Quantifying annual land-cover change and vegetation greenness variation in a coastal ecosystem using dense time-series Landsat data

Land-cover change may affect water and carbon cycles when transitioning from one land-cover category to another (land-cover conversion, LCC) or when the characteristics of the land-cover type are altered without changing its overall category (land-cover modification, LCM). Given the increasing availability of time-series remotely sensed data for earth monitoring, there has been increased recognition of the importance of accounting for both LCC and LCM to study annual land-cover changes. In this study, we integrated 1,513 time-series Landsat images and a change-updating method to identify annual LCC and LCM during 1986–2015 in the coastal area of Zhejiang Province, China. The purpose was to quantify their contributions to land-cover changes and impacts on the amount of vegetation. The results show that LCC and LCM can be successfully distinguished with an overall accuracy of 90.0%. LCM accounted for 22% and 40.5% of the detected land-cover changes in reclaimed and inland areas, respectively, during 1986–2015. In the reclaimed area, LCC occurred mostly in muddy tidal flats, construction land, aquaculture ponds, and freshwater herbaceous land, whereas LCM occurred mostly in freshwater herbaceous land, Spartina alterniflora, and muddy tidal flats. In the inland area, both LCC and LCM were concentrated in forest and dryland. Overall, LCC had a mean magnitude of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) change similar to that of LCM. However, LCC had a positive effect and LCM had a negative effect on NDVI change in the reclaimed area. Both LCC and LCM in the inland area had negative impacts on vegetation greenness, but LCC resulted in larger NDVI change magnitude. Impacts of LCC and LCM on vegetation greenness were quantified for each land-cover type. This study provided a methodological framework to take both LCC and LCM into account when analyzing land-cover changes and quantified their effects on coastal ecosystem vegetation.     

基于多源遥感数据的生态系统服务功能时空演变趋势分析

研究区域生态系统服务功能的时空演变趋势,有助于揭示人类活动或气候变化对该区域生态环境的影响,从而为生态系统服务功能的保育和管理提供依据。本文以淮安市为研究区,通过在时间维上拓展生态系统服务功能重要性评估的遥感指数法,计算了2000—2018每年的水源涵养、水土保持和生物多样性维护功能,并利用Mann-Kendall非参数检验和Hurst趋势性分析方法分析了时空演变趋势,结合中高分辨率遥感数据解译探索了变化原因。研究结果表明：①淮安市大部分区域生态系统服务功能呈显著增加趋势,其中水源涵养和生物多样性的增长趋势持续性较弱,而水土保持增长趋势持续性较强;②生态系统服务功能增加区域主要发生在耕地、林地等植被覆盖区域,减少区域主要发生在建筑用地等非生态用地区域;③淮安市耕地和林地等植被覆盖区域占比基本不变,甚至随着建筑用地占比的增加而稍有减少,生态系统服务功能增加的主要原因可能在于植被活力的增强,具体表现为植被绿度和植被生产力的增加。     

Abrupt spatiotemporal land and water changes and their potential drivers in Poyang Lake, 2000–2012

Driven by various natural and anthropogenic factors, Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, has experienced significant land use/cover changes in the past few decades. The aim of this study is to investigate the spatial–temporal patterns of abrupt changes and detect their potential drivers in Poyang Lake, using time-series Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 16-day maximum value composite vegetation indices between 2000 and 2012. The breaks for additive seasonal and trend (BFAST) method was applied to the smoothed time-series normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), to detect the timing and magnitude of abrupt changes in the trend component. Large part of Poyang Lake (98.9% for trend component) has experienced abrupt changes in the past 13 years, and the change patterns, including the distributions in timing and magnitudes of major abrupt trend changes between water bodies and land areas were clearly differentiated. Most water bodies had abrupt increasing NDVI changes between 2010 and 2011, caused by the sequential severe flooding and drought in the two years. In contrast, large parts of the surrounding land areas had abrupt decreasing NDVI changes. Large decreasing changes occurred around 2003 at the city of Nanchang, which were driven by urbanization. These results revealed spatial–temporal land cover changing patterns and potential drivers in the wetland ecosystem of Poyang Lake.     

