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Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 47803

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Maria Lanfredi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis (IMAA), 85050 Tito Scalo, PZ, Italy
Interests: land cover dynamics; earth-surface/climate interactions; EO data for land cover monitoring and modelling; land degradation and desertification; time series analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Rosa Coluzzi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis (IMAA), 85050 Tito Scalo, PZ, Italy
Interests: land-atmosphere processes; land change trade-offs for ecosystem services and biodiversity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Vito Imbrenda

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis (IMAA), 85050 Tito Scalo, PZ, Italy
Interests: ecological remote sensing; GIS; landscape ecology; landscape metrics; land use management; land cover and land use change; spatial analysis; ecosystem services and goods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Tiziana Simoniello

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis (IMAA), 85050 Tito Scalo, PZ, Italy
Interests: EO data calibration and processing; land surface phenology; land degradation; RS in forestry and natural resource management; RS in ecology and conservation; EO data integration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The current availability of high-quality remote sensing data and products on the status and evolution of the land surface offers today a unique opportunity to study the complexity of land as a dynamic component of the Earth System.

Land surface parameters (e.g., land use/land cover, albedo, roughness, moisture, temperature) vary greatly in space, exerting a pronounced effect on the climate variability, from the local to the global scale. Such dynamics is further complicated by human activities, which are able to interfere with natural mechanisms, exacerbating climatic change as well as climate change effects on the land surface. Bad management strategies can favor disaster risk, e.g., causing hydrological instability and floods or promoting long-term persistent processes as land degradation and loss of natural resources. In such a context, remote sensing is a major source of information to analyze these complex relationships on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales thereby supporting the scientific research and enabling the development and implementation of successful sustainability strategies.        

This Special Issue is open to all the experts from the remote sensing community that work in this field. We welcome papers focusing on the characterization of spatial properties and/or processes occurring within the land surface. Works Specific topics include but are not limited to:

  • Ecosystem goods and services;
  • Ecological remote sensing and landscape structure;
  • Resilience and vegetation recovery;
  • Characterization of land surface phenology at local/regional scale;
  • Land-use land-cover change;
  • Assessment of drought impacts;
  • Land degradation and desertification;
  • Urban sprawl;
  • Geohazard (floods, landslides, etc.);
  • Land surface energy fluxes/evapotranspiration;
  • Climate change impacts on biotic components (and vice versa);
  • Land surface water dynamics;
  • Methods for soil moisture retrieval;
  • Algorithms for multitemporal analysis;
  • Algorithms to retrieve and mapping land surface variables;
  • Airborne/spaceborne lidar applications;
  • Applications of machine learning and deep learning methods across a wide range of ecosystems;
  • EO observations to support decision-making processes;
  • Space economy.

Dr. Maria Lanfredi
Dr. Rosa Coluzzi
Dr. Vito Imbrenda
Dr. Tiziana Simoniello
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Land degradation and desertification
  • Ecosystem goods and services
  • Soil moisture
  • Vegetation
  • Hydrology
  • EO time series analysis
  • Change detection
  • Climate
  • Geohazard

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Published Papers (15 papers)

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Editorial

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8 pages, 233 KiB  
Editorial
Editorial for the Special Issue “Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface”
by Maria Lanfredi, Rosa Coluzzi, Vito Imbrenda and Tiziana Simoniello
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(23), 6123; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14236123 - 2 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1120
Abstract
Land systems have taken a central role in major environmental/climatic issues of the Anthropocene, as they are the result of interacting natural and anthropic processes that are crucial for life on Earth [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Other

17 pages, 26668 KiB  
Article
Automatic Filtering and Classification of Low-Density Airborne Laser Scanner Clouds in Shrubland Environments
by Tiziana Simoniello, Rosa Coluzzi, Annibale Guariglia, Vito Imbrenda, Maria Lanfredi and Caterina Samela
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(20), 5127; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14205127 - 13 Oct 2022
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2037
Abstract
The monitoring of shrublands plays a fundamental role, from an ecological and climatic point of view, in biodiversity conservation, carbon stock estimates, and climate-change impact assessments. Laser scanning systems have proven to have a high capability in mapping non-herbaceous vegetation by classifying high-density [...] Read more.
