A GIS-based method for defining snow zones: application to the western United States

This study maps the geographic extent of intermittent and seasonal snow cover in the western United States using thresholds of 2000–2010 average snow persistence derived from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer snow cover area data from 1 January to 3 July. Results show seasonal snow covers 13% of the region, and intermittent snow covers 25%. The lower elevation boundaries of intermittent and seasonal snow zones increase from north-west to south-east. Intermittent snow is primarily found where average winter land surface temperatures are above freezing, whereas seasonal snow is primarily where winter temperatures are below freezing. However, temperatures at the boundary between intermittent and seasonal snow exhibit high regional variability, with average winter seasonal snow zone temperatures above freezing in west coast mountain ranges. Snow cover extent at peak accumulation is most variable at the upper elevations of the intermittent snow zone, highlighting the sensitivity of this snow zone boundary to climate conditions.     

GPS信噪比用于雪深监测研究

针对利用全球导航卫星系统反射信号研究测站地表环境参数已成为一个新兴的研究课题这一现状,该文基于全球定位系统信噪比与信号振幅的变化特征,给出了基于全球定位系统多路径信号的全球定位系统多径反射技术用于雪深探测的基本原理。为了验证算法的有效性,利用美国PBO网络中P360站离散20d的全球定位系统原始观测数据进行雪深探测的反演实验。实验结果表明:全球定位系统多径反射技术反演雪深值与实测雪深值吻合较好,误差均值为0.07m,相关系数大于0.99。因此,利用全球定位系统信噪比可以进行雪深探测,在未来的全球导航卫星系统观测站建立时,可以考虑它在环境监测方面表现出来的潜能。     

Soil characterization based on land cover heterogeneity over a tropical landscape: an integrated approach using earth observation data-sets

Soil is a vital part of the natural environment and is always responding to changes in environmental factors, along with the influences of anthropogenic factors and land use changes. The long-term change in soil properties will result in change in soil health and fertility, and hence the soil productivity. Hence, the main aim of this paper focuses on the analysis of land use/land cover (LULC) change pattern in spatial and temporal perspective and to present its impact on soil properties in the Merawu catchment over the period of 18?years. Post classification change detection was performed to quantify the decadal changes in historical LULC over the periods of 1991, 2001 and 2009. The pixel to pixel comparison method was used to detect the LULC of the area. The key LULC types were selected for investigation of soil properties. Soil samples were analysed in situ to measure the physicochemical soil properties. The results of this study show remarkable changes in LULC in the period of 18?years. The effect of land cover change on soil properties, soil compaction and soil strength was found to be significant at a level of <0.05.     

Remote sensing-derived national land cover land use maps: a comparison for Malawi

Reliable land cover land use (LCLU) information, and change over time, is important for Green House Gas (GHG) reporting for climate change documentation. Four different organizations have independently created LCLU maps from 2010 satellite imagery for Malawi for GHG reporting. This analysis compares the procedures and results for those four activities. Four different classification methods were employed; traditional visual interpretation, segmentation and visual labelling, digital clustering with visual identification and supervised signature extraction with application of a decision rule followed by analyst editing. One effort did not report classification accuracy and the other three had very similar and excellent overall thematic accuracies ranging from 85 to 89%. However, despite these high thematic accuracies there were very significant differences in results. National percentages for forest ranged from 18.2 to 28.7% and cropland from 40.5 to 53.7%. These significant differences are concerns for both remote-sensing scientists and decision-makers in Malawi.     

东南沿海地理国情普查影像解译应用分析

影像解译是地理国情普查过程中一项重要的基础性工作,影像解译的结果直接影响作业质量、效率.本文选择东南沿海地区具有典型特征的影像,结合我省正在开展的地理国情普查实践,分别采用目视解译、自动解译和人机交互解译三种方法进行解译,从解译精度、效率、应用条件等方面,对比分析了三种方法的优缺点,结果表明:三种解译方法各具优势和不足,解译结果与影像质量、辅助数据质量、地形复杂程度、地物种类等有密切关系,在实际地理国情普查过程中须综合考虑使用.     

Crossing-over between land cover and land use: Exploring spatially varying relationships in two large US metropolitan areas

Difficulties in identifying actual uses of land space from remote sensing-based land cover products often result in lost opportunities to enhance the capacity of applied research on human settlements. In an attempt to address these difficulties, this study investigates how land cover and land use are interrelated with each other and what determines the relationship patterns by analyzing detailed land use and land cover data for two large US metropolitan areas – the five-county Los Angeles and six-county Chicago regions – where a broad spectrum of human settlements, ranging from urban cores to less-urbanized edges, coexist. The analysis shows that the land cover-land use relationship substantially varies not only across regions but across neighborhoods within each region. Through multivariate regression, it is also found that the intraregional variation is highly associated with the neighborhood's stage of urbanization, median housing age, and other development characteristics, suggesting that the relationship pattern can largely be shaped by the history and evolution of urban design/development.     

