scholarly journals Estimation of forage biomass and vegetation cover in grasslands using UAV imagery

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. e0245784
Author(s):  
Jérôme Théau ◽  
Étienne Lauzier-Hudon ◽  
Lydiane Aubé ◽  
Nicolas Devillers

Grasslands are among the most widespread ecosystems on Earth and among the most degraded. Their characterization and monitoring are generally based on field measurements, which are incomplete spatially and temporally. The recent advent of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) provides data at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions. This study aims to test and compare three approaches based on multispectral imagery acquired by UAV to estimate forage biomass or vegetation cover in grasslands. The study site is composed of 30 pasture plots (25 × 50 m), 5 bare soil plots (25 x 50), and 6 control plots (5 × 5 m) on a 14-ha field maintained at various biomass levels by grazing rotations and clipping over a complete growing season. A total of 14 flights were performed. A first approach based on structure from motion was used to generate a volumetric-based biomass estimation model (R2 of 0.93 and 0.94 for fresh biomass [FM] and dry biomass [DM], respectively). This approach is not very sensitive to low vegetation levels but is accurate for FM estimation greater than 0.5 kg/m2 (0.1 kg DM/m2). The Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (GNDVI) was selected to develop two additional approaches. One is based on a regression biomass prediction model (R2 of 0.80 and 0.66 for FM and DM, respectively) and leads to an accurate estimation at levels of FM lower than 3 kg/m2 (0.6 kg DM/m2). The other approach is based on a classification of vegetation cover from clustering of GNDVI values in four classes. This approach is more qualitative than the other ones but more robust and generalizable. These three approaches are relatively simple to use and applicable in an operational context. They are also complementary and can be adapted to specific applications in grassland characterization.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neda Abbasi ◽  
Hamideh Nouri ◽  
Sattar Chavoshi Borujeni ◽  
Pamela Nagler ◽  
Christian Opp ◽  
...  

<p>Accurate estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) helps to create a better understanding of water allocation, irrigation scheduling, and crop management especially in arid and semiarid regions where agricultural areas are far more affected by water shortage and drought events. Remote sensing (RS) facilitates estimating the ET in regions where long-term field measurements are missed.  In this study, we compare the performance of free open-access remotely sensed actual ET products at eleven counties of the Zayandehrud basin. The Zayandehrud basin, one of the major watersheds of Iran, suffers from recurrent droughts and long-term impacts of aridity. The RS products used in this study are namely WaPOR (2009-2019), MOD16A2 (2003-2019), SSEBOp (2003-2019). We also merged the two products of SSEBOp and WaPOR and assessed its performance. To prepare the Merged ETa Product (MEP), WaPOR was resampled to the spatial resolution of SSEBOp. Then, the average pixel values of the resampled ETa product and SSEBOp were calculated. To compare ETa estimations over croplands in each county, maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maps at annual scale (2003-2019) were prepared using LANDSAT 5, 7, and 8 images. Annual mean ETa estimations were then extracted over croplands by using annual maximum NDVI layers. We compared the RS-based ETa with reported long-term ETa values extracted from the local available literature. Our results showed a consistent underestimation of MOD16A2 in all counties. The MEP and WaPOR outperformed other products in the estimation of ETa in seven. Estimations of WaPOR and SSEBOp agreed in most of the counties. Our analysis displayed that, although MOD16A2 underestimated ETa values, it could together with SSEBOp capture the drought better than that of WaPOR and MEP in the lower reaches of the basin. Further study is needed to evaluate the monthly and seasonal performance of RS-based ETa products.</p>


2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Daniel Rodrigues Lira ◽  
Maria do Socorro Bezerra de Araújo ◽  
Everardo Valadares De Sá Barretto Sampaio ◽  
Hewerton Alves da Silva

