Detection and mapping the spatial distribution of bracken fern weeds using the Landsat 8 OLI new generation sensor

Bracken fern is an invasive plant that presents serious environmental, ecological and economic problems around the world. An understanding of the spatial distribution of bracken fern weeds is therefore essential for providing appropriate management strategies at both local and regional scales. The aim of this study was to assess the utility of the freely available medium resolution Landsat 8 OLI sensor in the detection and mapping of bracken fern at the Cathedral Peak, South Africa. To achieve this objective, the results obtained from Landsat 8 OLI were compared with those derived using the costly, high spatial resolution WorldView-2 imagery. Since previous studies have already successfully mapped bracken fern using high spatial resolution WorldView-2 image, the comparison was done to investigate the magnitude of difference in accuracy between the two sensors in relation to their acquisition costs. To evaluate the performance of Landsat 8 OLI in discriminating bracken fern compared to that of Worldview-2, we tested the utility of (i) spectral bands; (ii) derived vegetation indices as well as (iii) the combination of spectral bands and vegetation indices based on discriminant analysis classification algorithm. After resampling the training and testing data and reclassifying several times (n = 100) based on the combined data sets, the overall accuracies for both Landsat 8 and WorldView-2 were tested for significant differences based on Mann-Whitney U test. The results showed that the integration of the spectral bands and derived vegetation indices yielded the best overall classification accuracy (80.08% and 87.80% for Landsat 8 OLI and WorldView-2 respectively). Additionally, the use of derived vegetation indices as a standalone data set produced the weakest overall accuracy results of 62.14% and 82.11% for both the Landsat 8 OLI and WorldView-2 images. There were significant differences {U (100) = 569.5, z = −10.8242, p < 0.01} between the classification accuracies derived based on Landsat OLI 8 and those derived using WorldView-2 sensor. Although there were significant differences between Landsat and WorldView-2 accuracies, the magnitude of variation (9%) between the two sensors was within an acceptable range. Therefore, the findings of this study demonstrated that the recently launched Landsat 8 OLI multispectral sensor provides valuable information that could aid in the long term continuous monitoring and formulation of effective bracken fern management with acceptable accuracies that are comparable to those obtained from the high resolution WorldView-2 commercial sensor.     

Examining the utility of random forest and AISA Eagle hyperspectral image data to predict Pinus patula age in KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

High-data dimensionality is a common problem in hyperspectral data processing. Consequently, remote sensing techniques that reduce the number of bands are considered essential tools for most hyperspectral applications. The aim of this study was to examine the utility of the random forest ensemble to select the optimal subset of hyperspectral bands to predict the age of Pinus patula stands. Airborne AISA Eagle hyperspectral image data were collected over the study area. The random forest ensemble was used to test whether the forward or backward variable selection methods could identify the optimal subset of bands. Results indicate that both the selection methods produced high-predictive accuracies (root mean square error = 3.097 years). However, the backward variable selection method utilized 206 bands for the final model, while the forward variable selection utilized only a small subset of non-redundant bands (n = 9) while preserving the highest model accuracy (R ² = 0.6).     

Multispectral remote sensing for mapping grassland degradation using the key indicators of grass species and edaphic factors

Land degradation is believed to be one of the most severe and widespread environmental problems. In South Africa, large areas of land have been identified as degraded, as shown by the lower vegetation cover. One of the major causes of grassland degradation is change in plant species composition that leads to presence of unpalatable grass species. Some grass species have been successfully used as indicators of different levels of grassland degradation in the country. This paper, therefore explores the possibility of mapping grassland degradation in Cathedral Peak, South Africa, using indicators of grass species and edaphic factors. Multispectral SPOT 5 data were used to produce a grassland degradation map based on the spatial distribution of decreaser (Themeda triandra) and increaser (Hyparrhenia hirta) species. To improve mapping accuracy, soil samples were collected from each species site and analysed for nutrient content. A t-test and machine learning random forest classification algorithm were applied for variable selection and classification using SPOT 5 data and edaphic variables. Results indicated that the decreaser and increaser grass species can be mapped with modest accuracy using SPOT 5 data (overall accuracy of 75.30%, quantity disagreement = 2 and allocation disagreement = 23). The classification accuracy was improved to 88.60%, 1 and 11 for overall accuracy, quantity and allocation disagreements, respectively, when SPOT 5 bands and edaphic factors were combined. The study demonstrated that an approach based on the integration of multispectral data and edaphic variables, which increased the overall classification accuracy by about 13%, is a suitable when adopting remote sensing to monitor grassland degradation.     

