Evaluating metrics derived from Landsat 8 OLI imagery to map crop cover

Developing techniques are required to generate agricultural land cover maps to monitor agricultural fields. Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) offers reflectance data over the visible to shortwave-infrared range. OLI offers several advantages, such as adequate spatial and spectral resolution, and 16 day repeat coverage, furthermore, spectral indices derived from Landsat 8 OLI possess great potential for evaluating the status of vegetation. Additionally, classification algorithms are essential for generating accurate maps. Recently, multi-Grained Cascade Forest, which is also called deep forest, was proposed, and it was shown to give highly competitive performance for classification. However, the ability of this algorithm to generate crop maps with satellite data had not yet been evaluated. In this study, the reflectance at 7 bands and 57 spectral indices calculated from Landsat 8 OLI data were evaluated for its potential for crop type identification.     

Land cover classification using Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager data in Beijing,China

The successful launch of Landsat 8 provides a new data source for monitoring land cover, which has the potential to significantly improve the characterization of the earth’s surface. To assess data performance, Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) data were first compared with Landsat 7 ETM + data using texture features as the indicators. Furthermore, the OLI data were investigated for land cover classification using the maximum likelihood and support vector machine classifiers in Beijing. The results indicated that (1) the OLI data quality was slightly better than the ETM + data quality in the visible bands, especially the near-infrared band of OLI the data, which had a clear improvement; clear improvement was not founded in the shortwave-infrared bands. Moreover, (2) OLI data had a satisfactory performance in terms of land cover classification. In summary, OLI data were a reliable data source for monitoring land cover and provided the continuity in the Landsat earth observation.     

基于随机森林的土地利用分类与景观格局分析

基于景观格局分析方法,分别选取8个反映景观格局类型和6个反映景观水平格局指数用于探索土地利用变化状况.实验结果表明:①基于选择合适的训练样本下,对3期遥感影像采用随机森林的监督分类方法,总体精度均在94％以上,kappa系数均为90％以上;②综合来看,研究期内建设用地为优势景观类型.研究区斑块数量增加,破碎化程度有所加...     

Landsat系列卫星对地观测40年回顾及LDCM前瞻

Landsat系列卫星数据凭借其长期连续、全球覆盖、适中的时间空间分辨率和科学的数据存档与分发策略等优势,逐渐成为地表特征和地球系统科学研究中最有效的遥感数据之一,并广泛应用于生态环境、农林地矿、能源资源、教育科研和政府管理等领域。而第8代陆地卫星--陆地卫星数据连续任务卫星(LDCM)于2013年2月发射升空,该卫星携带了运行性陆地成像仪(OLI)和热红外传感器(TIRS)两种传感器。与Landsat 7/ETM+相比,OLI/TIRS在波段设置、辐射分辨性能和扫描方式上都得到很大改进,其中OLI共包括9个波段,新增海岸带(coastal)监测和卷云(cirrus)识别波段,TIRS则设置了两个热红外波段。如果LDCM能够成功升空运行,它将继续承担起长期连续对地观测的使命。     

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.     

Sentinel-2 time series based optimal features and time window for mapping invasive Australian native Acacia species in KwaZulu Natal,South Africa