The monitoring of shrublands plays a fundamental role, from an ecological and climatic point of view, in biodiversity conservation, carbon stock estimates, and climate-change impact assessments. Laser scanning systems have proven to have a high capability in mapping non-herbaceous vegetation by classifying high-density point clouds. On the other hand, the classification of low-density airborne laser scanner (ALS) clouds is largely affected by confusion with rock spikes and boulders having similar heights and shapes. To identify rocks and improve the accuracy of vegetation classes, we implemented an effective and time-saving procedure based on the integration of geometric features with laser intensity segmented by K-means clustering (GIK procedure). The classification accuracy was evaluated, taking into account the data unevenness (small size of rock class vs. vegetation and terrain classes) by estimating the Balanced Accuracy (BA range 89.15–90.37); a comparison with a standard geometry-based procedure showed an increase in accuracy of about 27%. The classical overall accuracy is generally very high for all the classifications: the average is 92.7 for geometry-based and 94.9 for GIK. At class level, the precision (user’s accuracy) for vegetation classes is very high (on average, 92.6% for shrubs and 99% for bushes) with a relative increase for shrubs up to 20% (>10% when rocks occupy more than 8% of the scene). Less pronounced differences were found for bushes (maximum 4.13%). The precision of rock class is quite acceptable (about 64%), compared to the complete absence of detection of the geometric procedure. We also evaluated how point cloud density affects the proposed procedure and found that the increase in shrub precision is also preserved for ALS clouds with very low point density (<1.5 pts/m2). The easiness of the approach also makes it implementable in an operative context for a non-full expert in LiDAR data classification, and it is suitable for the great wealth of large-scale acquisitions carried out in the past by using monowavelength NIR laser scanners with a small footprint configuration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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24 pages, 7604 KiB  
Article
A Smart Procedure for Assessing the Health Status of Terrestrial Habitats in Protected Areas: The Case of the Natura 2000 Ecological Network in Basilicata (Southern Italy)
by Vito Imbrenda, Maria Lanfredi, Rosa Coluzzi and Tiziana Simoniello
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(11), 2699; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14112699 - 4 Jun 2022
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 2347
Abstract
Natura 2000 is the largest coordinated network of protected areas in the world, which has been established to preserve rare habitats and threatened species at the European Community level. Generally, tools for habitat quality assessment are based on the analyses of land-use/land-cover changes, [...] Read more.
Natura 2000 is the largest coordinated network of protected areas in the world, which has been established to preserve rare habitats and threatened species at the European Community level. Generally, tools for habitat quality assessment are based on the analyses of land-use/land-cover changes, thus, highlighting already overt habitat modifications. To evaluate the general quality conditions of terrestrial habitats and detect habitat degradation processes at an early stage, a direct and cost-effective procedure based on satellite imagery (Landsat data) and GIS (Geographic Information System) tools is proposed. It focuses on the detection of anomalies in vegetation matrix (stress/fragmentation), estimated for each habitat at the level of both a single protected site and local network, to identify habitat priority areas (HPA), i.e., areas needing priority interventions, and to support a rational use of resources (field surveys, recovery actions). By analyzing the statistical distributions of standardized NDVI for all the enclosed habitats (at the site or network level), the Degree of Habitat Consistency (DHC) was also defined. The index allows the assessment of the general status of a protected site/network, and the comparison of the environmental conditions of a certain habitat within a given protected site (SCI, SAC) with those belonging to the other sites of the network. The procedure was tested over the Natura 2000 network of the Basilicata region (Southern Italy), considered as a hotspot of great natural and landscape interest. An overall accuracy of ~97% was obtained, with quite low percentages of commission (~8%) and omission (~6%) errors. By examining the diachronic evolution (1985–2009) of DHC and HPA, it was possible to track progress or degradation of the analyzed areas over time and to recognize the efficaciousness/failure of past managements and interventions (e.g., controlled disturbances), providing decision-makers with a thorough understanding for setting up the most suitable mitigation/contrast measures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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19 pages, 8713 KiB  
Article
Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis for Land-Take Assessment in Basilicata Region (Southern Italy)
by Valentina Santarsiero, Gabriele Nolè, Antonio Lanorte, Biagio Tucci, Giuseppe Cillis and Beniamino Murgante
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(7), 1692; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14071692 - 31 Mar 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3076
Abstract
Land use is one of the drivers of land-cover change (LCC) and represents the conversion of natural to artificial land cover. This work aims to describe the land-take-monitoring activities and analyze the development trend in test areas of the Basilicata region. Remote sensing [...] Read more.