Optimal season for discriminating C3 and C4 grass functional types using multi-date Sentinel 2 data

ABSTRACT

The ability of remote sensing systems to optimally discriminate and map C3 and C4 grass species varies over time, due to environmental changes, which influence their phenological, physiological and morphological characteristics. In this regard, the discrimination of C3 and C4 grasses is insufficient when using a single image acquired at a specific period. In this study, multi-date Sentinel 2A MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) data were explored to determine the optimal period for classifying and mapping Festuca costata, C3 and Themeda Triandra, C4 grasses in the montane grasslands of South Africa. The study further assessed how seasonal variations in species classification can be explained by climatic variability (rainfall and temperature). Results showed that image acquisition dates influence the discrimination accuracy, spatial representation of the two grass species, as well as the performance of spectral bands. The winter period also presents a better temporal window for discriminating C3 and C4 target grass species, with higher overall classification accuracies (between 91.8% and 95.3%), than summer (between 81.4% and 90.3%). Lower omission (between 2.8% and 11.6%) and commission (between 2.5% and 14.2%) errors were also observed when discriminating using winter images, as compared to those acquired in summer. Summer images showed large grass species areal coverage (e.g. in November and March, C3 and C4 covered ±25%), whereas in winter (mainly August), a notable decrease was observed. Overall, findings of the study have demonstrated the relevance of multi-date Sentinel data in discriminating C3 and C4 grass species. There is, however, a need to explore the classification ability of Sentinel 2 derivatives, especially during early summer and winter fall.     

Estimating forest standing biomass in savanna woodlands as an indicator of forest productivity using the new generation WorldView-2 sensor

Accurate and up-to-date information on forest dendrometric traits, such as above ground biomass is important in understanding the contribution of terrestrial ecosystems to the regulation of atmsopheric carbon, especially in the face of global environmental change. Besides, dendrometric traits information is critical in assessing the healthy and the spatial planning of fragile ecosystems, such as the savanna dry forests. The aim of this work was to test whether red-edge spectral data derived from WorldView-2 multispectral imagery improve biomass estimation in savanna dry forests. The results of this study have shown that biomass estimation using all Worldview-2 raw spectral bands without the red-edge band yielded low estimation accuracies (R² of 0.67 and a RMSE-CV of 2.2 t ha^?1) when compared to when the red-edge band was included as a co-variate (R² of 0.73 and a RMSE-CV of 2.04 t ha^?1). Also, similar results were obseved when all WorldView-2 vegetation indices (without the red-edge computed ones), producing slightly low accuracies (R² of about 0.67 and a RMSE-CV of 2.20 t ha^?1), when compared to those obtained using all indices and RE-computed indices(R² of 0.76 and a RMSE-CV of 1.88 t ha^?1). Overall, the findings of this work have demontrated the potential and importance of strategically positioned bands, such as the red-edge band in the optimal estimation of indigeonus forest biomass. These results underscores the need to shift towards embracing sensors with unique and strategeically positioned bands, such as the forthcoming Sentinel 2 MSI and HysPIRI which have a global footprint.     

