Enter records

ID: 61065
Title: Dry-season vegetation mass and cover fraction from SWIR1.6 and SWIR2.1 band ratio: Ground-radiometer and MODIS data in the Sahel.
Author: L.Kergoat, P.Hiernaux, C.Dardel, C.Pierre, F.Guichard, A. Kalilou.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 39 56-64 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: SWIR, Vegetation mass, Cover fraction, MODIS, Ground radiometry, Sahel.
Abstract: The potential of the short-wave infrared (SWIR) bands to detect dry-season vegetation mass and cover fraction is investigated with ground radiometry and MODIS data, confronted to vegetation data collected in rangeland and cropland sites in the Sahel (Senegal, Niger, Mali). The ratio of the 1.6 and 2.1 ?m bands (called STI) acquired with a ground radiometer proved well suited for grassland mass estimation up to 2500kg/ha with a linear relation (r2=0.89). A curvilinear regression is accurate for masses ranging up to 3500kg/ha.STI proved also well suited to retrieve vegetation cover fraction in crop fields, fallows and rangelands. Such dry-season monitoring with either ground or satellite data, has important applications for forage, erosion risk and fire risk assessment in semi-arid areas.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: Asner, G.P., Lobell, D.B., 2000.A biogeophysical approach for automated SWIR unmixing of soils and vegetation. Remote Sens. Environ. 74, 99-112. Booth, D.T., Cox, S.E., Meikle, T.W., Fitzgerald, C., 2006. The accuracy of ground-cover measurements. Rangeland Ecol.Manage.59, 179-188.
Literature cited 2: Dardel, C., Kergoat, L., Hiernaux, P., Grippa, M., Mougin, E., Ciais, P., N ' guyen, C.C., 2014a.Rain-use-efficiency: what it tells us about the conflicting-Sahel greening and sahelian paradox. Remote Sens.6, 3446-3474. Dardel, C., Kergoat, L., Hiernaux, P., Mougin, E., Grippa, M., Tucker, C.J., and 2014b.Re-greening Sahel: 30 years of remote sensing data and field observations (Mali, Niger).Remote Sens.Environ.140, 350-364.

ID: 61064
Title: Subsidence monitoring coal area using time-series InSAR combining persistent scatterers and distrtibuted scatterers.
Author: Zhengjia Zhang, Chao Wang, Yixian Tang, Qiaoyan Fu, Hong Zhang.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 39 49-53 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: Coal mining, InSAR, Persistent scatterer (PS) Distributed scatterer (DS), Two scale network.
Abstract: In coal mining areas, ground subsidence persistently happens, which produces serious environmental issues and affects the development of cities. To monitor the ground deformation due to coal mining, a modified time-series InSAR technique combining persistent scatterers (PSs) and distributed scatterers (DSs) is presented in this paper. In particular, DSs are efficiently identified using classified information and statistical characteristics. Furthermore, a two-scale network is introduced into traditional PSI to deal with PSs and DSs. The proposed method is performed to investigate the subsidence of Huainan City, Anhui province (China), during 2012-2013 using scenes of Radarsat-2 images. Experimental results show that the proposed method can ease the estimation complexity and significantly increase the spatial density of measurement points, which can provide more detailed deformation information. Result shows that there are obvious subsidence areas detected in the test site with subsidence velocity larger than 5 cm/year. The proposed method brings practical applications for non-urban area deformation monitoring.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: Baek, J., Kim, S., -W, Park, H-J., Jung, H.-S., Kim, K.-D., Kim, J.W., 2008.Analysis of ground subsidence in coal mining area using SAR interferometry.Geosci.J.12 (3), 277-284. Berardino, P., Fornaro, G., Lanari, R., Sansosti, E., 2002.A new algorithm for surface deformation monitoring based on small baseline differential SAR interferograms.IEEE Trans.Geosci.Remote Sens.40 (11), 2375-2383.
Literature cited 2: Demoulin, A., Campbell, J., Wulf, A.D., Muls, A., Arnould, R., Gorres, B.et al., 2005.GPS monitoring of vertical ground motion in northern Ardenne-Eifel: five campaigns (1999-2003) of the HARD project.Int.J.Earth Sci. 94 (4), 515-524. Ferretti, A., Prati, C., Rocca, F., 2001.Permanent scatterers in SAR interferometry. IEEE Trans.Geosci.Remote Sens. 39 (1), 8-20.

