rich diversity. In this study, sampling methodology, collection of field and laboratory spectral signatures and post-processing methodologies were investigated for developing an exclusive spectral library of mangrove species using hyperspectral spectroscopic techniques. Canopy level field spectra and leaf level laboratory spectra were collected for 34 species (25 true and 9 associated mangroves) from two different mangrove ecosystems of the Indian east coast. Post-processing steps such as removal of water vapour absorption bands, correction of drifts which occur due to the thermal properties of the instrument during data collection and smoothing of spectra for its further utilisation were applied on collected spectra. The processed spectra were then compiled as spectral library.     

石漠化遥感评价因子提取研究

通过地面光谱试验,验证了植被指数和线性光谱分解方法提取石漠化遥感评价因子的有效性,并基于光谱吸收特征发展了石漠化综合指数(karst rocky desertification synthesis indices,KRDSI).结果表明,植被指数能够比较有效地提取绿色植被盖度,土壤背景对基于植被指数的喀斯特地区绿色植被...     

端元可变非线性混合像元分解模型

遥感影像中混合像元普遍存在。端元固定的情况下对混合像元进行分解,很难高精度地识别影像地物。本文基于支持向量机,提出了端元可变的非线性混合像元分解模型。首先,通过构建多个支持向量机获取每个像元的优化端元集,在优化端元集的基础上运用支持向量机与两两配对方法相结合的算法获取像元组分。试验结果表明,本文提出的方法效果优于传统的多端元光谱分解法。     

Monitoring Detailed Land‐Cover Changes in Shrubland Habitat Reserves Using Multi‐temporal IKONOS Data

Abstract

The objective of this study was to explore the utility of multi‐temporal, multi‐spectral image data acquired by the IKONOS satellite system for monitoring detailed land cover changes within shrubland habitat reserves. Sub‐pixel accuracy in date‐to‐date registration was achieved, in spite of the irregular relief of the study area and the high spatial resolution of the imagery. Change vector classification enabled features ranging in size from tens of square meters to several hectares to be detected and six general land cover change classes to be identified. Interpretation of the change vector classification product in conjunction with visual inspection of the multi‐temporal imagery enabled identification of specific change types such as: vegetation disturbance and associated increase in soil exposure, shrub removal, urban edge vegetation clearing and fire maintenance, increase in vegetation cover, spread of invasive plant species, fire scars and subsequent recovery, erosional scouring, trail and road development, and expansion of bicycle disturbances.     

Mapping the Land Cover of Mexico Using AVHRR Time‐Series Data Sets

Abstract

An important methodological and analytical requirement for analyzing spatial relationships between regional habitats and species distributions in Mexico is the development of standard methods for mapping the country's land cover/land use formations. This necessarily involves the use of global data such as that produced by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). We created a nine‐band time‐series composite image from AVHRR Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) bi‐weekly data. Each band represented the maximum NDVI for a particular month of either 1992 or 1993. We carried out a supervised classification approach, using the latest comprehensive land cover/vegetation map created by the Mexican National Institute of Geography (INEGI) as reference data. Training areas for 26 land cover/vegetation types were selected and digitized on the computer's screen by overlaying the INEGI vector coverage on the NDVI image. To obtain specific spectral responses for each vegetation type, as determined by its characteristic phenology and geographic location, the statistics of the spectral signatures were subjected to a cluster analysis. A total of 104 classes distributed among the 26 land cover types were used to perform the classification. Elevation data were used to direct classification output for pine‐oak and coastal vegetation types. The overall correspondence value of the classification proposed in this paper was 54%; however, for main vegetation formations correspondence values were higher (60‐80%). In order to obtain refinements in the proposed classification we recommend further analysis of the signature statistics and adding topographic data into the classification algorithm.     

Spectra and vegetation index variations in moss soil crust in different seasons,and in wet and dry conditions

Similar to vascular plants, non-vascular plant mosses have different periods of seasonal growth. There has been little research on the spectral variations of moss soil crust (MSC) over different growth periods. Few studies have paid attention to the difference in spectral characteristics between wet MSC that is photosynthesizing and dry MSC in suspended metabolism. The dissimilarity of MSC spectra in wet and dry conditions during different seasons needs further investigation. In this study, the spectral reflectance of wet MSC, dry MSC and the dominant vascular plant (Artemisia) were characterized in situ during the summer (July) and autumn (September). The variations in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), biological soil crust index (BSCI) and CI (crust index) in different seasons and under different soil moisture conditions were also analyzed. It was found that (1) the spectral characteristics of both wet and dry MSCs varied seasonally; (2) the spectral features of wet MSC appear similar to those of the vascular plant, Artemisia, whether in summer or autumn; (3) both in summer and in autumn, much higher NDVI values were acquired for wet than for dry MSC (0.6 ∼ 0.7 vs. 0.3 ∼ 0.4 units), which may lead to misinterpretation of vegetation dynamics in the presence of MSC and with the variations in rainfall occurring in arid and semi-arid zones; and (4) the BSCI and CI values of wet MSC were close to that of Artemisia in both summer and autumn, indicating that BSCI and CI could barely differentiate between the wet MSC and Artemisia.     