Identifying saltcedar with hyperspectral data and support vectormachines

Saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) are a group of dense phreatophytic shrubs and trees that are invasive to riparian areas throughout the United States. This study determined the feasibility of using hyperspectral data and a support vector machine (SVM) classifier to discriminate saltcedar from other cover types in west Texas. Spectral measurements were collected with a ground-based hyperspectral spectroradiometer (spectral range 350–2500 nm) in December 2008 and April 2009. Spectral data consisting of 1698 spectral bands (400–1349, 1441–1789, 1991–2359 nm) were subjected to a support vector machine classification to differentiate saltcedar from other vegetative and non-vegetative classes. For both dates, a linear kernel model with a C value (error penalty) of 100 was found optimum for separating saltcedar from the other classes. It identified saltcedar with accuracies ranging from 95% to 100%. Findings support further exploration of hyperspectral remote sensing technology and SVM classifiers for differentiating saltcedar from other cover types.     

Remote Sensing Data Reveals Eco-Environmental Changes in Urban Areas of Klang Valley, Malaysia: Contribution from Object Based Analysis

Understanding the growth and changes in urban environments are the most dynamic system on the earth’s surface is critical for urban planning and sustainable management. This study attempts to present a space-borne satellite-based approach to demonstrate the urban change and its relation with land surface temperature (LST) variation in urban areas of Klang valley, Malaysia. For this purpose an object-based nearest neighbour classifier (S-NN) approach was first applied on SPOT 5 data acquired on 2003 and 2010 and subsequently five land cover categories were extracted. The overall accuracies of the classified maps of 2003 and 2010 were 90.5 % and 91 % respectively. The classified maps were then used as inputs to perform the post classification change detection. The results revealed that the post-classification object-based change detection analysis performed reasonably well with an overall accuracy of 87.5 %, with Kappa statistic of 0.81 %. The changes represented that the urban expanded by 10 % over the period, whereas the urban expansion had caused reduction in soil (1.4 %) and vegetation (11.4 %), and growth in oil palm (2 %), and water (0.7 %). Additionally decision tree method was used to derive the surface heat fluxes from thermal infrared Landsat TM and ETM+bands. Subsequently, a comparison was made with classified result from SPOT 5 images. Results showed high correlation between urban growth and LST.     

Land use change detection based on multi‐date imagery from different satellite sensor systems

An empirical study was performed assessing the accuracy of land use change detection when using satellite image data acquired ten years apart by sensors with differing spatial resolutions. Landsat/Multi‐spectral Scanner (MSS) with Landsat/Thematic Mapper (TM) or SPOT/High Resolution Visible (HRV) multi‐spectral (XS) data were used as a multi‐data pair for detecting land use change. The primary objectives of the study were to: (1) compare standard change detection methods (e.g. multi‐date ratioing and principal components analysis) applied to image data of varying spatial resolution; (2) assess whether to transform the raster grid of the higher resolution image data to that of the lower resolution raster grid or vice‐versa in the registration process: and (3) determine if Landsat/TM or SPOT/ HRV(XS) data provides more accurate detection of land use changes when registered to historical Landsat/MSS data.

Ratioing multi‐sensor, multi‐date satellite image data produced higher change detection accuracies than did principal components analysis and is useful as a land use change enhancement technique. Ratioing red and near infrared bands of a Landsat/MSS‐SPOT/HRV(XS) multi‐date pair produced substantially higher change detection accuracies (～10%) than ratioing similar bands of a Landsat/MSS ‐ Landsat/TM multi‐data pair. Using a higher‐resolution raster grid of 20 meters when registering Landsat/MSS and SPOTZHRV(XS) images produced a slightly higher change detection accuracy than when both images were registered to an 80 meter raster grid. Applying a “majority”; moving window filter whose size approximated a minimum mapping unit of 1 hectare increased change detection accuracies by 1–3% and reduced commission errors by 10–25%.     

