A geostatistical temporal mixture analysis approach to address endmember variability for estimating regional impervious surface distributions

Spectral mixture analysis (SMA) is a major approach for estimating fractional land covers through modeling the relationship between the spectral signatures of a mixed remote sensing pixel and those of the comprised pure land covers (also termed as endmembers). When SMA is implemented, endmember variability has proven to have significant impact on the accuracy of land cover fraction estimates. To address the endmember variability problem, this article developed a geostatistical temporal mixture analysis (GTMA) technique, with which spatially varying per-pixel endmember sets were estimated using an ordinary kriging interpolation technique. The method was applied to time-series moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer normalized difference vegetation index imagery in Wisconsin and North Carolina, United States to estimate regional impervious surface distributions. Analysis of results suggests that GTMA has achieved a promising accuracy. Detailed analysis indicates that a better performance has been achieved in less-developed areas than developed areas, and slight underestimation and slight overestimation have been detected in developed areas and less-developed areas, respectively. Moreover, while the performance of GTMA is comparable to those of phenology-based TMA and phenology-based multiple endmember TMA over the entire study area and in less-developed areas, a much better performance has been achieved in developed areas. Finally, this article argues that endmember variability may be more essential in developed areas when compared to less-developed areas.     

流域尺度的不透水面遥感提取

一个地区的不透水面覆盖度不仅是该地区城镇化程度重要指示因子,也是该地区生态环境状况的重要指示因子.现有的不透水面遥感提取方法,多集中在城区尺度上.而流域尺度上快速、准确的不透水面遥感提取方法在国内外还鲜有研究.本研究以覆盖海河流域同一季节的Landsat影像为数据源,利用已有土地利用数据集中的道路、城市、农村和工业用地...     

Enhancing endmember selection in multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) for urban impervious surface area mapping using spectral angle and spectral distance parameters

Successful retrieval of urban impervious surface area is achieved with remote sensing data using the multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA). MESMA is well suited for studying the urban impervious surface area because it allows the number and types of the endmembers to vary on a per-pixel basis, thereby, allowing the control of the large spectral variability. However, MESMA must calculate all potential endmember combinations of each pixel to determine the best-fit one. Therefore, it is a time-consuming and inefficient unmixing technology, especially for hyperspectral images because these images have more complicated endmember categories. Hence, in this paper, we design an improved MESMA (SASD-MESMA: spectral angle and spectral distance MESMA) to enhance the computational efficiency of conventional MESMA, and we validate this new method by analyzing the Hyperion image (Jan-2011) and the field-spectra data of Guangzhou (China). In SASD-MESMA, the parameters of spectral angle (SA) and spectral distance (SD) are used to evaluate the similarity degree between library spectra and image spectra in order to identify the most representative endmember combination for each pixel. Results demonstrate that the SA and SD parameters are useful to reduce misjudgment in selecting candidate endmembers and effective for determining the appropriate endmembers in one pixel. Meanwhile, this research indicates that the proposed SASD-MESMA performs very well in retrieving impervious surface area, forest, grass and soil distributions on the sub-pixel level (the overall root mean square error (RMSE) is 0.15 and the correlation coefficient of determination (R²) is 0.68).     

Stratified spectral mixture analysis of medium resolution imagery for impervious surface mapping

Linear spectral mixture analysis (LSMA) is widely employed in impervious surface estimation, especially for estimating impervious surface abundance in medium spatial resolution images. However, it suffers from a difficulty in endmember selection due to within-class spectral variability and the variation in the number and the type of endmember classes contained from pixel to pixel, which may lead to over or under estimation of impervious surface. Stratification is considered as a promising process to address the problem. This paper presents a stratified spectral mixture analysis in spectral domain (Sp_SSMA) for impervious surface mapping. It categorizes the entire data into three groups based on the Combinational Build-up Index (CBI), the intensity component in the color space and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values. A suitable endmember model is developed for each group to accommodate the spectral variation from group to group. The unmixing into the associated subset (or full set) of endmembers in each group can make the unmixing adaptive to the types of endmember classes that each pixel actually contains. Results indicate that the Sp_SSMA method achieves a better performance than full-set-endmember SMA and prior-knowledge-based spectral mixture analysis (PKSMA) in terms of R, RMSE and SE.     