Land use is one of the drivers of land-cover change (LCC) and represents the conversion of natural to artificial land cover. This work aims to describe the land-take-monitoring activities and analyze the development trend in test areas of the Basilicata region. Remote sensing is the primary technique for extracting land-use/land-cover (LULC) data. In this study, a new methodology of classification of Landsat data (TM–OLI) is proposed to detect land-cover information automatically and identify land take to perform a multi-temporal analysis. Moreover, within the defined model, it is crucial to use the territorial information layers of geotopographic database (GTDB) for the detailed definition of the land take. All stages of the classification process were developed using the supervised classification algorithm support vector machine (SVM) change-detection analysis, thus integrating the geographic information system (GIS) remote sensing data and adopting free and open-source software and data. The application of the proposed method allowed us to quickly extract detailed land-take maps with an overall accuracy greater than 90%, reducing the cost and processing time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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20 pages, 1791 KiB  
Article
Blue-Sky Albedo Reduction and Associated Influencing Factors of Stable Land Cover Types in the Middle-High Latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere during 1982–2015
by Saisai Yuan, Yeqiao Wang, Hongyan Zhang, Jianjun Zhao, Xiaoyi Guo, Tao Xiong, Hui Li and Hang Zhao
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(4), 895; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14040895 - 13 Feb 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2773
Abstract
Land surface albedo (LSA) directly affects the radiation balance and the surface heat budget. LSA is a key variable for local and global climate research. The complexity of LSA variations and the driving factors highlight the importance of continuous spatial and temporal monitoring. [...] Read more.
Land surface albedo (LSA) directly affects the radiation balance and the surface heat budget. LSA is a key variable for local and global climate research. The complexity of LSA variations and the driving factors highlight the importance of continuous spatial and temporal monitoring. Snow, vegetation and soil are the main underlying surface factors affecting LSA dynamics. In this study, we combined Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) products and ERA5 reanalysis products to analyze the spatiotemporal variation and drivers of annual mean blue-sky albedo for stable land cover types in the middle-high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere (30~90°N) from 1982 to 2015. Snow cover (SC) exhibited a decreasing trend in 99.59% of all pixels (23.73% significant), with a rate of −0.0813. Soil moisture (SM) exhibited a decreasing trend in 85.66% of all pixels (22.27% significant), with a rate of −0.0002. The leaf area index (LAI) exhibited a greening trend in 74.38% of all pixels (25.23% significant), with a rate of 0.0014. Blue-sky albedo exhibited a decreasing trend in 98.97% of all pixels (65.12% significant), with a rate of −0.0008 (OLS slope). Approximately 98.16% of all pixels (57.01% significant) exhibited a positive correlation between blue-sky albedo and SC. Approximately 47.78% and 67.38% of all pixels (17.13% and 25.3% significant, respectively) exhibited a negative correlation between blue-sky albedo and SM and LAI, respectively. Approximately 10.31%, 20.81% and 68.88% of the pixel blue-sky albedo reduction was mainly controlled by SC, SM and LAI, respectively. The decrease in blue-sky albedo north of 40°N was mainly caused by the decrease in SC. The decrease in blue-sky albedo south of 40°N was mainly caused by SM reduction and vegetation greening. The decrease in blue-sky albedo in the western Tibetan Plateau was caused by vegetation greening, SM increase and SC reduction. The results have important scientific significance for the study of surface processes and global climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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21 pages, 6677 KiB  
Article
Earth Observation for Phenological Metrics (EO4PM): Temporal Discriminant to Characterize Forest Ecosystems
by Federico Filipponi, Daniela Smiraglia and Emiliano Agrillo
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(3), 721; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14030721 - 3 Feb 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3163
Abstract
The study of vegetation phenology has great relevance in many fields since the importance of knowing timing and shifts in periodic plant life cycle events to face the consequences of global changes in issues such as crop production, forest management, ecosystem disturbances, and [...] Read more.