ID: 61063
Title: RNDSI: A ratio normalized difference soil index for remote sensing of urban/suburban environments.
Author: Yingbin Deng, Changshan Wu, Miao Li, Renrong Chen.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 39 40-48 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: Soil index, Ratio normalized difference soil index (RNDSI), Biophysical composition index (BCI), Enhanced built-up and bareness index (EBBI), Land use land cover change (LUCC).
Abstract: 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 (TCI). 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.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: A-Syakur, A.R., Adnyana, I., Arthana, I.W., Nuarsa, I.W., 2012.Enhanced built-up and bareness index (ebbi) for mapping built-up and bare land in an urban area. Remote Sens.4, 2957-2970. Becker, F., Choudhury, B.J., 1988.Relative sensitivity of normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) and microwave polarization difference index (MPDI) for vegetation and desertification monitoring. Remote Sens.Environ.24, 297-311.
Literature cited 2: Ben-Dor, E., 2002.Quantitative remote sensing of soil properties.Adv.Agron.75, 173-243. Deng, C., Wu, C., 2012.BCI: a biophysical composition index for remote sensing of urban environments. Remote Sens.Environ.127, 247-259.

ID: 61062
Title: A combined deficit index for regional agricultural drought assessment over semi-arid tract of India using geostationary meteorological satellite data.
Author: Swapnil S.Vyas, Bimal K. Bhattacharya, Rahul Nigam, Pulak Guhathakurta, Kripan Ghosh, N.Chattopadhyay, R.M.Gairola.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 39 28-39 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: Satellite meteorology, Geostationary, Agricultural drought, INSAT products.
Abstract: The untimely and uneven distribution of south-west monsoon rainfall lead to agricultural drought causing reduction in food-grain production with high vulnerability over semi-arid tract (SAT) of India. A combined deficit index (CDI) has been developed from tri-monthly sum of deficit in antecedent rainfall and deficit in monthly vegetation vigor with a lag period of one month between the two. The formulation of CDI used a core biophysical (e.g., NDVI) a hydro-meteorological (e.g., rainfall) variables derived using observation from Indian geostationary satellites. The CDI was tested and evaluated in two drought years (2009 and 2012) within a span of five years (2009-2013) over SAT. The index was found to have good correlation (0.49-0.68) with standardized precipitation index (SPI) computed from rain-gauge measurements but showed lower correlation with anomaly in monthly land surface temperature (LST).Significant correlations were found between CDI and reduction in agricultural carbon productivity (0.67-0.83), evapotranspiration (0.64-0.73), agricultural grain yield (0.70-0.85).Inconsistent correlation between CDI and ET reduction was noticed in 2012 in contrast to consistent correlation between CDI and reduction in carbon productivity both in 2009 and 2012. The comparison of CDI-based drought-affected area with those from existing operational approach showed 75% overlapping regions though class-to class matching was only 40-45 %. The results demonstrated the CDI is a potential indicator for assessment of late-season regional agricultural drought based on lag-response between water supply and crop vigor.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: Anon, 2010. Annual Report.2009-10.Department of Agriculture &Co-cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, 1-3, (www.agricoop.nic.in). Anon, 2012. Southwest Monsoon, End-of-season report, India Meteorological Department, 1-14, (www.imd.gov.in).
Literature cited 2: Anon, 2013.State of Indian Agriculture 2012-13.Department of Agriculture & Co-cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, 1-4, (www.agricoop.nic.in). Agarwal, S., Joshi, P.K., Shukla, Y., Roy, P.S., 2003.SPOT VEGETATION multi temporal data for classifying vegetation in South Central Asia.Curr.Sci. 84 (11), 1440-1448.