Mapping and characterization of inland wetlands using remote sensing and GIS

Sustainable management of wetland ecosystem is necessary as it serves the important functions such as food storage, water quality maintenance and providing habitat for different species of wildlife. Hence, an inventory of wetlands in any given area is a pre-requisite for their conservation and management. A study has been carried out to delineate the wetlands of east Champaran district of Bihar, India, using IRS ID LISS III data. The data for the pre and post monsoon seasons have been analysed and the wetlands have been qualitatively characterized based on the turbidity and aquatic vegetation status. The extent of water logging problem in the study area was inferred from the seasonal variation of waterspread during both the seasons. The three categories of wetlands (ponds/lakes, water logged areas and oxbow lakes) have been identified. From the analysis, it has been observed that the inland wetlands constitute 2.7% of the study area, of which 1.8% is subjected to water logging. Thus, this study highlights the usefulness of remotely sensed data for wetland mapping, seasonal monitoring and characterization.     

GEE平台和CART方法的北京市土地解译

针对传统遥感影像解译效率较低、人力物力需求量大等问题,该文以谷歌地球引擎为依托平台,利用Landsat5TM影像,采用分类回归树算法对2010年北京市土地覆被/土地利用类型开展了解译研究,并从类型构成、类型混淆和空间一致性3个方面将解译所得LUC-2010产品与Globeland30-2010产品进行空间一致性分析。研究表明,谷歌地球引擎(GEE)平台通过编程运算,数据处理速度极快,大幅提高工作效率。解译产品与训练样本交叉验证的学习精度为94.2%。两套产品总体对比发现,林地、水体和耕地的空间一致性比率分别为84.28%、74.75%和73.56%;林地、水体和人工地表的地类纯净度分别为87.23%、77.04%和72.97%;总体分布空间一致性为74.0%。两套产品局部对比发现,LUC-2010产品分类结果更准确和精细,精度更高。     

Improved coastal wetland mapping using very-high 2-meter spatial resolution imagery

Accurate wetland maps are a fundamental requirement for land use management and for wetland restoration planning. Several wetland map products are available today; most of them based on remote sensing images, but their different data sources and mapping methods lead to substantially different estimations of wetland location and extent. We used two very high-resolution (2 m) WorldView-2 satellite images and one (30 m) Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) image to assess wetland coverage in two coastal areas of Tampa Bay (Florida): Fort De Soto State Park and Weedon Island Preserve. An initial unsupervised classification derived from WorldView-2 was more accurate at identifying wetlands based on ground truth data collected in the field than the classification derived from Landsat 8 OLI (82% vs. 46% accuracy). The WorldView-2 data was then used to define the parameters of a simple and efficient decision tree with four nodes for a more exacting classification. The criteria for the decision tree were derived by extracting radiance spectra at 1500 separate pixels from the WorldView-2 data within field-validated regions. Results for both study areas showed high accuracy in both wetland (82% at Fort De Soto State Park, and 94% at Weedon Island Preserve) and non-wetland vegetation classes (90% and 83%, respectively). Historical, published land-use maps overestimate wetland surface cover by factors of 2–10 in the study areas. The proposed methods improve speed and efficiency of wetland map production, allow semi-annual monitoring through repeat satellite passes, and improve the accuracy and precision with which wetlands are identified.     

Spatial analysis of human-induced vegetation productivity decline over eastern Africa using a decade (2001–2011) of medium resolution MODIS time-series data

Climate variation and land transformations related to exploitative land uses are among the main drivers of vegetation productivity decline and ongoing land degradation in East Africa. We combined analysis of vegetation trends and cumulative rain use efficiency differences (CRD), calculated from 250-m MODIS NDVI time-series data, to map vegetation productivity loss over eastern Africa between 2001 and 2011. The CRD index values were furthermore used to discern areas of particular severe vegetation productivity loss over the observation period. Monthly 25-km Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data metrics were used to mask areas of rainfall declines not related to human-induced land productivity loss. To provide insights on the productivity decline, we linked the MODIS-based vegetation productivity map to land transformation processes using very high resolution (VHR) imagery in Google Earth (GE) and a Landsat-based land-cover change map. In total, 3.8 million ha experienced significant vegetation loss over the monitoring period. An overall agreement of 68% was found between the rainfall-corrected MODIS productivity decline map and all reference pixels discernable from GE and the Landsat map. The CRD index showed a good potential to discern areas with ‘severe’ vegetation productivity losses under high land-use intensities.     