The study of vegetation phenology has great relevance in many fields since the importance of knowing timing and shifts in periodic plant life cycle events to face the consequences of global changes in issues such as crop production, forest management, ecosystem disturbances, and human health. The availability of high spatial resolution and dense revisit time satellite observations, such as Sentinel-2 satellites, allows high resolution phenological metrics to be estimated, able to provide key information from time series and to discriminate vegetation typologies. This paper presents an automated and transferable procedure that combines validated methodologies based on local curve fitting and local derivatives to exploit full satellite Earth observation time series to produce information about plant phenology. Multivariate statistical analysis is performed for the purpose of demonstrating the capacity of the generated smoothed vegetation curve, temporal statistics, and phenological metrics to serve as temporal discriminants to detect forest ecosystems processes responses to environmental gradients. The results show smoothed vegetation curve and temporal statistics able to highlight seasonal gradient and leaf type characteristics to discriminate forest types, with additional information about forest and leaf productivity provided by temporal statistics analysis. Furthermore, temporal, altitudinal, and latitudinal gradients are obtained from phenological metrics analysis, which also allows to associate temporal gradient with specific phenophases that support forest types distinction. This study highlights the importance of integrated data and methodologies to support the processes of vegetation recognition and monitoring activities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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26 pages, 4222 KiB  
Article
Recent Spatiotemporal Trends in Glacier Snowline Altitude at the End of the Melt Season in the Qilian Mountains, China
by Zhongming Guo, Ninglian Wang, Baoshou Shen, Zhujun Gu, Yuwei Wu and Anan Chen
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(23), 4935; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13234935 - 4 Dec 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2501
Abstract
Glaciers in the Qilian Mountains, China, play an important role in supplying freshwater to downstream populations, maintaining ecological balance, and supporting economic development on the Tibetan Plateau. Glacier snowline altitude (SLA) at the end of the melt season is an indicator of the [...] Read more.
Glaciers in the Qilian Mountains, China, play an important role in supplying freshwater to downstream populations, maintaining ecological balance, and supporting economic development on the Tibetan Plateau. Glacier snowline altitude (SLA) at the end of the melt season is an indicator of the Equilibrium line altitude (ELA), and can be used to estimate the mass balance and climate reconstruction. Here, we employ the height zone-area method to determine the SLA at the end of the melt season during the 1989–2018 period using Landsat, MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) SLA and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM) data. The accuracy of glacier SLA obtained in 1989–2018 after adding MODIS SLA data to the years without Landsat data increased by about 78 m. The difference between the remote-sensing-derived SLA and measured equilibrium line altitude (ELA) is mostly within 50 m, suggesting that the SLA can serve as a proxy for the ELA at the end of the melt season. The SLA of Qiyi Glacier in the Qilian Mountains rose from 4690 ± 25 m to 5030 ± 25 m, with an average of 4900 ± 103 m during the 30 year study period. The western, central, eastern sections and the whole range of the Qilian Mountains exhibited an upward trend in SLA during the 30 year study period. The mean glacier SLAs were 4923 ± 137 m, 4864 ± 135 m, 4550 ± 149 m and 4779 ± 149 m for the western, central, eastern sections and the whole range, respectively. From the perspective of spatial distribution, regardless of the different orientation, grid scale and basin scale, the glacier SLA of Qilian Mountains showed an upward trend from 1989 to 2018, and the glacier SLA is in general located at a comparably higher altitude in the southern and western parts of the Qilian Mountains while it is located at a comparably lower altitude in its northern and eastern parts. In an ideal condition, climate sensitivity studies of ELA in Qilian Mountains show that if the summer mean temperature increases (decreases) by 1 °C, then ELA will increase (decrease) by about 102 m. If the annual total solid precipitation increases (decreases) by 10%, then the glacier ELA will decrease (rise) by about 6 m. The summer mean temperature is the main factor affecting the temporal trend of SLA, whereas both summer mean temperature and annual total precipitation influence the spatial change of SLA. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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23 pages, 11178 KiB  
Article
Optimal Grid-Based Filtering for Crop Phenology Estimation with Sentinel-1 SAR Data
by Lucio Mascolo, Tomas Martinez-Marin and Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(21), 4332; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13214332 - 28 Oct 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2488
Abstract
In the last decade, suboptimal Bayesian filtering (BF) techniques, such as Extended Kalman Filtering (EKF) and Particle Filtering (PF), have led to great interest for crop phenology monitoring with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. In this study, a novel approach, based on the [...] Read more.