O mapeamento e monitoramento da cobertura vegetal receberam consideráveis impulsos nas últimas décadas, com o advento do sensoriamento remoto, processamento digital de imagens e políticas de combate ao desmatamento, além dos avanços nas pesquisas e gerações de novos sensores orbitais e sua distribuição de forma mais acessível aos usuários, tornam as imagens de satélite um dos produtos do sensoriamento remoto mais utilizado para análises da cobertura vegetal das terras. Os índices de cobertura vegetal deste trabalho foram obtidos usando o NDVI - Normalized Difference Vegetation Index para o Agreste central de Pernambuco indicou 39,7% de vegetação densa, 13,6% de vegetação esparsa, 14,3% de vegetação rala e 10,5% de solo exposto. O NDVI apresentou uma caracterização satisfatória para a classificação do estado da vegetação do ano de 2007 para o Agreste Central pernambucano, porém ocorreu uma confusão com os índices de nuvens, sombras e solos exposto, necessitando de uma adaptação na técnica para um melhor aprimoramento da diferenciação desses elementos, constituindo numa recombinação de bandas após a elaboração e calculo do NDVI.Palavras-chave: Geoprocessamento; sensoriamento remoto; índice de vegetação. Mapping and Quantification of Vegetation Cover from Central Agreste Region of Pernambuco State Using NDVI Technique ABSTRACTIn recent decades, advanced techniques for mapping and monitoring vegetation cover have been developed with the advent of remote sensing. New tools for digital processing, the generation of new sensors and their orbital distribution more accessible have facilitated the acquisition and use of satellite images, making them one of the products of remote sensing more used for analysis of the vegetation cover. The aim of this study was to assess the vegetation cover from Central Agreste region of Pernambuco State, using satellite images TM / LANDSAT-5. The images were processed using the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) technique, generating indexes used for classification of vegetation in dense, sparse and scattered. There was a proportion of 39.7% of dense vegetation, 13.6% of sparse vegetation, 14.3% of scattered vegetation and 10.5% of exposed soil. NDVI technique has been used as a useful tool in the classification of vegetation on a regional scale, however, needs improvement to a more precise differentiation among levels of clouds, shadow, exposed soils and vegetation. Keywords: Geoprocessing, remote sensing, vegetation index


Author(s):  
Mfoniso Asuquo Enoh ◽  
Uzoma Chinenye Okeke ◽  
Needam Yiinu Barinua

Remote Sensing is an excellent tool in monitoring, mapping and interpreting areas, associated with hydrocarbon micro-seepage. An important technique in remote sensing known as the Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), adopted in many studies is often used to minimize the effect of brightness reflectance in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), related with soil in areas of spare vegetation cover, and mostly in areas of arid and semi–arid regions. The study aim at analyzing the effect of hydrocarbon micro – seepage on soil and sediments in Ugwueme, Southern Eastern Nigeria, with SAVI image classification method. To achieve this aim, three cloud free Landsat images, of Landsat 7 TM 1996 and ETM+ 2006 and Landsat 8 OLI 2016 were utilized to produce different SAVI image classification maps for the study.  The SAVI image classification analysis for the study showed three classes viz Low class cover, Moderate class cover and high class cover.  The category of high SAVI density classification was observed to increase progressive from 31.95% in 1996 to 34.92% in 2006 and then to 36.77% in 2016. Moderately SAVI density classification reduced from 40.53% in 1996 to 38.77% in 2006 and then to 36.96% in 2016 while Low SAVI density classification decrease progressive from 27.51% in 1996 to 26.31% in 2006 and then increased to 28.26% in 2016. The SAVI model is categorized into three classes viz increase, decrease and unchanged. The un – changed category increased from 12.32km2 (15.06%) in 1996 to 17.17 km2 (20.96%) in 2006 and then decelerate to 13.50 km2 (16.51%) in 2016.  The decrease category changed from 39.89km2 (48.78%) in 1996 to 40.45 km2 (49.45%) in 2006 and to 51.52 km2 (63.0%) in 2016 while the increase category changed from 29.57km2 (36.16%) in 1996 to 24.18 km2 (29.58%) in 2006 and to 16.75 km2 (20.49%) in 2016. Image differencing, cross tabulation and overlay operations were some of the techniques performed in the study, to ascertain the effect of hydrocarbon micro - seepage.  The Markov chain analysis was adopted to model and predict the effect of the hydrocarbon micro - seepage for the study for 2030.  The study expound that the SAVI is an effective technique in remote sensing to identify, map and model the effect of hydrocarbon micro - seepage on soil and sediment particularly in areas characterized with low vegetation cover and bare soil cover.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1624
Author(s):  
Hind Khalis ◽  
Abdelhamid Sadiki ◽  
Fatimazahra Jawhari ◽  
Haytam Mesrar ◽  
Ehab Azab ◽  
...  