ID: 61061
Title: Operationalizing measurement of forest degradation: Identification and quantification of charcoal production in tropical dry forests using very high resolution satellite imagery.
Author: K.Dons, C.Smith-Hall, H.Meilby, R.Fensholt.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 39 18-27 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: REDD+, Feature extraction, Very-high-resolution imagery, Burn mark detection, Supervised classification, Miombo woodlands, Tanzania.
Abstract: Quantification of forest degradation in monitoring and reporting as well as in historic baselines is among the most challenging tasks in national REDD+ strategies. However, a recently introduced option is to base monitoring systems on subnational conditions such as prevalent degradation activities. In Tanzania, charcoal production is considered a major cause of forest degradation, but is challenging to quantify due to sub-canopy biomass loss, remote production sites and illegal trade. We studied two charcoal production sites in dry Miombo woodland representing open woodland conditions near human settlements and remote forest with nearly closed canopies. Supervised classification and adaptive thresholding were applied on a pansharpened QuickBird (QB) image to detect kiln burn marks (KBMs). Supervised classification showed reasonable detection accuracy in the remote forest site only, while adaptive thresholding was found acceptable at both locations. We used supervised classification and manual digitizing for KBM delineation and found acceptable delineation accuracy at both sites with RMSEs of 25-32 % compared to ground measurements. Regression of charcoal production on KBM area delineated from QB resulted in R2s of 0.86-0.88 with cross-validation RMSE ranging from 2.22 to 2.29 Mg charcoal per kiln. This study demonstrates, how locally calibrated remote sensing techniques may be used to identify and delineate charcoal production sites for estimation of charcoal production and associated extraction of woody biomass.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: Addink, E.A., Van Coillie, F.M.B., De jong, S.M., 2012.Introdction to the GEOBIA 2010.special issue: from pixels to geographic objects in remote sensing image analysis.Int.J.Appl.Earth Obs.Geoinf.15, 1-6. Ahrends, A., Burgess, N.D., Milledge, S.A.H., Bulling, M.T., Fisher, B., Smart, J.C.R., Clarke, G.P., Mhoro, B.E., Lewis, S.L., 2010.Predictable waves of sequential forest degradation and biodiversity loss spreading from an African city.Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci.U.S.A. 107, 14556-14561.
Literature cited 2: Antal, M.J., Gronli, M., 2003.The art, science, and technology of charcoal production.Ind.Eng.Chem.Res.42, 1619-1640. Asner, G.P., Knapp, D.E., Broadbent, E.N., Oliveira, P.J.C., Keller, M., Silva, J.N., 2005.Selective logging in the Brazilian Amazon. Science 310, 480-482.

ID: 61060
Title: Thermal infrared imaging of the temporal variability in stomatal conductance for fruit trees.
Author: Raymond Struthers, Anna Ivanova, Laurent Tits, Rony Swennen, Pol Coppin.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 39 9-17 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: Canopy temperature, Pear trees, Stomatal conductance, Thermal imaging, Vapor pressure deficit.
Abstract: Repeated measurements using thermal infrared remote sensing were used to characterize the change in canopy temperature over time and factors that influenced this change on ' Conference ' pear trees (Pyrus communis L). Three different types of sensors were used, a leaf porometer to measure leaf stomatal conductance, a thermal infrared camera to measure the canopy temperature and a meterological sensor to measure weather variables. Stomatal conductance of water stressed pear was significantly lower than in the control group 9 days after stress began. This decrease in stomatal conductance reduced transpiration, reducing evaporative cooling that increased canopy temperature. Using thermal infrared imaging with wavelengths between 7.5 and 13 ?m, the first significant difference was measured 18 days after stress began. A second order derivative described the average rate of change of the difference between the stress treatment and control group. The average rate of change for stomatal conductance was 0.06 (mmol m-2 s-1) and for canopy temperature was -0.04 (? C) with respect to days. Thermal infrared remote sensing and data analysis presented in this study demonstrated that the differences in canopy temperatures between the water stress and control treatment due to stomata regulation can be validated.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: Abramoff, M.D., Magalhaes, P.J., Ram, S.J., 2004.Image processing with imageJ.Biophotonics Int.11, 36-42. American Society for Testing and Materials designation: E 1862-97, 1998.Standard Test Methods for Measuring and Compensating for Reflected Temperature Using Infrared Imaging Radiometers, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, West Conshohocken, PA.
Literature cited 2: Anderson, D.B., 1936.Relative humidity or vapor pressure deficit. Ecology 17, 277-282. Ballester, C., Castel, J., Jimenez-Bello, M.A., Castel, J.R, Intrigliolo, D.S., 2013.Thermographic measurements of canopy temperature is a useful tool for predicting water deficit effects on fruit weight in citrus trees.Agric.Water Manage.122, 1-6.