Multiple spectral similarity metrics for surface materials identification using hyperspectral data

Modern hyperspectral imaging and non-imaging spectroradiometer has the capability to acquire high-resolution spectral reflectance data required for surface materials identification and mapping. Spectral similarity metrics, due to their mathematical simplicity and insensitiveness to the number of reference labelled spectra, have been increasingly used for material mapping by labelling reflectance spectra in hyperspectral data labelling. For a particular hyperspectral data set, the accuracy of spectral labelling depends considerably upon the degree of unambiguous spectral matching achieved by the spectral similarity metric used. In this work, we propose a new methodology for quantifying spectral similarity for hyperspectral data labelling for surface materials identification. Developed adopting the multiple classifier system architecture, the proposed methodology unifies into a single framework the differential performances of eight different spectral similarity metrics for the quantification of spectral matching for surface materials. The proposed methodology has been implemented on two types of hyperspectral data viz. image (airborne hyperspectral images) and non-image (library spectra) for numerous surface materials identification. Further, the performance of the proposed methodology has been compared with the support vector machines (SVM) approach, and with all the base spectral similarity metrics. The results indicate that, for the hyperspectral images, the performance of the proposed methodology is comparable with that of the SVM. For the library spectra, the proposed methodology shows a consistently higher (increase of about 30% when compared to SVM) classification accuracy. The proposed methodology has the potential to serve as a general library search method for materials identification using hyperspectral data.     

基于植物波谱特征的城市环境效应研究

在苏州城市环境地球化学特征研究基础上,利用苋菜、四季豆及油菜等3种不同植物的光谱特征,研究苏州城市环境效应。研究结果显示,在苏州土壤环境污染区域,植物光谱呈现可见光绿光波段反射率升高、红谷变浅、红边蓝移等变化特征;苋菜在3种植物中可成为植物光谱效应用于城市环境地球化学质量研究的理想指示植物。     

高光谱数据截断加权核范数稀疏解混

受仪器和观测条件限制,高光谱数据易受噪声污染,给数据解译带来挑战。针对传统稀疏解混模型抗噪性能差的问题,本文提出一种截断加权核范数稀疏解混方法,利用高光谱图像像元之间的相关性减轻噪声对丰度估计的干扰。该方法借助低秩表示在挖掘数据内在低维结构方面的优势,在稀疏解混中加入基于截断加权核范数的低秩约束,并结合加权稀疏技术,在稀疏正则项中引入空间邻域权重。截断加权核范数对丰度矩阵的奇异值向量分段处理,可以更好地实现丰度矩阵的低秩逼近,使丰度图像保持空间一致性并保留更多细节信息,空间加权策略则增强了丰度图像的空间连续性。模拟高光谱数据、Cuprite矿区真实数据和红树林高光谱数据实验表明,与其他先进的稀疏解混方法相比,所提方法具有更好的抗噪性,能够提高解混精度。     

The derivation of an Arctic sea ice normal through temporal mixture analysis of satellite imagery

The use of temporal mixture analysis (TMA) for creating a long-term baseline, or environmental “normal” is described. TMA is a promising analysis method derived from the hyperspectral image processing technique of spectral mixture analysis (SMA). TMA is algebraically identical to SMA, except that it is applied to temporal spectra rather than to electromagnetic spectra. TMA has particular potential to extract climate signals from long image sequences.     

Estimating soil salinity in Pingluo County of China using QuickBird data and soil reflectance spectra

Soil salinization is a worldwide environmental problem with severe economic and social consequences. In this paper, estimating the soil salinity of Pingluo County, China by a partial least squares regression (PLSR) predictive model was carried out using QuickBird data and soil reflectance spectra. At first, a relationship between the sensitive bands of soil salinity acquired from measured reflectance spectra and the spectral coverage of seven commonly used optical sensors was analyzed. Secondly, the potentiality of QuickBird data in estimating soil salinity by analyzing the correlations between the measured reflectance spectra and reflectance spectra derived from QuickBird data and analyzing the contributions of each band of QuickBird data to soil salinity estimation Finally, a PLSR predictive model of soil salinity was developed using reflectance spectra from QuickBird data and eight spectral indices derived from QuickBird data. The results indicated that the sensitive bands covered several bands of each optical sensor and these sensors can be used for soil salinity estimation. The result of estimation model showed that an accurate prediction of soil salinity can be made based on the PLSR method (R² = 0.992, RMSE = 0.195). The PLSR model's performance was better than that of the stepwise multiple regression (SMR) method. The results also indicated that using spectral indices such as intensity within spectral bands (Int1, Int2), soil salinity indices (SI1, SI2, SI3), the brightness index (BI), the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the ratio vegetation index (RVI) as independent model variables can help to increase the accuracy of soil salinity mapping. The NDVI and RVI can help to reduce the influences of vegetation cover and soil moisture on prediction accuracy. The method developed in this paper can be applied in other arid and semi-arid areas, such as western China.     