Evaluation of classifiers for processing Hyperion (EO-1) data of tropical vegetation

There is an urgent necessity to monitor changes in the natural surface features of earth. Compared to broadband multispectral data, hyperspectral data provides a better option with high spectral resolution. Classification of vegetation with the use of hyperspectral remote sensing generates a classical problem of high dimensional inputs. Complexity gets compounded as we move from airborne hyperspectral to Spaceborne technology. It is unclear how different classification algorithms will perform on a complex scene of tropical forests collected by spaceborne hyperspectral sensor. The present study was carried out to evaluate the performance of three different classifiers (Artificial Neural Network, Spectral Angle Mapper, Support Vector Machine) over highly diverse tropical forest vegetation utilizing hyperspectral (EO-1) data. Appropriate band selection was done by Stepwise Discriminant Analysis. The Stepwise Discriminant Analysis resulted in identifying 22 best bands to discriminate the eight identified tropical vegetation classes. Maximum numbers of bands came from SWIR region. ANN classifier gave highest OAA values of 81% with the help of 22 selected bands from SDA. The image classified with the help SVM showed OAA of 71%, whereas the SAM showed the lowest OAA of 66%. All the three classifiers were also tested to check their efficiency in classifying spectra coming from 165 processed bands. SVM showed highest OAA of 80%. Classified subset images coming from ANN (from 22 bands) and SVM (from 165 bands) are quite similar in showing the distribution of eight vegetation classes. Both the images appeared close to the actual distribution of vegetation seen in the study area. OAA levels obtained in this study by ANN and SVM classifiers identify the suitability of these classifiers for tropical vegetation discrimination.     

Comparing the spectral settings of the new generation broad and narrow band sensors in estimating biomass of native grasses grown under different management practices

The challenge of assessing and monitoring the influence of rangeland management practices on grassland productivity has been hampered in southern Africa, due to the lack of cheap earth observation facilities. This study, therefore, sought to evaluate the capability of the newly launched Sentinel 2 multispectral imager (MSI) data, in relation to Hyperspectral infrared imager (HyspIRI) data in estimating grass biomass subjected to different management practices, namely, burning, mowing and fertilizer application. Using sparse partial least squares regression (SPLSR), results showed that HyspIRI data exhibited slightly higher grass biomass estimation accuracies (RMSE = 6.65 g/m², R² = 0.69) than Sentinel 2 MSI (RMSE = 6.79 g/m², R² = 0.58) across all rangeland management practices. Student t-test results then showed that Sentinel 2 MSI exhibited a comparable performance to HyspIRI in estimating the biomass of grasslands under burning, mowing and fertilizer application. In comparing the RMSEs derived using wave bands and vegetation indices of HyspIRI and Sentinel, no statistically significant differences were exhibited (α = 0.05). Sentinel (Bands 5, 6 and 7) and HyspIRI (Bands 730 nm, 740 nm, 750 nm, 710 nm), as well as their derived vegetation indices, yielded the highest predictive accuracies. These findings illustrate that the accuracy of Sentinel 2 MSI data in estimating grass biomass is acceptable when compared with HyspIRI. The findings of this work provide an insight into the prospects of large-scale grass biomass modeling and prediction, using cheap and readily available multispectral data.     

Employing ground and satellite-based QuickBird data and random forest to discriminate five tree species in a Southern African Woodland

With the emergence of very high spatial and spectral resolution data set, the resolution gap that existed between remote-sensing data set and aerial photographs has decreased. The decrease in resolution gap has allowed accurate discrimination of different tree species. In this study, discrimination of indigenous tree species (n?=?5) was carried out using ground based hyperspectral data resampled to QuickBird bands and the actual QuickBird imagery for the area around Palapye, Botswana. The purpose of the study was to compare the accuracies of resampled hyperspectral data (resampled to QuickBird sensors) with the actual image (QuickBird image) in discriminating between the indigenous tree species. We performed Random Forest (RF) using canopy reflectance taking from ground-based hyperspectral sensor and the reflectance delineated regions of the tree species. The overall accuracies for classifying the five tree species was 79.86 and 88.78% for both the resampled and actual image, respectively. We observed that resampled data set can be upscale to actual image with the same or even greater level of accuracy. We therefore conclude that high spectral and spatial resolution data set has substantial potential for tree species discrimination in savannah environments.     