Updating land cover automatically based on change detection using satellite images: case study of national forests in Southern California

Observing dynamic change patterns and higher-order complexities from remotely sensed images is warranted, but the main challenges include image inconsistency, plant phenological differences, weather variations, and difficulties of incorporating natural conditions into automatic image processing. In this study, we proposed a new algorithm and demonstrated it by producing 2002–2008 and 2010 land-cover maps in heterogeneous Southern California based on an existing 2009 land-cover map. The new algorithm improves the baseline land-cover map quality by discarding potential bad land-cover pixels and dividing each land-cover type into several subclasses. Time series Landsat images were used to detect changed and unchanged areas between baseline year and target year t. Subsequently, for each individual year t, each pixel that was identified as unchanged inherited the baseline classification. Otherwise, each pixel in the changed areas was classified by a similar surrogate majority classifier. The demonstration results in Southern California showed that the land-cover temporal pattern captured the observed successional stages of the ecosystem very well. The accuracy assessment had an overall classification accuracies ranging from 81% to 86% and overall kappa coefficients ranging from 0.79 to 0.83.     

Land-use and vegetation-cover mapping of an indigenous land area in the state of Mato Grosso (Brazil) based on spectral linear mixing model,segmentation and region classification

A spectral linear-mixing model using Landsat ETM+ imagery was undertaken to estimate fraction images of green vegetation, soil and shade in an indigenous land area in the state of Mato Grosso in the central-western region of Brazil. The fraction images were used to classify different types of land use and vegetation cover. The fraction images were classified by the following two methods: (a) application of a segmentation based on the region-growing technique; and (b) grouping of the regions segmented using the per-region unsupervised classifier named ISOSEG. Adopting a 75% threshold, ISOSEG generated 44 clusters that were grouped into eight land-use and vegetation-cover classes. The mapping achieved an average accuracy of 83%, showing that the methodology is efficient in mapping areas of great land-use and vegetation-cover diversity, such as that found in the Brazilian cerrado (savanna).     

Integrated resource study for conservation and management of Ropar wetland ecosystem, Punjab

Integrated resource study in Ropar wetland ecosystem was undertaken to analyse physiography, drainage, landuse and vegetation status. Various thematic maps have been prepared using black and white aerial photographs on 1:20,000 scale and IRS 1A LISS-II (FCC) on 1:50,000 scale. The Ropar wetland ecosystem is comprised of six major landforms i.e. Siwalik hills, Valley, Piedmont plain, Alluvial plain, River terraces and River courses. The study area show high drainage density with sub dendritic and sub parallel drainage. The area has poor vegetative cover which results in extensive erosion and sedimentation of Ropar lake. The water spread and. qualitative turbidity level in the notified wetland area was also monitored. Anthropogenic pressure, industrial pollution, sedimentation, eutrophication, illegal fishing and flooding have been identified as major threats to the wetland. Keeping in view the threats to Ropar wetland, the conservation measures have been suggested.     

Integration of full-waveform LiDAR and hyperspectral data to enhance tea and areca classification

Hyperspectral image and full-waveform light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data provide useful spectral and geometric information for classifying land cover. Hyperspectral images contain a large number of bands, thus providing land-cover discrimination. Waveform LiDAR systems record the entire time-varying intensity of a return signal and supply detailed information on geometric distribution of land cover. This study developed an efficient multi-sensor data fusion approach that integrates hyperspectral data and full-waveform LiDAR information on the basis of minimum noise fraction and principal component analysis. Then, support vector machine was used to classify land cover in mountainous areas. Results showed that using multi-sensor fused data achieved better accuracy than using a hyperspectral image alone, with overall accuracy increasing from 83% to 91% using population error matrices, for the test site. The classification accuracies of forest and tea farms exhibited significant improvement when fused data were used. For example, classification results were more complete and compact in tea farms based on fused data. Fused data considered spectral and geometric land-cover information, and increased the discriminability of vegetation classes that provided similar spectral signatures.     

Sentinel-2影像多特征优选的黄河三角洲湿地信息提取

以北方典型河口湿地—黄河三角洲湿地为研究区,采用在特征选择和分类提取等方面具有明显优势的随机森林算法,对研究区内的湿地信息进行提取。首先基于多时相、光谱信息丰富的Sentinel-2数据生成4类不同的特征变量,包括光谱特征、植被指数和水体指数、红边指数、纹理特征;再根据以上特征构建6种不同的提取方案,对黄河三角洲湿地信息进行提取并验证不同方案的提取精度,旨在选择最佳方案改善湿地信息提取的效果。结果表明:(1)有效地使用多种特征变量是提高湿地信息提取的关键,就不同特征对湿地信息提取的贡献率而言,红边指数植被指数和水体指数光谱特征纹理特征;(2)基于随机森林算法优选的特征变量提取效果最佳,总体精度高达90.93%,Kappa系数为0.90,表明随机森林算法可以有效地进行特征选择,在特征变量数据挖掘的同时,仍能保证湿地信息提取的精度,提高运行效率。本研究为湿地信息提取在数据源选择、特征选择和方法选择方面提供了一种新思路、方法和技术手段。     