ID: 61059
Title: Classification of crops across heterogeneous agricultural landscape in Kenya using AisaEAGLE imaging spectroscopy data.
Author: Rami Piiroinen, Janne Heiskanen, Matti Mottus, Petri Pellikka.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 39 1-8 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: Land cover classification, Imaging spectroscopy, Heterogeneous landscape, Support vector machine, Minimum noise fraction.
Abstract: Land use practices are changing at a fast pace in the tropics. In sub-Saharan Africa forests, woodlands and bushlands are being transformed for agricultural use to produce food for the rapidly growing population. The objective of this study was to assess the prospects of mapping the common agricultural crops in highly heterogeneous study area in south-eastern Kenya using high spatial and spectral resolution AisaEAGLE imaging spectroscopy data. Minimum noise fraction transformation was used to pack the coherent information in smaller set of bands and the data was classified with support vector machine (SVM) algorithm. A total of 35 plant species were mapped in the field and seven most dominant ones were used as classification was 90.8 %.To assess the possibility of excluding the remaining 28 plant species from the classification results, 10 different probability thresholds (PT) were tried with SVM. The impact of PT was assessed with validation polygons of all 35 mapped plant species .The results showed that while PT was assessed with validation polygons of all 35 mapped plant species. The results showed that while PT was increased more pixels were excluded from non-target polygons than from the polygons of the seven classification targets. This increased the OA and reduced salt-and-pepper effects in the classification results. Very high spatial resolution imagery and pixel-based classification approach worked well with small targets such as maize while there was mixing of classes on the sides of the tree crowns.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: Alonzo, M., Bookhagen, D., Roberts, A., 2014. Urban tree species mapping using hyperspectral and lidar data fusion. Remote Sens.Environ.148, 70-83. Asner, G.P., Martin, R.E., 2009. Airborne spectranomics: mapping canopy chemical and taxonomic diversity in tropical forests. Fron.Ecol.Environ.7, 269-276.
Literature cited 2: Balder, C.A.Asner, G.P., 2013.Estimating vegetation beta diversity from airborne imaging spectroscopy an unsupervised clustering. Remote Sens. 5, 2057-2071. Baldyga, T.J., Miller, S.N., Driese, K.L., Gichaba, C.M., 2007. Assessing landcover changes in Kenya ' s Mau forest region using remotely sensed data. Afr.J.Ecol.46, 46-54.

ID: 61058
Title: Regional assessment of lake ecological states using Landsat: A classification scheme for alkaline-saline, flamingo lakes in the East African Rift Valley.
Author: E.J.Tebbs, J.J.Remedios, S.T.Avey, C.S.Rowland, D.M.Harper.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 40 100-108 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: Landsat, Classification, Alkaline-saline series, Lesser Flamingos, Cyanobacteria, Benthic diatoms.
Abstract: In situ reflectance measurements and Landsat satellite imagery were combined to develop an optical classification scheme for alkaline-saline lakes in the Eastern Rift Valley. The classification allows the ecological state and consequent value, in this case to Lesser Flamingos, to be determined using Landsat satellite imagery. Lesser Flamingos depend on network of 15 alkaline-saline lakes in East African Rift Valley, where they feed by filtering cyanobacteria and benthic diatoms from the lakes ' waters. The classification developed here was based on a decision tree which used the reflectance in Landsat ETM+ bands 2-4 to assign one of six classes; low phytoplankton biomass; suspended sediment-dominated; microphytobenthos; high cynobacterial biomass scum and bleached cyanobacterial scum. The classification accuracy was 77% when verified against in situ measurements. Classified imagery and timeseries were produced for selected lakes, which show the different ecological behaviours of these complex systems. The results have highlighted the importance to flamingos of the food resources offered by the extremely remote Lake Logipi. This study has demonstrated the potential of high spatial resolution, low-spectral resolution sensors for providing ecologically valuable information at a regional scale, for alkaline-saline lakes and similar hypereutrophic inland waters.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: Brezonik, P., Menken, K.D., Bauer, M., 2005. Landsat-based remote sensing of lake water quality characteristics including chlorophyll and colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM).Lake Reserv.Manag. 21 (4), 373-382. Brown, L., 1971.The breeding behaviour of the lesser flamingo Phoeniconaias minor. Ibis 113 (2), 147-172.
Literature cited 2: Castanier, S., Bernet-Rollande, M.-C., Maurin, A.Perthuisot, J.-P., 1993. Effects of microbial activity on the hydrochemistry and sedimentology of Lake Logipi, Kenya. In: Saline Lakes, held in Bolivia.22-29 March 1991.Vol. 87 of Developments in Hydrology. Springer, pp.99-112. Chander, G., Markham, B.L., Helder, D.L., 2009. Summary of current radiometric calibration coefficients for Landsat MSS, TM, ETM+, and EO-1 ALI sensors. Remote Sens.Environ.113, 893-903, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2009.01.007.