The spread of invasive Australia native Acacia tree species threatens biodiversity and adversely affecting on vegetative structure and function, including plant community composition, quantity and quality worldwide. It is essential to provide researchers and land managers for biological invasion science and management with accurate information of the distribution of invasive alien species and their dynamics. Remotely sensed data that reveal spatial distribution of the earth’s surface features/objects provide great potential for this purpose. Consistent satellite monitoring of alien invasive plants is often difficult because of lack of sufficient spectral contrast between them and co-occurring plants species. Time series analysis of spectral properties of the species can reveal timing of their variations among adjacent species. This information can improve accuracy of invasive species discrimination and mapping using remote sensing data at large scale. We sought to identify and better understand the optimal time window and key spectral features sufficient to detect invasive Acacia trees in heterogeneous forested landscape in South Africa. We explored one-year (January to December 2018) time series spectral bands and vegetation indices derived from optical Copernicus Sentinel-2 data. The attributes correspond to geographical information of invasive Acacia and native species recorded during a field survey undertaken from 21 February to 25 February 2018 over Kwa-Zulu Natal grasslands landscape, in South Africa. The results showed comparable separability prospects between times series of spectral bands and that of vegetation indices.Substantial differences between Acacia species and native species were observed from spectral indices and spectral bands which are sensitive to Leaf Area Index, canopy chlorophyll and nitrogen concentrations. The results further revealed spectral differences between Acacia species and co-occurring native vegetation in April (senescence for deciduous plants), June-July (dry season), September (peak flowering period of Acacia spp) and December (leaf green-up) with vegetation indices (overall accuracy > 80 %). While spectral bands showed the beginning of the growing season (November–January) and peak vegetation productivity (February-March) as the optimal seasons or dates for image acquisition for discriminating Acacias from its co-occurring native species (overall accuracy > 80 %). In general, the use of Sentinel-2 time series spectral bands and vegetation indices has increased our understanding of Australian Acacias spectral dynamics, and proved that the sentinel-2 data is useful for characterization and monitoring Acacias over a large scale. Our results and approach could assist in deriving detailed geographic information of the species and assessment of a spread invasive plant species and severity of invasion.     

Assessing the potential of integrated Landsat 8 thermal bands,with the traditional reflective bands and derived vegetation indices in classifying urban landscapes

Reliable and up-to-date urban land cover information is valuable in urban planning and policy development. Due to the increasing demand for reliable land cover information there has been a growing need for robust methods and datasets to improve the classification accuracy from remotely sensed imagery. This study sought to assess the potential of the newly launched Landsat 8 sensor’s thermal bands and derived vegetation indices in improving land cover classification in a complex urban landscape using the support vector machine classifier. This study compared the individual and combined performance of Landsat 8’s reflective, thermal bands and vegetation indices in classifying urban land use-land cover. The integration of Landsat 8 reflective bands, derived vegetation indices and thermal bands overall produced significantly higher accuracy classification results than using traditional bands as standalone (i.e. overall, user and producer accuracies). An overall accuracy above 89.33% and a kappa index of 0.86, significantly higher than the one obtained with the use of the traditional reflective bands as a standalone data-set and other analysis stages. On average, the results also indicate high producer and user accuracies (i.e. above 80%) for most of the classes with a McNemar’s Z score of 9.00 at 95% confidence interval showing significant improvement compared with classification using reflective bands as standalone. Overall, the results of this study indicate that the integration of the Landsat 8’s OLI and TIR data presents an invaluable potential for accurate and robust land cover classification in a complex urban landscape, especially in areas where the availability of high resolution datasets remains a challenge.     

Using Advanced Land Imager (ALI) and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) for the Detection of the Invasive Shrub Lonicera maackii in Southwestern Ohio Forests

We tested how accurately image data from the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) sensor vs. the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) predict the land cover of Lonicera maackii in the forest understory, taking advantage of this invasive shrub's extended leaf retention in the fall when the canopy is leafless. Percent cover of L. maackii in 20 woodlots in southwestern Ohio was regressed on values for spectral vegetation indices (SVIs) derived for each image. The land cover of L. maackii was best explained by the Simple Ratio (SR) using TM data (R ² = 0.537). The regression results for SVIs from TM vs. ALI suggest that the ALI image was acquired too late in the fall to accurately detect this invasive shrub.     

Land Cover and Vegetation Change in the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve Analyzed with Landsat Thematic Mapper Data

Abstract

Coastal wetland is a major part of wetlands in the world. Land cover and vegetation mapping in a deltaic lowland environment is complicated by the rapid and significant changes of geomorphic forms. Remote sensing provides an important tool for coastal land cover classification and landscape analysis. The study site in this paper is the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve (YRDNR) at the Yellow River mouth in Shangdong province, China. Yellow River Delta is one of the fastest growing deltas in the world. YRDNR was listed as a national level nature reserve in 1992. The objectives of this paper are two fold: to study the land cover status of YRDNR, and to examine the land cover change since it was declared as a nature reserve. Land cover and vegetation mapping in YRDNR was developed using multi‐spectral Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery acquired in 1995. Land cover and landscape characteristics were analyzed with the help of ancillary GIS. Land use investigation data in 1991 were used for comparison with Landsat classification map. Our results show that YRDNR has experienced significant landscape change and environmental improvement after 1992.     