A Multiple SVM System for Classification of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data

With recent technological advances in remote sensing sensors and systems, very high-dimensional hyperspectral data are available for a better discrimination among different complex land-cover classes. However, the large number of spectral bands, but limited availability of training samples creates the problem of Hughes phenomenon or ‘curse of dimensionality’ in hyperspectral data sets. Moreover, these high numbers of bands are usually highly correlated. Because of these complexities of hyperspectral data, traditional classification strategies have often limited performance in classification of hyperspectral imagery. Referring to the limitation of single classifier in these situations, Multiple Classifier Systems (MCS) may have better performance than single classifier. This paper presents a new method for classification of hyperspectral data based on a band clustering strategy through a multiple Support Vector Machine system. The proposed method uses the band grouping process based on a modified mutual information strategy to split data into few band groups. After the band grouping step, the proposed algorithm aims at benefiting from the capabilities of SVM as classification method. So, the proposed approach applies SVM on each band group that is produced in a previous step. Finally, Naive Bayes (NB) as a classifier fusion method combines decisions of SVM classifiers. Experimental results on two common hyperspectral data sets show that the proposed method improves the classification accuracy in comparison with the standard SVM on entire bands of data and feature selection methods.     

结合多分类器的遥感数据专题分类方法研究

采用标准的多分类器结合方法进行遥感图像的分类研究。首先介绍了标准的多分类器结合的算法,然后以Landsat-TM多光谱遥感数据的土地覆被分类为例,分别给出了抽象级上相同训练特征的多分类器结合、抽象级上不同训练特征的多分类器结合和测量级上的多分类器结合进行土地覆被分类的方法,并进行了实例研究。参与分类器结合的单个分类器包括最大似然分类器,最小距离分类器,马氏距离分类器,K-NN分类器,多层感知器神经网络分类器。分类器的分类精度用总体精度、用户精度、生产者精度、kappa系数和条件kappa系数评价。结果表明,每一种多分类器结合的分类方法都能够比较显著地提高总体分类精度。文章最后对不同多分类器结合方式的优缺点进行了分析。     

Assessment of Nigeriasat-1 satellite data for urban land use/land cover analysis using object-based image analysis in Abuja,Nigeria

This study assesses the usefulness of Nigeriasat-1 satellite data for urban land cover analysis by comparing it with Landsat and SPOT data. The data-sets for Abuja were classified with pixel- and object-based methods. While the pixel-based method was classified with the spectral properties of the images, the object-based approach included an extra layer of land use cadastre data. The classification accuracy results for OBIA show that Landsat 7 ETM, Nigeriasat-1 SLIM and SPOT 5 HRG had overall accuracies of 92, 89 and 96%, respectively, while the classification accuracy for pixel-based classification were 88% for Landsat 7 ETM, 63% for Nigeriasat-1 SLIM and 89% for SPOT 5 HRG. The results indicate that given the right classification tools, the analysis of Nigeriasat-1 data can be compared with Landsat and SPOT data which are widely used for urban land use and land cover analysis.     

Comparative performance of convolutional neural network,weighted and conventional support vector machine and random forest for classifying tree species using hyperspectral and photogrammetric data