Episodes of drought that Morocco experienced in the years 1984–1986, 1993–1995, and 1997–2000 had repercussions that were felt many years later and continue to pose serious problems for environmentalists, as some of the affected lands have become practically deserted. These problems acted on the socio-economic conditions and created severe constraints for the development of the country. This work was conducted to study and identify changes that occurred in vegetation cover in the Oued Lahdar watershed (Rif, Morocco) between 1984 and 2017 using Land Surface Temperature (LST), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Landsat TM 5, and Landsat OLI 8. The LST had significantly increased overall from 1984 to 2017, where it moved from a mean value of 29.4 °C in 1984 to 40.4 °C in 2007 and then reduced slightly to 37.9 °C in 2017. The vegetation cover index for the study area indicates that in 1984, fully vegetated areas represented 94.3% before deteriorating to 35.4% in 2007 and recovering in 2017 to 54.3%. While bare soil, which previously constituted 5.7%, reached a very high value of 64.6% in 2007 and then decreased to 47.7%. This study contributes towards society as it provides interesting data about the consequences of climate change in the area studied as well as potential protective strategies to protect vegetation cover.


Author(s):  
Atiqa Ijaz Khan ◽  
Sajid Rashid Ahmad ◽  
Muhammad Hasan Ali Baig

The aim of this study is to examine spatio-temporal patterns over Lahore during 2000-2015 using tasselled cap transformation (TCT) technique, to extract information about urban vegetation and underlying bare soil in a highly-urbanized area. The focus is to validate T-cap components against normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and bare soil index (BI) in order to develop a range for T-cap on a scale of 0-1 for classification of landcover, that is linked with physical characteristics of the scene, without any dependence upon indices. OTSU thresholding was applied on ETM+ images. T-cap greenness component (TCG) and NDVI performed best with kappa coefficient (k) from 0.41-0.61 (R sq.=0.96-0.98) while T-cap brightness (TCB) and BI reaches only k=0.25 with least level of agreement. Overall accuracy ranges from 62%-79%, whereas spring season, month of March, 2010, achieves the highest accuracy. Generally, for TCG values greater than 0 represents vegetation, while for TCB values within 0.15-0.35 indicate bare soil. It was observed that BI > 0.35 signifies planned blocks for future builtup areas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Lauren E. H. Mathews ◽  
Alicia M. Kinoshita

A combination of satellite image indices and in-field observations was used to investigate the impact of fuel conditions, fire behavior, and vegetation regrowth patterns, altered by invasive riparian vegetation. Satellite image metrics, differenced normalized burn severity (dNBR) and differenced normalized difference vegetation index (dNDVI), were approximated for non-native, riparian, or upland vegetation for traditional timeframes (0-, 1-, and 3-years) after eleven urban fires across a spectrum of invasive vegetation cover. Larger burn severity and loss of green canopy (NDVI) was detected for riparian areas compared to the uplands. The presence of invasive vegetation affected the distribution of burn severity and canopy loss detected within each fire. Fires with native vegetation cover had a higher severity and resulted in larger immediate loss of canopy than fires with substantial amounts of non-native vegetation. The lower burn severity observed 1–3 years after the fires with non-native vegetation suggests a rapid regrowth of non-native grasses, resulting in a smaller measured canopy loss relative to native vegetation immediately after fire. This observed fire pattern favors the life cycle and perpetuation of many opportunistic grasses within urban riparian areas. This research builds upon our current knowledge of wildfire recovery processes and highlights the unique challenges of remotely assessing vegetation biophysical status within urban Mediterranean riverine systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2126
Author(s):  
Yuliang Wang ◽  
Mingshi Li