Estimating sagebrush cover in semi-arid environments using Landsat Thematic Mapper data

Sagebrush ecosystems of the western US provide important habitat for several ungulate and vertebrate species. As a consequence of energy development, these ecosystems in Wyoming have been subjected to a variety of anthropogenic disturbances. Land managers require methodology that will allow them to consistently catalog sagebrush ecosystems and evaluate potential impact of proposed anthropogenic activities. This study addresses the utility of remotely sensed and ancillary geospatial data to estimate sagebrush cover using ordinal logistic regression. We demonstrate statistically significant prediction of ordinal sagebrush cover categories using spectral (χ² = 113; p < 0.0001) and transformed indices (χ² = 117; p < 0.0001). Both Landsat spectral bands (c-value = 0.88) and transformed indices (c-value = 0.89) can distinguish sites with closed, moderate and open cover sagebrush cover categories from no cover. The techniques described in this study can be used for estimating categories of sagebrush cover in arid ecosystems.     

Assessment of Landsat atmospheric correction methods for water color applications using global AERONET-OC data

With the longest archive of satellite remote sensing images, the Landsat series of satellites have demonstrated their great potential in aquatic environmental studies. However, although various atmospheric correction (AC) methods have been developed for Landsat observations in water color applications, a comprehensive assessment of their accuracies across different AC methods and instruments has yet to be performed. Using in situ spectral data collected by Aerosol Robotic Network-Ocean Color (AERONET-OC) sites, the performances of five types of AC methods over three different Landsat missions (i.e., Landsat 5/7/8) were evaluated. The Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) showed more accurate AC retrievals than the other two instruments, and the results for its green and red bands appeared more reliable than those for the other wavelengths (uncertainty levels of ∼30 %). The iterative NIR algorithm with 2-bands (NIR-SWIR2) model selection embedded in SeaDAS showed the best performances for OLI in two blue bands. Moreover, larger residual errors were found for most Landsat 5/7 bands regardless of the AC methods and spectral bands employed with an uncertainty of >50 %. Interestingly, a simple aerosol subtraction method over the Rayleigh-corrected reflectance (Rrc) outperformed the exponential extrapolation (EXP) algorithms, especially for Landsat 5/7. Neither the image-based AC algorithm nor the surface reflectance (SR) products provided by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) showed acceptable performances over coastal environments. The uncertainties in the various Landsat reflectance products over water surfaces could be associated with a relatively poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in addition to radiometric calibration uncertainties, imperfect aerosol removal methods. Future research is required to collect in situ data across a wider range of water optical properties (particularly more turbid inland waters) to examine the corresponding applicability of Landsat-series observations.     

Comprehensive study of the biophysical parameters of agricultural crops based on assessing Landsat 8 OLI and Landsat 7 ETM+ vegetation indices

For three agricultural crop types, winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), and canola (Brassica napus L.), we estimated biophysical parameters including fresh and dry biomass, leaf area index (LAI), and vegetation water content, for which we found the equivalent water thickness (EWT), fuel moisture content per fresh weight (FMC_FW), and fuel moisture content per dry weight (FMC_DW). We performed these estimations using data from the newly launched Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor, as well as its predecessor the Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+). Progress in the design of the new sensor (i.e., Landsat 8), including narrower near-infrared (NIR) wavebands, higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and greater radiometric resolution highlights the necessity to investigate the biophysical parameters of agricultural crops, especially compared to data from its predecessor. This study aims to evaluate vegetation indices (VIs) derived from the Landsat 8 OLI and the Landsat 7 ETM+. Both the Landsat 8 OLI and Landsat 7 ETM+ VIs agreed well with in-situ data measurements. However, the Landsat 8 OLI-derived VIs were generally more consistent with in situ data than the Landsat 7 ETM+ VIs. We also note that the Landsat 8 OLI is better able to capture the small variability of the VIs because of its higher SNR and wider radiometric range; in addition, the saturation phenomenon occurred earlier for the Landsat 7 ETM+ than for the Landsat 8 OLI. This indicates that the new sensor is better able to estimate the biophysical parameters of crops.     