基于单次散射反照率的矿物高光谱稀疏解混

矿物的混合多属于致密型混合,在可见光—短波红外波段的混合呈现非线性特征,同时由于矿物混合的复杂性以及图像中完全纯净的像元可能不存在等原因,使得从图像上提取端元具有较大不确定性。本文根据矿物单次散射反照率的线性可加性,提出一种基于矿物单次散射反照率光谱库的稀疏解混算法,利用Hapke模型将矿物反射率转换成矿物单次散射反照率,构建矿物单次散射反照率光谱库,以半监督的方式通过稀疏回归的方法从光谱库中寻找最优端元组合,并估算混合像元中各端元的丰度。利用RELAB矿物混合光谱库进行算法验证,结果表明,丰度反演的平均绝对误差为3.12%;将本文方法应用于美国内华达州铜矿区的AVIRIS高光谱图像数据,所得丰度图与美国地质勘探局USGS矿物识别结果具有较好的一致性。本文算法不需要从图像提取端元,并且考虑到了矿物的非线性混合特征,能够得到较高的反演精度,在近地行星和卫星表面岩矿成分的探测等领域具有较好的应用前景。     

Mapping saltcedar (Tamarix ramosissima) and other riparian and agricultural vegetation in the Lower Colorado River region using multi-spectral Landsat TM imagery

Saltcedar (Tamarix ramosissima), an invasive shrub species, has successfully invaded large extents of several riparian zones in the western United States and northern Mexico. Mapping the distribution and abundance of saltcedar over these large areas through a multi-seasonal, cost-effective monitoring approach using satellite remote sensing is very essential. Ground truth surveys were conducted at 79 locations where the spectral reflectance measurements of vegetation, type of plant species, plant heights, soil samples and GPS co-ordinates were recorded. All the sampling was designed to coincide with the satellite overpass period. The Landsat TM colour-composite spectral ratio image (normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI), R _1,5 and R _1,7 as green, blue and red) can clearly identify and map the areas infested with saltcedar. The Landsat image analysis shows that these spectral ratios can be applied to multiple satellite overpasses for monitoring the seasonal progression of the saltcedar growth over time.     

基于权重光谱解混方法的高光谱矿物填图

提出了一种基于Fisher权重分析的迭代光谱解混方法(WLSMA),该方法首先对高光谱图像进行区域分割,在分割后的各子块中自动提取端元;再次对提取的端元进行聚类,从光谱的整体特征上将不同类别的端元区分开,针对聚类结果中的每一类别各选取几个具有代表性的端元光谱,并对最优光谱进行窗口卷积处理,结合In_CoB指标构建端元光谱样本库;最后对图像进行迭代光谱解混处理,在丰度反演过程中引入基于Fisher准则的补偿权值矩阵以提高反演精度。AVIRIS高光谱数据实验证明,WLSMA不需要大量先验信息,利用Fisher准则和迭代光谱分析理论增强了相似性矿物的可分性,为加强对矿区地表岩性的认识和模拟提供了更大的灵活性和可能性,对高光谱矿物填图有一定的借鉴意义。     

Spectral identification of materials by reflectance spectral library search

Spectral library search is emerging as a viable approach for material identification and mapping by reusing spectral knowledge gained from hyperspectral remote sensing across space and time. The potential of retrieving meaningful spectral material identifications in the presence of reflectance of spectra of various material types and with various similarity metrics has been assessed in this study. Test reflectance spectra of various vegetation, minerals, soils and urban material types are identified by searching through the composite reflectance spectral library obtained by combining various institutional reflectance spectral libraries. The accuracy of material identifications under various conditions: (i) in the presence of identical, similar and dissimilar spectra; (ii) in the presence of only identical and dissimilar spectra; and (iii) in the presence of only dissimilar spectra has been assessed with several similarity metrics. Results indicate the possibility of obtaining 100% accurate material identifications by library search if the spectral library contains identical spectra. However, the presence of a large number of similar spectra, despite the presence of identical spectra, is found to increase false positives, thereby reducing the accuracy of retrievals to 82% at best. Further, the accuracy of material identifications in the presence of similar spectra is similarity metric-dependent and varied from about 52% (obtained from Binary Encoding) to 82% (obtained from Normalized Spectral Similarity Score). Overall, results support the possibility of using independent reflectance spectral libraries for material identification while calling for robust spectral similarity metrics.