Land use/land cover change detection and prediction in the north-western coastal desert of Egypt using Markov-CA

Detecting land-use change has become of concern to environmentalists, conservationists and land use planners due to its impact on natural ecosystems. We studied land use/land cover (LULC) changes in part of the northwestern desert of Egypt and used the Markov-CA integrated approach to predict future changes. We mapped the LULC distribution of the desert landscape for 1988, 1999, and 2011. Landsat Thematic Mapper 5 data and ancillary data were classified using the random forests approach. The technique produced LULC maps with an overall accuracy of more than 90%. Analysis of LULC classes from the three dates revealed that the study area was subjected to three different stages of modification, each dominated by different land uses. The use of a spatially explicit land use change modeling approach, such as Markov-CA approach, provides ways for projecting different future scenarios. Markov-CA was used to predict land use change in 2011 and project changes in 2023 by extrapolating current trends. The technique was successful in predicting LULC distribution in 2011 and the results were comparable to the actual LULC for 2011. The projected LULC for 2023 revealed more urbanization of the landscape with potential expansion in the croplands westward and northward, an increase in quarries, and growth in residential centers. The outcomes can help management activities directed toward protection of wildlife in the area. The study can also be used as a guide to other studies aiming at projecting changes in arid areas experiencing similar land use changes.     

典型融雪期雪层融雪水出流条件模拟及分析

融雪期雪层融雪水的运移及流出过程模拟乃是国际冰雪水文学研究的难点之一,准确模拟融雪水的出流过程对于春季融雪型洪水的预报具有重要作用。本研究基于EM50、农业小环境监测仪和一些常规监测手段,获取了典型融雪期雪层的雪粒径、雪深及日气温数据,利用Excel、DPS、Arcgis及SPSS等分析软件对数据进行综合处理,并采用回归分析对融雪水的出流条件进行了建模分析,利用神经网络模型对模拟结果进行检验。结果表明:积温可作为融雪水外流的参考性指标,用于融雪水外流过程的预测分析;雪粒径和雪深都与融雪水外流积温条件存在显著相关性,且相关系数0.96;逐步回归可以很好地模拟融雪水外流的积温条件,模拟的误差仅为124.5℃·min,时间误差为15 min,模拟效果良好。该研究对于进一步探讨融雪期雪层融雪水的出流规律、开展雪层融雪水运移过程的数值模拟等工作具有重要意义。     

Evaluating the relationship between biomass,percent groundcover and remote sensing indices across six winter cover crop fields in Maryland,United States

Winter cover crops are an essential part of managing nutrient and sediment losses from agricultural lands. Cover crops lessen sedimentation by reducing erosion, and the accumulation of nitrogen in aboveground biomass results in reduced nutrient runoff. Winter cover crops are planted in the fall and are usually terminated in early spring, making them susceptible to senescence, frost burn, and leaf yellowing due to wintertime conditions. This study sought to determine to what extent remote sensing indices are capable of accurately estimating the percent groundcover and biomass of winter cover crops, and to analyze under what critical ranges these relationships are strong and under which conditions they break down. Cover crop growth on six fields planted to barley, rye, ryegrass, triticale or wheat was measured over the 2012–2013 winter growing season. Data collection included spectral reflectance measurements, aboveground biomass, and percent groundcover. Ten vegetation indices were evaluated using surface reflectance data from a 16-band CROPSCAN sensor. Restricting analysis to sampling dates before the onset of prolonged freezing temperatures and leaf yellowing resulted in increased estimation accuracy. There was a strong relationship between the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and percent groundcover (r² = 0.93) suggesting that date restrictions effectively eliminate yellowing vegetation from analysis. The triangular vegetation index (TVI) was most accurate in estimating high ranges of biomass (r² = 0.86), while NDVI did not experience a clustering of values in the low and medium biomass ranges but saturated in the higher range (>1500 kg/ha). The results of this study show that accounting for index saturation, senescence, and frost burn on leaves can greatly increase the accuracy of estimates of percent groundcover and biomass for winter cover crops.     

Reducing background effects in orchards through spectral vegetation index correction

Satellite remote sensing provides an alternative to time-consuming and labor intensive in situ measurements of biophysical variables in agricultural crops required for precision agriculture applications. In orchards, however, the spatial resolution causes mixtures of canopies and background (i.e. soil, grass and shadow), hampering the estimation of these biophysical variables. Furthermore, variable background mixtures obstruct meaningful comparisons between different orchard blocks, rows or within each row. Current correction methodologies use spectral differences between canopies and background, but struggle with a vegetated orchard floor. This background influence and the lack of a generic solution are addressed in this study.Firstly, the problem was demonstrated in a controlled environment for vegetation indices sensitive to chlorophyll content, water content and leaf area index. Afterwards, traditional background correction methods (i.e. soil-adjusted vegetation indices and signal unmixing) were compared to the proposed vegetation index correction. This correction was based on the mixing degree of each pixel (i.e. tree cover fraction) to rescale the vegetation indices accordingly and was applied to synthetic and WorldView-2 satellite imagery. Through the correction, the effect of background admixture for vegetation indices was reduced, and the estimation of biophysical variables was improved (ΔR² = 0.2–0.31).