Acquisition probability differences in cloud coverage of the available Landsat observations over mainland Southeast Asia from 1986 to 2015

Landsat data are the longest available records that consistently document global change. However, the extent and degree of cloud coverage typically determine its usability, especially in the tropics. In this study, scene-based metadata from the U.S. Geological Survey Landsat inventories, ten-day, monthly, seasonal, and annual acquisition probabilities (AP) of targeted images at various cloud coverage thresholds (10% to 100%) were statistically analyzed using available Landsat TM, ETM+, and OLI observations over mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) from 1986 to 2015. Four significant results were found. First, the cumulative average acquisition probability of available Landsat observations over MSEA at the 30% cloud cover (CC) threshold was approximately 41.05%. Second, monthly and ten-day level probability statistics for the 30% CC threshold coincide with the temporal distribution of the dry and rainy seasons. This demonstrates that Landsat images acquired during the dry season satisfy the requirements needed for land cover monitoring. Third, differences in acquisition probabilities at the 30% CC threshold are different between the western and eastern regions of MSEA. Finally, the ability of TM, ETM+, and OLI to acquire high-quality imagery has gradually enhanced over time, especially during the dry season, along with consequently larger probabilities at lower CC thresholds.     

Land cover mapping in the Upper Shire River catchment in Malawi using Landsat satellite data

Land cover mapping forms a reference base for resource managers in their decision-making processes to guide rural/urban growth and management of natural resources. The aim of this study was to map land cover dynamics within the Upper Shire River catchment, Malawi. The article promotes innovation of automated land cover mapping based on remote sensing information to generate data products that are both appropriate to, and usable within different scientific applications in developing countries such as Malawi. To determine land cover dynamics, 1989 and 2002 Landsat images were used. Image bands were combined in transformations and indices with physical meaning; together with spatial data, to enhance classification accuracy. A maximum likelihood classification for each image was computed for identification of land cover variables. The results showed that the combination of spatial and digital data enhanced classification accuracy and the ability to categorise land cover features, which are relatively inhomogeneous.     

Performance evaluation of object based greenhouse detection from Sentinel-2 MSI and Landsat 8 OLI data: A case study from Almería (Spain)

This paper shows the first comparison between data from Sentinel-2 (S2) Multi Spectral Instrument (MSI) and Landsat 8 (L8) Operational Land Imager (OLI) headed up to greenhouse detection. Two closely related in time scenes, one for each sensor, were classified by using Object Based Image Analysis and Random Forest (RF). The RF input consisted of several object-based features computed from spectral bands and including mean values, spectral indices and textural features. S2 and L8 data comparisons were also extended using a common segmentation dataset extracted form VHR World-View 2 (WV2) imagery to test differences only due to their specific spectral contribution. The best band combinations to perform segmentation were found through a modified version of the Euclidian Distance 2 index. Four different RF classifications schemes were considered achieving 89.1%, 91.3%, 90.9% and 93.4% as the best overall accuracies respectively, evaluated over the whole study area.     

老挝Phonxay区土地利用/土地覆盖遥感调查

老挝是一个发展中国家,境内的大多数地方没有开展过土地利用/土地覆盖调查。本文选择老挝琅勃拉邦省的Phonxay区为研究区域,利用Landsat OLI数据进行土地利用/土地覆盖遥感调查与分析。研究过程中,利用ArcGIS Desktop选择训练样本和验证样本,通过Python和ArcPy编程开发了图像分类、精度评价以及面积统计的工作流程序,实现了快速得到分类结果和精度评价信息,分类结果的总精度为89.53%,Kappa系数为0.81。     

利用Landsat 8 OLI进行汉江下游水体浊度反演

综合比较Landsat 8 OLI遥感影像与地面同步水质监测结果,发现Landsat 8的近红外波段与其他波段的组合和水体浊度具有较高的相关性,以此为基础运用OLI的第1、3、5波段组合建立了汉江中下游浊度的遥感反演数学模型。根据该模型生成了2013年4~11月共3幅汉江中下游浊度分布图,并进行了空间分析。精度验证表明,模型相对误差在15%左右,R2=0.71,表明运用Landsat 8 OLI可有效地监测该区域水体浊度分布情况。     

Normalised difference spectral indices and urban land cover as indicators of land surface temperature (LST)