Agricultural cropland mapping using black-and-white aerial photography,Object-Based Image Analysis and Random Forests

Land-use and land-cover (LULC) conversions have an important impact on land degradation, erosion and water availability. Information on historical land cover (change) is crucial for studying and modelling land- and ecosystem degradation. During the past decades major LULC conversions occurred in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America as a consequence of a growing population and economy. Most distinct is the conversion of natural vegetation into cropland. Historical LULC information can be derived from satellite imagery, but these only date back until approximately 1972. Before the emergence of satellite imagery, landscapes were monitored by black-and-white (B&W) aerial photography. This photography is often visually interpreted, which is a very time-consuming approach. This study presents an innovative, semi-automated method to map cropland acreage from B&W photography. Cropland acreage was mapped on two study sites in Ethiopia and in The Netherlands. For this purpose we used Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) and a Random Forest classification on a set of variables comprising texture, shape, slope, neighbour and spectral information. Overall mapping accuracies attained are 90% and 96% for the two study areas respectively. This mapping method increases the timeline at which historical cropland expansion can be mapped purely from brightness information in B&W photography up to the 1930s, which is beneficial for regions where historical land-use statistics are mostly absent.     

Loktak notified Wetland ecosystem and its catchment

Conservation of wetland is considered paramount in view of its ecological significance. The availability of reliable and up-to-date data on seasonal water spread, tropic state of wetland and bio-physical parameters besides the landuse/cover of the catchment area is a prerequisite for ‘wise use’ of any wetland ecosystem. The present study is carried out to identify the above parameters of Loktak notified wetland through visual interpretation of 1RS IA/IB LISS II FCC of 1990 and 1994/95. It indicates that the water spread of the lake is showing a declining trend and an increasing trend for aquatic vegetation. In 1990 post-monsoon data water spread was 15441 ha which become 11166 ha in October 1994. The extent of water spread further decreases by pre-monsoon season and was found to be 7875 ha in the IRS LISS II data of March 1995. Like-wise area under aquatic vegetation and associated marshy/ swamps was 10499 ha in October 1990 and 13506 ha in October 1994. Catchment of Loktak lake (104872 ha) is highly degraded and forest covers only 7205 ha area. Agriculture is the main land use (35576 ha) in the catchment and substantial area is also under land with or without scrub. Thus, there is a need to rehabilitate the catchment by way of planting trees for reducing silt load in the Loktak lake and ensuring its ‘wise use’.     

Geospatial analysis of land-use change processes in a densely populated coastal city: the case of Port Harcourt,south-east Nigeria

This study examines the pattern and processes of land-use change in a densely populated coastal city in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria for 27?years using remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems. The results indicate that between 1986 and 2013, settlement/bare surface, mangrove forest/wetland and water body increased at 0.84% per year, 0.05% per year and 0.10% per year, respectively, while arable land/secondary vegetation and natural forest loss at 0.47% per year and 0.52% per year, respectively. This implies that intensity of change varies temporally. The implications of these changes include loss of valuable environmental goods and services, alteration of the food chain and increased impacts of climate change–related disasters. It is recommended that steps be taken to slow down the rate of land-use change in the study area to reduce its impact on the environment and social well-being.     

联合GEE与多源遥感数据的黑龙江流域沼泽湿地信息提取

湿地是地球上最重要的生态系统之一,在维持全球生态环境安全等方面发挥着举足轻重的作用.由于湿地独特的水文特征,传统的湿地监测需要耗费大量的人力和财力,对于大尺度的湿地信息提取更是困难重重.随着大数据和云计算的兴起,为大尺度和长时间序列的空间数据处理提供了契机.本文基于Google Earth Engine(GEE)云平台...     