In the last decade, suboptimal Bayesian filtering (BF) techniques, such as Extended Kalman Filtering (EKF) and Particle Filtering (PF), have led to great interest for crop phenology monitoring with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. In this study, a novel approach, based on the Grid-Based Filter (GBF), is proposed to estimate crop phenology. Here, phenological scales, which consist of a finite number of discrete stages, represent the one-dimensional state space, and hence GBF provides the optimal phenology estimates. Accordingly, contrarily to literature studies based on EKF and PF, no constraints are imposed on the models and the statistical distributions involved. The prediction model is defined by the transition matrix, while Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) is employed to define the observation model. The approach is applied on dense time series of dual-polarization Sentinel-1 (S1) SAR images, collected in four different years, to estimate the BBCH stages of rice crops. Results show that 0.94 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.98, 5.37 ≤ RMSE ≤ 7.9 and 20 ≤ MAE ≤ 33. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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21 pages, 3688 KiB  
Article
A Framework for Actual Evapotranspiration Assessment and Projection Based on Meteorological, Vegetation and Hydrological Remote Sensing Products
by Yuan Liu, Qimeng Yue, Qianyang Wang, Jingshan Yu, Yuexin Zheng, Xiaolei Yao and Shugao Xu
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(18), 3643; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13183643 - 12 Sep 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2736
Abstract
As the most direct indicator of drought, the dynamic assessment and prediction of actual evapotranspiration (AET) is crucial to regional water resources management. This research aims to develop a framework for the regional AET evaluation and prediction based on multiple machine learning methods [...] Read more.
As the most direct indicator of drought, the dynamic assessment and prediction of actual evapotranspiration (AET) is crucial to regional water resources management. This research aims to develop a framework for the regional AET evaluation and prediction based on multiple machine learning methods and multi-source remote sensing data, which combines Boruta algorithm, Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Regression (SVR) models, employing datasets from CRU, GLDAS, MODIS, GRACE (-FO), and CMIP6, covering meteorological, vegetation, and hydrological variables. To verify the framework, it is applied to grids of South America (SA) as a case. The results meticulously demonstrate the tendency of AET and identify the decisive role of T, P, and NDVI on AET in SA. Regarding the projection, RF has better performance in different input strategies in SA. According to the accuracy of RF and SVR on the pixel scale, the AET prediction dataset is generated by integrating the optimal results of the two models. By using multiple parameter inputs and two models to jointly obtain the optimal output, the results become more reasonable and accurate. The framework can systematically and comprehensively evaluate and forecast AET; although prediction products generated in SA cannot calibrate relevant parameters, it provides a quite valuable reference for regional drought warning and water allocating. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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23 pages, 14770 KiB  
Article
Optimization of Rocky Desertification Classification Model Based on Vegetation Type and Seasonal Characteristic
by Chunhua Qian, Hequn Qiang, Feng Wang and Mingyang Li
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(15), 2935; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13152935 - 26 Jul 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2853
Abstract
Building a high-precision, stable, and universal automatic extraction model of the rocky desertification information is the premise for exploring the spatiotemporal evolution of rocky desertification. Taking Guizhou province as the research area and based on MODIS and continuous forest inventory data in China, [...] Read more.