Prior-knowledge-based spectral mixture analysis for impervious surface mapping

In this study, we developed a prior-knowledge-based spectral mixture analysis (PKSMA) to map impervious surfaces by using endmembers derived separately for high- and low-density urban regions. First, an urban area was categorized into high- and low-density urban areas, using a multi-step classification method. Next, in high-density urban areas that were assumed to have only vegetation and impervious surfaces (ISs), the vegetation–impervious model (V–I) was used in a spectral mixture analysis (SMA) with three endmembers: vegetation, high albedo, and low albedo. In low-density urban areas, the vegetation–impervious–soil model (V–I–S) was used in an SMA analysis with four endmembers: high albedo, low albedo, soil, and vegetation. The fraction of IS with high and low albedo in each pixel was combined to produce the final IS map. The root mean-square error (RMSE) of the IS map produced using PKSMA was about 11.0%, compared to 14.52% only using four-endmember SMA. Particularly in high-density urban areas, PKSMA (RMSE = 6.47%) showed better performance than four-endmember (15.91%). The results indicate that PKSMA can improve IS mapping compared to traditional SMA by using appropriately selected endmembers and is particularly strong in high-density urban areas.     

Multiscale quantification of urban composition from EO-1/Hyperion data using object-based spectral unmixing

Quantification of the urban composition is important in urban planning and management. Previous research has primarily focused on unmixing medium-spatial resolution multispectral imagery using spectral mixture analysis (SMA) in order to estimate the abundance of urban components. For this study an object-based multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) approach was applied to unmix the 30-m Earth Observing-1 (EO-1)/Hyperion hyperspectral imagery. The abundance of two physical urban components (vegetation and impervious surface) was estimated and mapped at multiple scales and two defined geographic zones. The estimation results were validated by a reference dataset generated from fine spatial resolution aerial photography. The object-based MESMA approach was compared with its corresponding pixel-based one, and EO-1/Hyperion hyperspectral data was compared with the simulated EO-1/Advanced Land Imager (ALI) multispectral data in the unmixing modeling. The pros and cons of the object-based MESMA were evaluated. The result illustrates that the object-based MESMA is promising for unmixing the medium-spatial resolution hyperspectral imagery to quantify the urban composition, and it is an attractive alternative to the traditional pixel-based mixture analysis for various applications.     

RNDSI: A ratio normalized difference soil index for remote sensing of urban/suburban environments

Understanding land use land cover change (LULCC) is a prerequisite for urban planning and environment management. For LULCC studies in urban/suburban environments, the abundance and spatial distributions of bare soil are essential due to its biophysically different properties when compared to anthropologic materials. Soil, however, is very difficult to be identified using remote sensing technologies majorly due to its complex physical and chemical compositions, as well as the lack of a direct relationship between soil abundance and its spectral signatures. This paper presents an empirical approach to enhance soil information through developing the ratio normalized difference soil index (RNDSI). The first step involves the generation of random samples of three major land cover types, namely soil, impervious surface areas (ISAs), and vegetation. With spectral signatures of these samples, a normalized difference soil index (NDSI) was proposed using the combination of bands 7 and 2 of Landsat Thematic Mapper Image. Finally, a ratio index was developed to further highlight soil covers through dividing the NDSI by the first component of tasseled cap transformation (TC1). Qualitative (e.g., frequency histogram and box charts) and quantitative analyses (e.g., spectral discrimination index and classification accuracy) were adopted to examine the performance of the developed RNDSI. Analyses of results and comparative analyses with two other relevant indices, biophysical composition index (BCI) and enhanced built-up and bareness Index (EBBI), indicate that RNDSI is promising in separating soil from ISAs and vegetation, and can serve as an input to LULCC models.     

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.     