Mapping spatio-temporal flood inundation dynamics at large river basin scale using time-series flow data and MODIS imagery

Flood inundation is crucial to the survival and prosperity of flora and fauna communities in floodplain and wetland ecosystems. This study tried to map flood inundation characteristics in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, utilizing hydrological and remotely sensed data. It integrated river flow time series and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images to map inundation dynamics over the study area on both temporal and spatial dimensions. Flow data were analyzed to derive flow peaks and Annual Exceedance Probabilities (AEPs) using the annual flood series method. The peaks were linked with MODIS images for inundation detection. Ten annual maximum inundation maps were generated for water years 2001–2010, which were then overlaid to derive an inundation frequency map. AEPs were also combined with the annual maximum inundation maps to derive an inundation probability map. The resultant maps revealed spatial and temporal patterns of flood inundation in the basin, which will benefit ecological and environmental studies when considering response of floodplain and wetland ecosystems to flood inundation.     

Monitoring land-use change by combining participatory land-use maps with standard remote sensing techniques: Showcase from a remote forest catchment on Mindanao,Philippines

This paper combines participatory activities (PA) with remote sensing analysis into an integrated methodology to describe and explain land-cover changes. A remote watershed on Mindanao (Philippines) is used to showcase the approach, which hypothesizes that the accuracy of expert knowledge gained from remote sensing techniques can be further enhanced by inputs from vernacular knowledge when attempting to understand complex land mosaics and past land-use changes. Six participatory sessions based on focus-group discussions were conducted. These were enhanced by community-based land-use mapping, resulting in a final total of 21 participatory land-use maps (PLUMs) co-produced by a sample of stakeholders with different sociocultural and ecological perspectives. In parallel, seven satellite images (Landsat MSS, Landsat TM, Landsat ETM+, and SPOT4) were classified following standard techniques and provided snapshots for the years 1976, 1996, and 2010. Local knowledge and collective memory contributed to define and qualify relevant land-use classes. This also provided information about what had caused the land-use changes in the past. Results show that combining PA with remote-sensing analysis provides a unique understanding of land-cover change because the two methods complement and validate one another. Substantive qualitative information regarding the chronology of land-cover change was obtained in a short amount of time across an area poorly covered by scientific literature. The remote sensing techniques contributed to test and to quantify verbal reports of land-use and land-cover change by stakeholders. We conclude that the method is particularly relevant to data-poor areas or conflict zones where rapid reconnaissance work is the only available option. It provides a preliminary but accurate baseline for capturing land changes and for reporting their causes and consequences. A discussion of the main challenges encountered (i.e. how to combine different systems of knowledge), and options for further methodological improvements, are also provided.     

基于GEE的鄱阳湖湿地植被长期变化特征及其对水文情势的响应北大核心CSCD

针对鄱阳湖湿地植被长期变化的科学问题,本文基于谷歌地球引擎(GEE)遥感大数据平台和CART分类回归树算法提取鄱阳湖2000—2017年涨水期、丰水期、退水期和枯水期的年时序植被分布范围,阐明其时空变化特征;在此基础上,结合水位数据分析湿地植被与水文情势变化之间的响应关系。结果表明,(1)2000—2017年,枯水期、涨水期、丰水期和退水期鄱阳湖湿地植被平均面积分别为846.35、679.03、172.35、508.63 km^(2)。(2)2000—2017年,不同水位期鄱阳湖湿地植被总面积均呈增加趋势,并有向湖心演变的趋势。(3)鄱阳湖植被面积受水位影响显著,水位与植被面积呈负相关,降水异常(如极端降水或严重干旱)是导致植被面积明显偏离平均面积的主导因素。本文结论有助于鄱阳湖湿地生态系统的健康诊断,对鄱阳湖湿地保护和修复政策的制定具有科学参考意义。     

Impact of missing flow on active inundation areas and transformation of parafluvial wetlands in Punarbhaba–Tangon river basin of Indo-Bangladesh

Punarbhaba river of Indo-Bangladesh has experienced hydro-ecological alteration after installation of Komardanga dam in 1992 and consequently wetland and inundation areas have undergone into transformation. The present work intends to explore the impact of flow attenuation on contemporary and upcoming flood extent and flood plain wetlands. In post-dam condition, average and maximum flows are attenuated by 36 and 41%, respectively, and as a result the active flood prone area is squeezed considerably by 39.72%. Average flood water depth is also reduced by 37.87% (4.45metre) after flow modification. Due to shrinkages of flood prone areas, wetland area is also reduced from 215.70 to 90.40 km² and larger part of the present wetland area is under stress and critical state. Predicted flood prone areas in next 25 years will be 328.91 km² and consequently 65.63 km² wetland areas may further be under hydro-ecological threats. Release of ecological flow is essential to restore and preserve the wetland.