ID: 61057
Title: Mapping burn severity in a disease-impacted forest landscape using Landsat and MASTER imagery.
Author: Gang Chen, Margaret R.Metz.David M.Rizzo, Ross K. Meentemeyer.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 40 91-99 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: Burn severity, forest fire, Disease invasion, MASTER, Landsat, Sudden oak death, Interacting disturbances.
Abstract: Global environmental change has increased forest vulnerability to the occurrence of interacting disturbances, including wildfires and invasive diseases. Mapping post-fire burn severity in a disease-affected forest often faces challenges because burned and infested trees may exhibit a high similarity in spectral reflectance. In this study, we combined (pre-and post-fire) Landsat imagery and (post-fire) high-spectral resolution airborne MASTER data [MODIS (moderate resolution imaging radioradiometer)/ASTER (advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer)] to map burn severity in California coastal forest environment, where a non-native forest diseases sudden oak death (SOD) was causing substantial tree mortality. Results showed that the use of Landsat plus MASTER bundle performed better than using the individual sensors in most of the evaluated forest strata from ground to canopy layers (i.e., substrate, Shrubs, intermediate-sized trees, dominant trees and average), with the best model performance achieved at the dominant tree layer. The mid to thermal infrared spectral bands (3.0-12 ?m) from MASTER were found to augment Landsat ' s visible to shortwave infrared bands in burn severity assessment. We also found that infested and uninfested forests similarly experienced moderate to high degrees of burns where CBI (composite burn index) values were higher than 1.However, differences occurred in the regions with low burn severity (CBI values lower than 1), where uninfested stands revealed a much lower burn effect than that in infested stands, possibly due to their higher resilience to small fire disturbances as a result of higher leaf water content.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: ASTER GDEM Validation Tem, 2009.ASTER Global DEM Validation: Summary Report. June 2009.Available online: https:Ipdaac.usgs.gov/sites/default/files/public/aster/docs/ASTER.GDEM.Validation_Summary_Report.pdf. Asner, G.P., 2013. Geography of forest disturbance.Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci.U.S.A. 110, 3711-3712.
Literature cited 2: Bergot, M., Cloppet, E., Perarnaud, BV. Deque, M., Marcais, B., Desprez-Loustau, M.,-L., 2004.Simulation of potential range expansion of oak disease caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi under climate change. Global Change Biol.10, 1552-1939. Carcaillet, C., Bergeron, Y., Richard, P.J.H., Frechette, B., Gauthier, S., Prairie, Y.T., 2001. Change of fire frequency in the eastern Canadian boreal forests during the Holocene: does vegetation composition or climate trigger the fire regime? J.Ecol.89, 930-946.

ID: 61056
Title: Rating health and stability of engineering structures via classification indexes of InSAR Persistent Scatterers.
Author: Fabio Pratesi, Deodato Tapete, Gloria Trenzi, Chiara Del Ventisette, Sandro Moretti.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 40 81-90 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: Structural deformation monitoring, Classification indexes, Synthetic aperture radar, Persistent Scatterer Interferometry.
Abstract: We propose a novel set of indexes to classify the information content of persistent Scatterers (PS) and rate the health of engineering structures at urban to local scale. PS are automatically sampled and grouped via ' control areas ' coinciding with the building and its surrounding environment. Density over the ' control areas ' and velocity of PS are converter respectively into: completeness of Information index (Ici) that reflects the PS coverage grade; and Conservation Critically Indexes (Icc) which rate the health condition of the monument separately for the object and surrounding control areas. The deformation pattern over the structure is classified as isolated (i) or diffused (d) based on Velocity Distribution Index (Ivd).Both Ici and Icc are rated from A to E classes using a colour -coded system that intentionally emulates an energy-efficiency scale, to encourage the exploitation of PS by stakeholders and end-users in the practice of engineering surveying. Workability and reliability of the classification indexes are demonstrated over the urban heritage of Florence, Italy, using well established ERS-1/2 (1992-2000) descending, ENVISAT (2003-2010) ascending and descending PS datasets. The indexes are designed in perspective of handling outputs from InSAR processing of higher-resolution time series.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: Bateson, L., Cuevas, M., Crosetto, M., Cigna, Schijf, M., Evans, H., 2012.PANGEO; enable access information in support of GMES: DELIVERABLE 3.5 production manual. Version 1. Available at: </http:/pangeoproject.eu/sites/default/files/pangeo.other/D3.5-PnGeo-production-Manual v1.3pdf>, (accessed 07.03.14) Berti, M., Corsini, A., Franceschini, S., Jannacone, J.P., 2013.Automated classification of Persistent Scatterers Interferometry time series. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst.Sci.13, 1945-1958.
Literature cited 2: Chang, L., Hansen, R.F., 2014.Detection of cavity migration and shinkhole risk radar interferometric time series. Remote Sens. Environ. 147 (5), 56-64. Cigna, F., Bateson, L.B., Jordan, C.J., Dashwood, C., 2014.Simulating SAR geometric distortions and predicting Persistent Scatterer densities for ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT-C band SAR and InSAR applications: nationwide feasibility assessment to monitor the landmass of Great Britain with SAR imagery. Remote Sens.Environ.152, 441-466.