融合多源时序遥感数据大尺度不透水面覆盖率估算

不透水面信息是监测城市扩张及区域生态环境变化研究的重要指标,基于遥感技术对地表不透水面信息进行快速提取具有重要意义。传统大范围不透水面覆盖率估算模型主要基于单一遥感信息与不透水面比例之间的相关性,通过单因子回归模型实现不透水面覆盖率的估算。受限于单一遥感信息的信息量及普适性等影响,这类方法在大尺度不透水面提取中具有较大局限性,估算结果的区域适应性存在较大差异。针对该问题,本文提出基于多特征遥感信息进行不透水面估算的方法,以弥补单一特征在大范围不透水面提取中的不确定性。该方法首先以多时相MOD13Q1、MOD09A1产品、夜间灯光数据（NPP-VIIRS）和Landsat 8 OLI为遥感数据源,从不同角度构建突出不透水面信息的多个指数特征;在此基础上利用多元回归模型建立多因子不透水面覆盖率估算模型,进而实现大尺度不透水面覆盖率的遥感估算。本研究选择分布于全国范围内13个典型城市作为主要研究区对提出的模型进行了验证,结果表明：该方法能够适应不同区域不透水面覆盖率的估算,在复杂城市区域表现出较传统方法更好的效果,明显改善了城市内部不透水面覆盖率的估算精度。     

Improving impervious surface estimation: an integrated method of classification and regression trees (CART) and linear spectral mixture analysis (LSMA) based on error analysis

Classification and regression tree (CART) has been widely implemented to estimate impervious surface, an important indicator of urbanization and environmental quality. Although the CART algorithm gains higher overall accuracy than linear regression models, only very few studies have noticed that reliability of CART is affected by systematic errors. Especially, CART typically overestimates impervious surfaces in low-density urban areas and underestimates them in high-density urban areas. The primary objective of this study is to develop an improved integrated method to estimate impervious surface with higher accuracy by reducing the systematic errors of CART. This improved method was applied to three urban areas, Chicago (United States), Venice (Italy), and Guangzhou (China) to examine its effectiveness. When compared with the conventional CART, overall mean average error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) of improved method are decreased by 22.64% and 20.93%, respectively, and R² rises from 0.9 to 0.96. In high-density impervious surfaces, where intensely developed urban area is located, the MAE and RMSE for the improved method are 0.066 and 0.088, respectively, largely improved from 0.100 to 0.130. Since accurate estimation of high-density impervious surfaces is the fundamental issue for monitoring and understanding the urban environment, the improved method demonstrated in this study is significant.     

运用归一化光谱混合模型分析城市地表组成

运用归一化光谱混合分析(NSMA)方法,用ETM 数据调查广州市海珠区城市地表组成,采用亮度标准化方法减小亮度变化。通过标准化,使亮度差异在每个植被-非渗透性表面-土壤-水体(V-I-S-W)组成中减小或者消除,这样使得一个单一的端元能够代表一种地表组分。在此基础上,通过归一化影像,选择了植被、非渗透性表面、土壤和水体4种端元,运用一种约束光谱混合分析(SMA)模型,分解了不同种类的城市地表组成。通过与已有模型计算结果比较,认为本文所构建的模型较优,其对研究区非渗透性表面估计的均方根误差为12.6%。     

Derivation of an urban materials spectral library through emittance and reflectance spectroscopy

Recent advances in thermal infrared remote sensing include the increased availability of airborne hyperspectral imagers (such as the Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer, HyTES, or the Telops HyperCam and the Specim aisaOWL), and it is planned that an increased number spectral bands in the long-wave infrared (LWIR) region will soon be measured from space at reasonably high spatial resolution (by imagers such as HyspIRI). Detailed LWIR emissivity spectra are required to best interpret the observations from such systems. This includes the highly heterogeneous urban environment, whose construction materials are not yet particularly well represented in spectral libraries. Here, we present a new online spectral library of urban construction materials including LWIR emissivity spectra of 74 samples of impervious surfaces derived using measurements made by a portable Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) spectrometer. FTIR emissivity measurements need to be carefully made, else they are prone to a series of errors relating to instrumental setup and radiometric calibration, which here relies on external blackbody sources. The performance of the laboratory-based emissivity measurement approach applied here, that in future can also be deployed in the field (e.g. to examine urban materials in situ), is evaluated herein. Our spectral library also contains matching short-wave (VIS–SWIR) reflectance spectra observed for each urban sample. This allows us to examine which characteristic (LWIR and) spectral signatures may in future best allow for the identification and discrimination of the various urban construction materials, that often overlap with respect to their chemical/mineralogical constituents. Hyperspectral or even strongly multi-spectral LWIR information appears especially useful, given that many urban materials are composed of minerals exhibiting notable reststrahlen/absorption effects in this spectral region. The final spectra and interpretations are included in the London Urban Micromet data Archive (LUMA; http://LondonClimate.info/LUMA/SLUM.html).     