ABSTRACT

The classification of tree species can significantly benefit from high spatial and spectral information acquired by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) associated with advanced classification methods. This study investigated the following topics concerning the classification of 16 tree species in two subtropical forest fragments of Southern Brazil: i) the potential integration of UAV-borne hyperspectral images with 3D information derived from their photogrammetric point cloud (PPC); ii) the performance of two machine learning methods (support vector machine – SVM and random forest – RF) when employing different datasets at a pixel and individual tree crown (ITC) levels; iii) the potential of two methods for dealing with the imbalanced sample set problem: a new weighted SVM (wSVM) approach, which attributes different weights to each sample and class, and a deep learning classifier (convolutional neural network – CNN), associated with a previous step to balance the sample set; and finally, iv) the potential of this last classifier for tree species classification as compared to the above mentioned machine learning methods. Results showed that the inclusion of the PPC features to the hyperspectral data provided a great accuracy increase in tree species classification results when conventional machine learning methods were applied, between 13 and 17% depending on the classifier and the study area characteristics. When using the PPC features and the canopy height model (CHM), associated with the majority vote (MV) rule, the SVM, wSVM and RF classifiers reached accuracies similar to the CNN, which outperformed these classifiers for both areas when considering the pixel-based classifications (overall accuracy of 84.4% in Area 1, and 74.95% in Area 2). The CNN was between 22% and 26% more accurate than the SVM and RF when only the hyperspectral bands were employed. The wSVM provided a slight increase in accuracy not only for some lesser represented classes, but also some major classes in Area 2. While conventional machine learning methods are faster, they demonstrated to be less stable to changes in datasets, depending on prior segmentation and hand-engineered features to reach similar accuracies to those attained by the CNN. To date, CNNs have been barely explored for the classification of tree species, and CNN-based classifications in the literature have not dealt with hyperspectral data specifically focusing on tropical environments. This paper thus presents innovative strategies for classifying tree species in subtropical forest areas at a refined legend level, integrating UAV-borne 2D hyperspectral and 3D photogrammetric data and relying on both deep and conventional machine learning approaches.     

Evaluating and comparing Sentinel 2A and Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) spectral indices for estimating fire severity in a Mediterranean pine ecosystem of Greece

The main purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between three field-based fire severity indices (Composite Burn Index-CBI, Geometrically structure CBI, weighted CBI) and spectral indices derived from Sentinel 2A and Landsat-8 OLI imagery on a recent large fire in Thasos, Greece. We employed remotely sensed indices previously used from the remote sensing fire community (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR), differenced NDVI, differenced NBR, relative differenced NBR, Relativized Burn Ratio) and seven Sentinel 2A-specific indices considering the availability of spectral information recorded in the red-edge spectral region. The statistical correlation indicated a slightly stronger relationship between the differenced NBR and the GeoCBI for both Sentinel 2A (r = 0.872) and Landsat-8 OLI (r = 0.845) imagery. Predictive local thresholds of dNBR values showed slightly higher classification accuracy for Sentinel 2A (73.33%) than Landsat-8 OLI (71.11%), suggesting the adequacy of Sentinel 2A for forest fire severity assessment and mapping in Mediterranean pine ecosystems. The evaluation of the classification thresholds calculated in this study over other fires with similar pre-fire conditions could contribute in the operational mapping and reconstruction of the historical patterns of fire severity over the Eastern Mediterranean region.     

Relative suitability of indices derived from Landsat ETM+ and SPOT 5 for detecting fire severity in sagebrush steppe

Remote sensing indices of burn area and fire severity have been developed and tested for forest ecosystems, but not sparsely vegetated, desert shrub-steppe in which large wildfires are a common occurrence and a major issue for land management. We compared the performance of remote sensing indices for detecting burn area and fire severity with extensive ground-based cover assessments made before and after the prescribed burning of a 3 km² shrub-steppe area. The remote sensing indices were based on either Landsat 7 ETM+ or SPOT 5 data, using either single or multiple dates of imagery. The indices delineating burned versus unburned areas had better overall, User, and Producer's accuracies than indices delineating levels of fire severity. The Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) calculated from SPOT had the greatest overall accuracy (100%) in delineating burned versus unburned areas. The relative differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (RdNBR) using Landsat ETM+ provided the highest accuracies (73% overall accuracy) for delineating fire severity. Though SPOT's spatial resolution likely conferred advantages for determining burn boundaries, the higher spectral resolution (particularly band 7, 2.21 μm) of Landsat ETM+ may be necessary for detecting differences in fire severity in sparsely vegetated shrub-steppe.     