Land cover changes associated with urbanisation modify microclimate, leading to urban heat islands, whereby cities are warmer than the surrounding countryside. Understanding the factors causing this phenomenon could help urban areas adapt to climate change and improve living conditions of inhabitants. In this study, land surface temperatures (LST) of Aarhus, a city in the high latitudes, are estimated from the reflectance of a thermal band (TIRS1; Band 10; 10.60–11.19 μm) of Landsat 8 on five dates in the summer months (one in 2015, and four in 2018). Spectral indices, modelled on the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), using all combinations of the first seven bands of Landsat 8 are calculated and their relationships with LST, analysed. Land cover characteristics, in terms of the percentages of tree cover, building cover and overall vegetation cover are estimated from airborne LiDAR data, building footprints and 4-band aerial imagery, respectively. The correlations between LST, the spectral indices and land cover are estimated.The difference in mean temperature between the rural and urban parts of Aarhus is up to 3.96 °C, while the difference between the warmer and colder zones (based on the mean and SD of LST) is up to 13.26 °C. The spectral index using the near infrared band (NIR; Band 5; 0.85-0.88 μm) and a short-wave infrared band (SWIR2; Band 7; 2.11–2.29 μm) has the strongest correlations (r: 0.62 to 0.89) with LST for the whole study area. This index is the inverse of normalised burn ratio (NBR), which has been used for mapping burnt areas. Spectral indices using different combinations of the infrared bands have stronger correlations with LST than the more widely used vegetation indices such as NDVI. The percentage of tree cover has a higher negative correlation (Pearson’s r: -0.68 to -0.75) with LST than overall vegetation cover (r: -0.45 to -0.63). Tree cover and building cover (r: 0.53 to 0.71) together explain up to 68 % of the variation in LST. Modification of tree and building cover may therefore have the potential to regulate urban LST.     

Evaluating effects of spectral training data distribution on continuous field mapping performance

Continuous field mapping has to address two conflicting remote sensing requirements when collecting training data. On one hand, continuous field mapping trains fractional land cover and thus favours mixed training pixels. On the other hand, the spectral signature has to be preferably distinct and thus favours pure training pixels. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of training data distribution along fractional and spectral gradients on the resulting mapping performance.We derived four continuous fields (tree, shrubherb, bare, water) from aerial photographs as response variables and processed corresponding spectral signatures from multitemporal Landsat 5 TM data as explanatory variables. Subsequent controlled experiments along fractional cover gradients were then based on generalised linear models.Resulting fractional and spectral distribution differed between single continuous fields, but could be satisfactorily trained and mapped. Pixels with fractional or without respective cover were much more critical than pure full cover pixels. Error distribution of continuous field models was non-uniform with respect to horizontal and vertical spatial distribution of target fields. We conclude that a sampling for continuous field training data should be based on extent and densities in the fractional and spectral, rather than the real spatial space. Consequently, adequate training plots are most probably not systematically distributed in the real spatial space, but cover the gradient and covariate structure of the fractional and spectral space well.     

Species’ habitat use inferred from environmental variables at multiple scales: How much we gain from high-resolution vegetation data?

Spatial resolution of environmental data may influence the results of habitat selection models. As high-resolution data are usually expensive, an assessment of their contribution to the reliability of habitat models is of interest for both researchers and managers. We evaluated how vegetation cover datasets of different spatial resolutions influence the inferences and predictive power of multi-scale habitat selection models for the endangered brown bear populations in the Cantabrian Range (NW Spain). We quantified the relative performance of three types of datasets: (i) coarse resolution data from Corine Land Cover (minimum mapping unit of 25 ha), (ii) medium resolution data from the Forest Map of Spain (minimum mapping unit of 2.25 ha and information on forest canopy cover and tree species present in each polygon), and (iii) high-resolution Lidar data (about 0.5 points/m²) providing a much finer information on forest canopy cover and height. Despite all the models performed well (AUC > 0.80), the predictive ability of multi-scale models significantly increased with spatial resolution, particularly when other predictors of habitat suitability (e.g. human pressure) were not used to indirectly filter out areas with a more degraded vegetation cover. The addition of fine grain information on forest structure (LiDAR) led to a better understanding of landscape use and a more accurate spatial representation of habitat suitability, even for a species with large spatial requirements as the brown bear, which will result in the development of more effective measures to assist endangered species conservation.