A sub-pixel analysis of urbanization effect on land surface temperature and its interplay with impervious surface and vegetation coverage in Indianapolis,United States

This study developed an analytical procedure based upon a spectral unmixing model for characterizing and quantifying urban landscape changes in Indianapolis, Indiana, the United States, and for examining the environmental impact of such changes on land surface temperatures (LST). Three dates of Landsat TM/ETM+ images, acquired in 1991, 1995, and 2000, respectively, were utilized to document the historical morphological changes in impervious surface and vegetation coverage and to analyze the relationship between these changes and those occurred in LST. Three fraction endmembers, i.e., impervious surface, green vegetation, and shade, were derived with an unconstrained least-squares solution. A hybrid classification procedure, which combined maximum-likelihood and decision-tree algorithms, was developed to classify the fraction images into land use and land cover classes. Correlation analyses were conducted to investigate the changing relationships of LST with impervious surface and vegetation coverage. Results indicate that multi-temporal fraction images were effective for quantifying the dynamics of urban morphology and for deriving a reliable measurement of environmental variables such as vegetation abundance and impervious surface coverage. Urbanization created an evolved inverse relationship between impervious and vegetation coverage, and brought about new LST patterns because of LST's correlations with both impervious and vegetation coverage. Further researches should be directed to refine spectral mixture modeling by stratification, and by the use of multiple endmembers and hyperspectral imagery.     

CBERS-02B多光谱数据在城市不透水面 估算中的可用性研究

以厦门岛为研究区,以CBERS-02B的CCD影像为数据源,采用基于可变端元的线性光谱混合模型估算了城市不 透水面组分含量,并探讨了该方法的实现过程与优势。通过端元评估确定了研究区的４个典型端元,即高反射不透水 面、低反射不透水面、高反射土壤和植被。在此基础上,以高、低反射不透水面端元的组分含量对城市不透水面含量 进行估算。精度评价结果显示：基于可变端元的方法要优于一般带全约束法;而在混合像元分解过程中加入全色波段 （band5）有助于提高模型估算精度,使得在像元尺度的精度与采用Landsat的已有报道相近,而在土地利用单元尺度实 现了对城市不透水面的无偏估计。研究实例也表明,尽管目前CBERS-02B数据在辐射定标和地理定位等方面还有待改 进,通过采用适当的处理过程和技术手段,依然能利用该数据对城市不透水面进行有效估算。     

Evaluation of MIVIS Hyperspectral Data for Mapping Soil Degradation in an Upland Ecosystem of Southern Italy

Abstract

This paper describes the first stage of an experiment aiming to evaluate the potential and limitations of MIVIS data for mapping the degradational state of soils in a sub‐scene of a southern Apennines study area (Italy). After radiometric rectification of the image data and the collection of a field/laboratory spectral library, linear spectral mixture modelling (SMA) was used to decompose image spectra into fractions of spectrally distinct mixing components. Spectral endmember selection was based upon a principal component analysis (PCA) applied to a set of soil spectra, collected from the spectral library. The resulting abundance estimates (fractions) trough SMA were then analysed to identify soil conditions and to obtain an improved measure of dry and green vegetation cover. A map of soil conditions and dry‐green vegetation abundance, based upon MIVIS data was then derived from normalised fractions of soil‐vegetation endmembers obtained from SMA.     

北京城市不透水层覆盖度遥感估算

 应用线性光谱混合模型研究城市环境生物物理组成，端元的确定是其关键。城市地表同物异谱现象显著，光谱变异强烈，对于高反照率地物尤其突出。端元的光谱变异对线性光谱混合模型拟合结果产生重要影响。以同种纯净地物光谱曲线形状具有相似性为出发点，提出了一种端元优化选取方法，在此基础上计算了北京城市地表不透水层覆盖度。研究结果表明，该方法能够在一定程度上减小端元光谱变异性对线性光谱混合模型拟合结果的影响，进而提高城市不透水层覆盖度的估算精度。     