融合空谱特征和集成超限学习机的高光谱图像分类

为提高高光谱图像的分类精度,提出了一种融合空谱特征和集成超限学习机的高光谱图像分类方法。首先结合每个像素邻域的光谱信息提取空谱特征向量;考虑到高光谱相邻波段信息具有一定的相关性,先对提取的特征向量进行平均分组,然后从每个区间随机选择若干个波段进行组合,采用具有快速学习能力的超限学习机训练分类器。为提高分类模型的泛化能力,基于集成学习思想,对提取的空谱特征进行多次抽样,训练得到多个弱分类器,最后采用投票表决法得到用于高光谱图像分类的强分类器。采用3个典型高光谱数据进行了分类试验,试验结果表明,提出的算法总体分类精度较优,尤其当训练样本数较少时能取得较高的分类精度。提出的算法具有可调参数少、训练速度快、分类精度高等优点,具有广阔的应用前景。     

Testing the discrimination and detection limits of WorldView-2 imagery on a challenging invasive plant target

Invasive plants pose significant threats to biodiversity and ecosystem function globally, leading to costly monitoring and management effort. While remote sensing promises cost-effective, robust and repeatable monitoring tools to support intervention, it has been largely restricted to airborne platforms that have higher spatial and spectral resolutions, but which lack the coverage and versatility of satellite-based platforms. This study tests the ability of the WorldView-2 (WV2) eight-band satellite sensor for detecting the invasive shrub mesquite (Prosopis spp.) in the north-west Pilbara region of Australia. Detectability was challenged by the target taxa being largely defoliated by a leaf-tying biological control agent (Gelechiidae: Evippe sp. #1) and the presence of other shrubs and trees. Variable importance in the projection (VIP) scores identified bands offering greatest capacity for discrimination were those covering the near-infrared, red, and red-edge wavelengths. Wavelengths between 400 nm and 630 nm (coastal blue, blue, green, yellow) were not useful for species level discrimination in this case. Classification accuracy was tested on three band sets (simulated standard multispectral, all bands, and bands with VIP scores ≥1). Overall accuracies were comparable amongst all band-sets (Kappa = 0.71–0.77). However, mesquite omission rates were unacceptably high (21.3%) when using all eight bands relative to the simulated standard multispectral band-set (9.5%) and the band-set informed by VIP scores (11.9%). An incremental cover evaluation on the latter identified most omissions to be for objects <16 m². Mesquite omissions reduced to 2.6% and overall accuracy significantly improved (Kappa = 0.88) when these objects were left out of the confusion matrix calculations. Very high mapping accuracy of objects >16 m² allows application for mapping mesquite shrubs and coalesced stands, the former not previously possible, even with 3 m resolution hyperspectral imagery. WV2 imagery offers excellent portability potential for detecting other species where spectral/spatial resolution or coverage has been an impediment. New generation satellite sensors are removing barriers previously preventing widespread adoption of remote sensing technologies in natural resource management.     

Testing the capability of spectral resolution of the new multispectral sensors on detecting the severity of grey leaf spot disease in maize crop

Abstract

In this study, we tested whether GLS field symptoms on maize can be detected using hyperspectral data re-sampled to WorldView-2, Quickbird, RapidEye and Sentinel-2 resolutions. To achieve this objective, Random Forest algorithm was used to classify the 2013 re-sampled spectra to represent the three identified disease severity categories. Results showed that Sentinel-2, with 13 spectral bands, achieved the highest overall accuracy and kappa value of 84% and 0.76, respectively, while the WorldView-2, with eight spectral bands, yielded the second highest overall accuracy and kappa value of 82% and 0.73, respectively. Results also showed that the 705 and 710 nm red edge bands were the most valuable in detecting the GLS for Sentinel-2 and RapidEye, respectively. On the re-sampled WorldView 2 and Quickbird sensor resolutions, the respective 608 and 660 nm in the yellow and red bands were identified as the most valuable for discriminating all categories of infection.