ID: 61055
Title: Rapid detection of new and expanding human settlements in the Limpopo province of South Africa using a spatio-temporal change detection method.
Author: W.Kleynhans, B.P.Salmon, K.J.Wessels, J.C.Olivier.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 40 74-80 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: Change detection, Autocorrelation, Time-series, Hyper-temporal, Settlements.
Abstract: Recent development has identified the benefits of using hyper-temporal satellite time series data for land cover change detection and classification in South Africa. In particular, the monitoring of human settlement expansion in the Limpopo province is of relevance as it is the one of the most pervasive forms of land-cover change in this province which covers an area of roughly 125 000km2. In this paper, spatiotemporal autocorrelation change detection (STACD) method is developed to improve the performance of a pixel based temporal Autocorrelation change detection (TACD) method previously proposed. The objective is to apply the algorithm to large areas to detect the conversion of natural vegetation to settlement which is then validated by an operator using additional data (such as high resolution imagery). Importantly, as the objective of the method is to indicate areas of potential change to operators for further analysis, a low false alarm rate is required while achieving an acceptable probability of detection. Results indicate that detection accuracies of 70 % of new settlement instances are achievable at a false alarm rate of less than1 % with the STACD method, an improvement of up to 17 % compared to the original TACD formulation.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: Atkinson, K., 1968.On the order of convergence of natural cubic spline interpolation.SIAM J.Numer.Anal. 5 (1), 89-101. De Beurs, K.Henerby, G., 2005. A statistical framework for the analysis of long image time series.Int.J.Remote. Sens. 26 (8), 1551-1573.
Literature cited 2: Grobler, T., Ackermann, E., van Zyl, A., Oliver, J., Kleynhans, W., Salmon, B., 2013.Using page ' s cumulative sum test on MODIS time series to detect land-cover changes.IEEE Geosci.Remote Sens.Lett. 10 (2), 332-336. Kennedy, R., Cohen, W., Schroeder, T., 2007.Trajectory-based change detection for automated characterization of forest disturbance dynamics. Remote Sens.Environ. 110 (3), 370-386.

ID: 61054
Title: Development of scheme for atmospheric correction of Resourcesat-2 AWiFS data.
Author: M.R.Pandya, V.N.Pathak, D.B.Shah, H.J.Trivedi, R.A.Chipade, R.P.Singh.A.S.Kirankumar.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 40 65-73 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: Atmospheric correction, AWiFS, IRS, Resourcesat, SACRS2, Surface reflectance.
Abstract: This paper presents a method called SACRS2, a scheme for atmospheric correction of RS2-AWiFS (Resourcesat2-Advanced Wide Field Sensor) data. The SACRS2 is a computationally fast scheme developed from a physics-based detailed radiative transfer model 6SV for correcting large amount of data from the high-repetivity AWiFS sensor through forward signal simulations by 6SV.Semi-empirical formulations provided in the SMAC method with a few improvements have been used describe various atmospheric interactions. A total of 112 coefficients for different equations are determined using the best fit equations against the computations of the 6 SV. After the specific coefficients for the RS2-AWiFS spectral bands are determined, the major inputs of the scheme are raw digital numbers recorded by RS2-AWiFS sensor, atmospheric columnar water vapour content, ozone content, aerosol optical thickness at 550nm and viewing-illumination conditions. Results showed a good performance of the SACRS2 with a maximum relative error in the SACRS2 simulations ranged between 1 % for a reflectance of 0.5 and 8.6 % for reflectance of 0.05 with respect to 6SV computations. Validation of retrieved surface reflectance using the SACRS2 scheme with respect to in-situ measurements at two sites indicated a capability of this scheme to determine the surface reflectance within 10 %.This is a first of its kind scheme developed for the atmospheric correction of any Indian Remote Sensing satellite data. A package containing the SACRS2 software is available on the MOSDAC website for the researchers.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: Badarinath, K.V.S., Kiran Chand, T.R., Krishna Prasad ,V., 2006.Agriculture crop residue burning in the Indo-Gangetic Plains- a study using IRS-P6 AWiFS satellite data.Curr.Sci.91, 1085-1089. Beal D., Baret, F., Weiss M. Gu X., Verbrugghe M., (2003). A method for MERIS atmospheric correction based on the spectral and spatial observation.Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2003, IGARSS ' 03.Proceedings 6 (pp.3601-1603).
Literature cited 2: Borbas ,E., Seemann., S.W., Huang, H.-L., Li, J.,Menzel, W.P., 2005.Global profile training database for satellite regression retrievals with estimates of skin temperature and emissivity. In: Proceeding International ATOVS Study Conference-XIV, Beijing, China, 25-31 May 2005, pp.763-770. Chai, M.M.F., Bayat, S., Hash, S.A., 2012.Probability measurement to estimate forest tree diversity using IRS-P6 satellite images in Caspian broad leaved forests. ARPN J.Agric.Biol.Sci.7, 238-243.