最小二乘混合像元分解的端元丰度信息提取研究

针对无约束最小二乘混合像元分解算法提取地物端元丰度出现的局限性问题,通过野外实地采集的地物光谱数据建立研究区典型的地物波谱库,以Landsat OLI影像作为主要数据源,在经过Gram-Schmidt(GS)影像融合的基础上,利用纯净像元指数(PPI)及基于几何顶点的端元提取技术提取研究区典型地物端元,最后通过完全约束的最小二乘混合像元分解算法完成对研究区典型地物端元丰度的提取。结果较好地解决了无约束最小二乘混合像元分解算法提取的端元丰度信息出现负值的情况,并且提高了典型地物丰度信息提取的精度。完全约束最小二乘混合像元分解算法的RMSE误差均控制在0.174 913左右,在很大程度上提高了混合像元分解精度及实用性。     

混合像元分解技术及其进展

混合像元分解模型是定量遥感研究的重要组成部分,为各种地学应用提供了更精细的亚像元级地物信息,这一领域受到国内外学者们广泛关注。本文围绕混合像元分解研究的4个核心问题——光谱混合模型、端元提取、模型反演方法以及解混精度评估,总结了近20年来混合像元分解的重要研究进展,分析和介绍了典型算法模型的原理和思路。进一步阐述了现有研究在一些关键问题上存在的不足,如目前仍缺乏公认的线性和非线性模型的选择判据、已有的混合像元分解模型无法抑制由端元光谱相关造成的共线性问题。最后总结了混合像元分解未来的发展趋势和值得探索的研究方向。如结合辐射传输模型和地面试验,定量分析多次散射的影响机制,以及结合克服共线性的统计回归模型。     

利用雷达干涉数据进行城市不透水层百分比估算

人工不透水层是城市地区的重要特征.作为城市生态环境的关键指数,不透水层百分比(Impervious Surfaces Percentage, ISP)常用于城市水文过程模拟、水质面源污染及城市专题制图等研究中.本文利用ERS-1/2 重复轨道雷达干涉数据,采用分类与回归树(CART)算法探究了雷达遥感在城市ISP估算中的可行性和潜力,并与SPOT5 HRG光学遥感图像的估算结果进行了分析比较.香港九龙港岛实验区的初步研究结果表明,雷达干涉数据在城市不透水层研究中具有一定的应用潜力,特别是裸土和稀疏植被的ISP估算结果要好于光学遥感,这主要得益于雷达干涉数据(特别是长时间相干图像)在人工建筑物和裸土或稀疏植被之间具有很强的区分能力,另外,雷达干涉数据和光学遥感数据间的融合能够提高ISP估算精度.     

Coupling urbanization analyses for studying urban thermal environment and its interplay with biophysical parameters based on TM/ETM+ imagery

Studies of urbanization and urban thermal environment are now attracting wide interests among scientists all over the world. This study investigated the influences of urbanization on urban thermal environment as well as the relationships of thermal characteristics to other biophysical variables in Guangzhou, China utilizing three dates of Landsat TM/ETM+ images acquired in 1990, 2000, and 2005, respectively. Vegetation abundances and percent impervious surfaces were derived by means of linear spectral mixture model, and a method for effectively enhancing impervious surface has been developed to accurately examine the urban enlargement. As a key parameter for studying urban thermal characteristics, the land surface temperature (LST) was also retrieved from thermal infrared band of each TM/ETM+ dataset. Based on these parameters, the urban expansion, urban heat island effect and the relationships of LSTs to other biophysical parameters were then analyzed. Results indicated that the area ratio of impervious surface in Guangzhou increased significantly, which grew from 20.56% in 1990, to 34.72% in 2000, and further to 41.12% in 2005, however, the intensity of urban heat island was not always enlarged in observed years. In addition, Geostatistical analyses showed that the mean-centre of the impervious surface was moving towards the northwest during 1990–2005. And correlation analyses revealed that, at the pixel-scale, the association of LSTs to other two variables (vegetation abundance and percent impervious surface) was not straightforward, while LSTs possessed a strong positive correlation with percent impervious surfaces and negative correlation with vegetation abundances at the regional-scale, respectively. This study provided an integrated research scheme and the findings can be very useful for urban ecosystem modeling.