Building a high-precision, stable, and universal automatic extraction model of the rocky desertification information is the premise for exploring the spatiotemporal evolution of rocky desertification. Taking Guizhou province as the research area and based on MODIS and continuous forest inventory data in China, we used a machine learning algorithm to build a rocky desertification model with bedrock exposure rate, temperature difference, humidity, and other characteristic factors and considered improving the model accuracy from the spatial and temporal dimensions. The results showed the following: (1) The supervised classification method was used to build a rocky desertification model, and the logical model, RF model, and SVM model were constructed separately. The accuracies of the models were 73.8%, 78.2%, and 80.6%, respectively, and the kappa coefficients were 0.61, 0.672, and 0.707, respectively. SVM performed the best. (2) Vegetation types and vegetation seasonal phases are closely related to rocky desertification. After combining them, the model accuracy and kappa coefficient improved to 91.1% and 0.861. (3) The spatial distribution characteristics of rocky desertification in Guizhou are obvious, showing a pattern of being heavy in the west, light in the east, heavy in the south, and light in the north. Rocky desertification has continuously increased from 2001 to 2019. In conclusion, combining the vertical spatial structure of vegetation and the differences in seasonal phase is an effective method to improve the modeling accuracy of rocky desertification, and the SVM model has the highest rocky desertification classification accuracy. The research results provide data support for exploring the spatiotemporal evolution pattern of rocky desertification in Guizhou. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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22 pages, 9073 KiB  
Article
Research on Temporal and Spatial Resolution and the Driving Forces of Ecological Environment Quality in Coal Mining Areas Considering Topographic Correction
by Xinran Nie, Zhenqi Hu, Qi Zhu and Mengying Ruan
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(14), 2815; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13142815 - 17 Jul 2021
Cited by 53 | Viewed by 4374
Abstract
Over the last few years, under the combined effects of climate change and human factors, the ecological environment of coal mining areas has undergone tremendous changes. Therefore, the rapid and accurate quantitative assessments of the temporal and spatial evolution of the ecological environment [...] Read more.
Over the last few years, under the combined effects of climate change and human factors, the ecological environment of coal mining areas has undergone tremendous changes. Therefore, the rapid and accurate quantitative assessments of the temporal and spatial evolution of the ecological environment quality is of great significance for the ecological restoration and development planning of coal mining areas. This study applied the ecological environment index after topographic correction to improve the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI). Based on a series of Landsat images, the ecological environment quality of Yangquan Coal Mine in Shanxi Province from 1987 to 2020 was monitored and evaluated by an improved remote sensing ecological index. The results show that after topographic correction, the topographic effect of the remote sensing ecological index was greatly reduced, and its practicability was improved. From 1987 to 2020, the ecological environment quality of Yangquan Coal Mine was improved, and the mean of the RSEI increased from 0.4294 to 0.6379. The ecological environment quality of the six coal mines in the study area was improved. Among the six coal gangue dumps, the ecological environmental quality of D1, D2, D3, and D4 has improved, and the ecological environment quality of D5 and D6 worsened. The percentages of improved, unchanged, and degraded ecological environment quality in the entire coal mining area were 77.08%, 0.99%, and 21.93%, respectively. The global Moran’s index was between 0.7929 and 0.9057, and it was shown that there was a strong positive correlation between the ecological environmental qualities of the study area, and that its spatial distribution was clustered rather than random. The LISA cluster map showed that the aggregation and dispersion degree of ecological environment quality was mainly high–high clustering and low–low clustering over the whole stage. During the study period, temperature and precipitation had limited impacts on the ecological environment quality of Yangquan Coal Mine, while the coal mining activities and urbanization construction seriously affected the local ecological environment quality and the implementation of ecological restoration policies, regulations, and measures was the main reason for the improvement of the ecological environment quality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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21 pages, 46300 KiB  
Article
Spatiotemporal Variability in the Glacier Snowline Altitude across High Mountain Asia and Potential Driving Factors
by Zhongming Guo, Lei Geng, Baoshou Shen, Yuwei Wu, Anan Chen and Ninglian Wang
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(3), 425; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13030425 - 26 Jan 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2868
Abstract
The glacier snowline altitude (SLA) at the end of the melt season is an indicator of the glacier equilibrium line altitude and can be used to estimate glacier mass balance and reconstruct past climate. This study analyzes the spatiotemporal variability in glacier SLA [...] Read more.