ID: 61053
Title: Satellite mapping of Baltic Sea Secchi depth with multiple regression models.
Author: Andy stock
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 40 55-64 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: Baltic Sea, Secchi depth, MODIS, Mapping, Regression, GAM.
Abstract: Secchi depth is a measure of water transparency. In the Baltic region, Secchi depth maps are used to assess eutrophication and as input for habitat models. Due to their spatial and temporal coverage, satellite data would be the most suitable data source for such maps. But the Baltic Sea ' s optical properties are so different from the open ocean that globally calibrated standard models suffer from large errors. Regional predictive models that take the Baltic Sea ' s special optical properties into account are thus needed. This paper tests how accurately generalized linear models (GLMs) and generalized additive models (GAMs) with MODIS/Aqua and auxiliary data as inputs can predict Secchi depth at a regional scale. It uses cross-validation to test the prediction accuracy of hundreds of GAMs and GLMs with up to 5 input variables. A GAM with 3 input variables (chlorophyll a, remote sensing reflectance at 678 nm, and long-term mean salinity) made the most accurate predictions. Tested against field observations not used for model selection and calibration, the best model ' s mean absolute error (MAE) for daily predictions was 1.07 m (22 %), more than 50 % lower than for other publicly available Baltic Sea Secchi depth maps. The MAE for predicting monthly averages was 0.86 m (15%). Thus, the proposed model selection process was able to find a regional model with good prediction accuracy. It could be useful to find predictive models for environmental variables other Secchi depth, using data from other satellite sensors, and for other regions where non-standard remote sensing models are needed for prediction and mapping. Annual and monthly mean Secchi depth maps for 2003-2012 come with this paper as Supplementary materials.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: Aarup, T., 2002.Transparency of the North Sea and Baltic Sea-a Secchi depth data mining study. Oceanologia 44 (3). Cameron, A., Askew N. (eds., 2011) EUSeaMap-Preparatory Action for development and assessment of a European broad-scale seabed habitat map final report. Available at http://jncc.gov.uk/euseamap (last access on 19.07.14.)
Literature cited 2: Darecki, M., Stramski, D., 2004.An evaluation of MODIS and SeaWiFS bio-optical algorithms in the Baltic Sea. Remote Sens.Environ. 89 (3), 326-350. Dormann, C.F., Elith, J., Bacher, S., Buchmann, C., Carl, G., Carre, G., Leautenbach, S., 2013.Collinearity: a review of methods to deal with it and a simulation study evaluating their performance.Ecography.36 (1), 27-46.