The glacier snowline altitude (SLA) at the end of the melt season is an indicator of the glacier equilibrium line altitude and can be used to estimate glacier mass balance and reconstruct past climate. This study analyzes the spatiotemporal variability in glacier SLA across High Mountain Asia, including the Altai Mountains, Karakoram Mountains, Western Himalayas, Gongga Mountains, Tian Shan, and Nyainqentanglha Mountains, over the past 30 years (1989–2019) to better elucidate the state of these mountain glaciers. Remote-sensing data are processed to delineate the glacier SLA across these mountainous regions, and nearby weather station data are incorporated to determine the potential relationships between SLA and temperature/precipitation. The mean SLAs across the Altai and Karakoram mountains ranged from 2860 ± 169 m to 3200 ± 152 m and from 5120 ± 159 m to 5320 ± 240 m, respectively, with both regions experiencing an average increase of up to 137 m over the past 30 years. Furthermore, the mean glacier SLAs across the Western Himalayas and Gongga Mountains increased by 190–282 m over the past 30 years, with both regions experiencing large fluctuations. In particular, the mean glacier SLA across the Western Himalayas varied from 4910 ± 190 m in 1989 to 5380 ± 164 m in 2000, and that across the Gongga Mountains varied from 4960 ± 70 m in 1989 to 5330 ± 100 m in 2012. Correlation analyses between glacier SLA and temperature/precipitation suggest that temperature is the primary factor influencing glacier SLA across these High Mountain Asia glaciers. There is a broad increase in glacier SLA from the Altai Mountains to the Karakoram Mountains, with a decrease in glacier SLA with decreasing latitude across the Himalayas; the maximum SLA occurs near the northern slopes of the Western Himalayas. The glacier SLA is lower on the eastern side of the Tibetan Plateau and exhibits a longitudinal distribution pattern. These results are expected to provide useful information for evaluating the state of High Mountain Asia glaciers, as well as their response and feedback to climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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24 pages, 8465 KiB  
Article
NDVI as a Proxy for Estimating Sedimentation and Vegetation Spread in Artificial Lakes—Monitoring of Spatial and Temporal Changes by Using Satellite Images Overarching Three Decades
by Loránd Szabó, Balázs Deák, Tibor Bíró, Gareth J. Dyke and Szilárd Szabó
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(9), 1468; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12091468 - 6 May 2020
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 5739
Abstract
Observing wetland areas and monitoring changes are crucial to understand hydrological and ecological processes. Sedimentation-induced vegetation spread is a typical process in the succession of lakes endangering these habitats. We aimed to survey the tendencies of vegetation spread of a Hungarian lake using [...] Read more.
Observing wetland areas and monitoring changes are crucial to understand hydrological and ecological processes. Sedimentation-induced vegetation spread is a typical process in the succession of lakes endangering these habitats. We aimed to survey the tendencies of vegetation spread of a Hungarian lake using satellite images, and to develop a method to identify the areas of risk. Accordingly, we performed a 33-year long vegetation spread monitoring survey. We used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) to assess vegetation and open water characteristics of the basins. We used these spectral indices to evaluate sedimentation risk of water basins combined with the fact that the most abundant plant species of the basins was the water caltrop (Trapa natans) indicating shallow water. We proposed a 12-scale Level of Sedimentation Risk Index (LoSRI) composed from vegetation cover data derived from satellite images to determine sedimentation risk within any given water basin. We validated our results with average water basin water depth values, which showed an r = 0.6 (p < 0.05) correlation. We also pointed on the most endangered locations of these sedimentation-threatened areas, which can provide crucial information for management planning of water directorates and management organizations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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17 pages, 5340 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Link between Human Modification and Changes in Land Surface Temperature in Hainan, China Using Image Archives from Google Earth Engine
by Lixia Chu, Francis Oloo, Helena Bergstedt and Thomas Blaschke
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(5), 888; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12050888 - 10 Mar 2020
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 4983
Abstract
In many areas of the world, population growth and land development have increased demand for land and other natural resources. Coastal areas are particularly susceptible since they are conducive for marine transportation, energy production, aquaculture, marine tourism and other activities. Anthropogenic activities in [...] Read more.