ID: 61052
Title: Evaluating a satellite-based seasonal evapotranspiration product and identifying its relationship with other satellite-derived products and crop yield. A case study for Ethiopia.
Author: Tsegaye Tadesse, Gabriel B.Senay, Getachew Berhan, Teshome Regassa, Shimelis Beyene.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 40 39-54 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: Cropyield, Drought, Early warning, Evapotranspiration, Food security, Risk management.
Abstract: Satellite-derived evapotranspiration anomalies and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) products from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data are currently used for African agricultural drought monitoring and food security status assessment. In this study, a process to evaluate satellite -derived evapotranspiration (Eta) products with a geospatial statistical exploratory technique that uses NDVI, satellite-derived rainfall estimate (RFE), and crop yield data has been developed. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the Eta using the NDVI and RFE, and identify a relationship between the Eta and Ethiopia ' s cereal crop (i.e, teff, sorghum, corn/maize, barley, and wheat) yields during the main rainy season. Since crop production is one of the main factors affecting food security, the evaluation of remote sensing-based seasonal Eta was done to identify the appropriateness of this tool as a proxy for monitoring vegetation condition in drought vulnerable and food insecure areas to support decision makers. The results of this study showed that the comparison between seasonal Eta and RFE produced strong correlation (R2>0.99) for all 41 crop growing zones in Ethiopia. The results of the spatial regression analyses of seasonal Eta and NDVI using Ordinary Least Squares and Geographically Weighted Regression showed relatively weak yearly spatial relationships (R2<0.7) for all cropping zones. However, for each individual crop zones, the correlation between NDVI and Eta ranged between 0.3 and 0.84 for about 44 % of the cropping zones. Similarly, for each individual crop zones, the correlation (R2) between the seasonal Eta anomaly and de-trended cereal crop yield was between 0.4 and 0.82 for 76 % (31 out of 41) of the crop growing zones. The preliminary results indicated that the Eta products have a good predictive potential for these 31 identified zones in Eithopia. Decision makers may potentially use Eta products for monitoring cereal cop yields are early warning of food insecurity during drought years for these identified zones.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: Anderson, M.C. Noman, J.M., Mecikalski, J.R, Otkin, J.P., Kustas, W.P., 2007. A climatology study of evapotranspiration and moisture stress across the continental U.S. based on thermal remote sensing: 1.Model formulation.J.Geophy.Res.112 (D10), 117, http: //dx.doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007506. Allen, R.G., Tasumi, M.,Trezza, R., 2007.Satellite-based energy balance for mapping evapotranspitration with internalized calibration (METRIC) -Model.J.Irrig.Drain.Eng.133, 380-394.
Literature cited 2: Bastiaanssen, W.G.M., Noordman, H., Pelgrum, G., Thoreson, B.P., Allen, R.G., 2005.SEBAL model with remotely sensed data to improve water resources management under actual field conditions.J.Irrig.Drain.Eng.131, 85-93. Bastiaanssen, W.G.M., P.Karimi, L.-M.Rebelo, Z., Duan, G.B., Senay, L.Muttuwatte, V.Smakhtin, 2014.Earth Observation-based Assessment of the Water production and Water Consumtion of Nile Basin Agro-Ecosystems. Remote Sensing, 6, 1-x manuscripts; doi: 10.3390/rs60x000x (accepted, pending revision).

ID: 61051
Title: Geo-reCAPTCHA: Crowdsourcing large amounts of geographic information from earth observation data.
Author: Florian Hillen, Bernhard Hofle.
Editor: F.D.van der Meer
Year: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION. Vol. 40 29-38 (2015).
Subject: APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION.
Keywords: User-generated geographic information, Volunteered geographic information, Crowdsourcing, reCAPTCHA, Geo-reCAPTCHA.
Abstract: The reCAPTCHA concept provides a large amount of valuable information for various applications. First, it provides security, e.g., for a form on a website, by means of a test that only a human could solve. Second, the effort of the user for this test is used to generate additional information, e.g., digitization of books or identification of house numbers. In this work, we present a concept for adapting the reCAPTCHA idea to create user-generated geographic information from earth observation data, and the requirements during the conception and implementation are depicted in detail. Furthermore, the essential parts of a Geo-reCAPTCHA system are described, and afterwards transferred, to a prototype implementation. An empirical user study is conducted to investigate the Geo-reCAPTCHA approach, assessing time and quality of the resulting geographic information. Our results show that a Geo-reCAPTCHA approaches, assessing time and quality of the resulting geographic information. Our results show that a Geo-reCAPTCHA can be solved by the users of our study on building digitization in a short amount of time (19.2 s on average) with an overall average accuracy of the digitization of 82.2 %.In conclusion, GeoreCAPTCHA has the potential to be a reasonable alternative to the typical reCAPTCHA, and to become a new data-rich channel of crowdsourced geographic information.
Location: T E 15 New Biology Building.
Literature cited 1: Banday, M.T., Shah, N.A., 2011.Challenges of CAPTCHA in the accessibility of Indian regional websites. In: Proceedings of COMPUTE ' 11, Bangalore, India, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1980422.1980453. BuiltWith, 2014.reCAPTCHA Usage statistics. Available from http://trends.builtwith.com/widgets/reCAPTCHA (accessed 6.08.14). Chew, M., Baird, H.S., 2003.Baffetext: a human interactive proof.In: Procedings of 10th IS&T/SPIE Document Recognition &Retrieval Conf, 2003.305-316.
Literature cited 2: CITI-SENSE, 2014.Available from http://www.citi-sense.eu/(accessed 6.08.14). CNN, 2014.Crowdsourcing volunteers comb satellite photos for Malaysis Airlines jet.Availble from http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/11/us/malaysia-airlines-plane-crowdsourcing-search/(accessed 6.08.14).