In many areas of the world, population growth and land development have increased demand for land and other natural resources. Coastal areas are particularly susceptible since they are conducive for marine transportation, energy production, aquaculture, marine tourism and other activities. Anthropogenic activities in the coastal areas have triggered unprecedented land use change, depletion of coastal wetlands, loss of biodiversity, and degradation of other vital ecosystem services. The changes can be particularly drastic for small coastal islands with rich biodiversity. In this study, the influence of human modification on land surface temperature (LST) for the coastal island Hainan in Southern China was investigated. We hypothesize that for this island, footprints of human activities are linked to the variation of land surface temperature, which could indicate environmental degradation. To test this hypothesis, we estimated LST changes between 2000 and 2016 and computed the spatio-temporal correlation between LST and human modification. Specifically, we classified temperature data for the four years 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2016 into 5 temperature zones based on their respective mean and standard deviation values. We then assessed the correlation between each temperature zone and a human modification index computed for the year 2016. Apart from this, we estimated mean, maximum and the standard deviation of annual temperature for each pixel in the 17 years to assess the links with human modification. The results showed that: (1) The mean LST temperature in Hainan Island increased with fluctuations from 2000 to 2016. (2) The moderate temperature zones were dominant in the island during the four years included in this study. (3) A strong positive correlation of 0.72 between human modification index and mean and maximum LST temperature indicated a potential link between human modification and mean and maximum LST temperatures over the 17 years of analysis. (4) The mean value of human modification index in the temperature zones in 2016 showed a progressive rise with 0.24 in the low temperature zone, 0.33 in the secondary moderate, 0.45 in the moderate, 0.54 in the secondary high and 0.61 in the high temperature zones. This work highlighted the potential value of using large and multi-temporal earth observation datasets from cloud platforms to assess the influence of human activities in sensitive ecosystems. The results could contribute to the development of sustainable management and coastal ecosystems conservation plans. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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14 pages, 4091 KiB  
Technical Note
Integrating UAVs and Canopy Height Models in Vineyard Management: A Time-Space Approach
by Alberto Sassu, Luca Ghiani, Luca Salvati, Luca Mercenaro, Alessandro Deidda and Filippo Gambella
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(1), 130; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14010130 - 29 Dec 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2355
Abstract
The present study illustrates an operational approach estimating individual and aggregate vineyards’ canopy volume estimation through three years Tree-Row-Volume (TRV) measurements and remotely sensed imagery acquired with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Red-Green-Blue (RGB) digital camera, processed with MATLAB scripts, and validated through ArcGIS [...] Read more.
The present study illustrates an operational approach estimating individual and aggregate vineyards’ canopy volume estimation through three years Tree-Row-Volume (TRV) measurements and remotely sensed imagery acquired with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Red-Green-Blue (RGB) digital camera, processed with MATLAB scripts, and validated through ArcGIS tools. The TRV methodology was applied by sampling a different number of rows and plants (per row) each year with the aim of evaluating reliability and accuracy of this technique compared with a remote approach. The empirical results indicate that the estimated tree-row-volumes derived from a UAV Canopy Height Model (CHM) are up to 50% different from those measured on the field using the routinary technique of TRV in 2019. The difference is even much higher in the two 2016 dates. These empirical findings outline the importance of data integration among techniques that mix proximal and remote sensing in routine vineyards’ agronomic practices, helping to reduce management costs and increase the environmental sustainability of traditional cultivation systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in the Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Land Surface)
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