Vegetation measures are crucial for assessing changes in the ecological environment. Fractional vegetation cover (FVC) provides information on the growth status, distribution characteristics, and structural changes of vegetation. An in-depth understanding of the dynamic changes in urban FVC contributes to the sustainable development of ecological civilization in the urbanization process. However, dynamic change detection of urban FVC using multi-temporal remote sensing images is a complex process and challenge. This paper proposed an improved FVC estimation model by fusing the optimized dynamic range vegetation index (ODRVI) model. The ODRVI model improved sensitivity to the water content, roughness degree, and soil type by minimizing the influence of bare soil in areas of sparse vegetation cover. The ODRVI model enhanced the stability of FVC estimation in the near-infrared (NIR) band in areas of dense and sparse vegetation cover through introducing the vegetation canopy vertical porosity (VCVP) model. The verification results confirmed that the proposed model had better performance than typical vegetation index (VI) models for multi-temporal Landsat images. The coefficient of determination (R2) between the ODRVI model and the FVC was 0.9572, which was 7.4% higher than the average R2 of other typical VI models. Moreover, the annual urban FVC dynamics were mapped using the proposed improved FVC estimation model in Hefei, China (1999–2018). The total area of all grades FVC decreased by 33.08% during the past 20 years in Hefei, China. The areas of the extremely low, low, and medium grades FVC exhibited apparent inter-annual fluctuations. The maximum standard deviation of the area change of the medium grade FVC was 13.35%. For other grades of FVC, the order of standard deviation of the change ratio was extremely low FVC > low FVC > medium-high FVC > high FVC. The dynamic mapping of FVC revealed the influence intensity and direction of the urban sprawl on vegetation coverage, which contributes to the strategic development of sustainable urban management plans.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-158
Author(s):  
Haneen Adeeb ◽  
Yaseen Al-Timimi

Soil salinity is one of the most important problems of land degradation, that threatening the environmental, economic and social system. The aim of this study to detect the changes in soil salinity and vegetation cover for Diyala Governorate over the period from 2005 to 2020, through the use of remote sensing techniques and geographic information system. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and salinity index (SI) were used, which were applied to four of the Landsat ETM+ and Landsat OLI satellite imagery. The results showed an increase in soil salinity from 7.27% in the period 2005–2010 to 27.03% in 2015–2020, as well as an increase in vegetation from 10% to 24% in the same period. Also the strong inverse correlation between the NDVI and the SI showed that vegetation is significantly affected and directly influenced by soil salinity changes


Author(s):  
Made Arya Bhaskara Putra ◽  
I Wayan Nuarsa ◽  
I Wayan Sandi Adnyana

Rice crop is one of the important commodities that must always be available, so estimation of rice production becomes very important to do before harvesting time to know the food availability. The technology that can be used is remote sensing technology using Landsat 8 Satellite. The aims of this study were (1) to obtain the model of estimation of rice production with Landsat 8 image analysis, and (2) to know the accuracy of the model that obtained by Landsat 8. The research area is located in three sub-districts in Klungkung regency. Analysis in this research was conducted by single band analysis and analysis of vegetation index of satellite image of Landsat 8. Estimation model of rice production was developed by finding the relationship between satellite image data and rice production data. The final stage is the accuracy test of the rice production estimation model, with t test and regression analysis. The results showed: (1) estimation of rice production can be calculated between 67 to 77 days after planting; (2) there was a positive correlation between NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) vegetation index value with rice yield; (3) the model of rice production estimation is y = 2.0442e1.8787x (x is NDVI value of Landsat 8 and y is rice production); (4) The results of the model accuracy test showed that the obtained model is suitable to predict rice production with accuracy level is 89.29% and standard error of production estimation is + 0.443 ton/ha. Based on research results, it can be concluded that Landsat 8 Satellite image can be used to estimate rice production and the accuracy level is 89.29%. The results are expected to be a reference in estimating rice production in Klungkung Regency.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilfredo Robles ◽  
John D. Madsen ◽  
Ryan M. Wersal

Waterhyacinth is a free-floating aquatic weed that is considered a nuisance worldwide. Excessive growth of waterhyacinth limits recreational use of water bodies as well as interferes with many ecological processes. Accurate estimates of biomass are useful to assess the effectiveness of control methods to manage this aquatic weed. While large water bodies require significant labor inputs with respect to ground-truth surveys, available technology like remote sensing could be capable of providing temporal and spatial information from a target area at a much reduced cost. Studies were conducted at Lakes Columbus and Aberdeen (Mississippi) during the growing seasons of 2005 and 2006 over established populations of waterhyacinth. The objective was to estimate biomass based on nondestructive methods using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) derived from Landsat 5 TM simulated data. Biomass was collected monthly using a 0.10m2 quadrat at 25 randomly-located locations at each site. Morphometric plant parameters were also collected to enhance the use of NDVI for biomass estimation. Reflectance measurements using a hyperspectral sensor were taken every month at each site during biomass collection. These spectral signatures were then transformed into a Landsat 5 TM simulated data set using MatLab® software. A positive linear relationship (r2 = 0.28) was found between measured biomass of waterhyacinth and NDVI values from the simulated dataset. While this relationship appears weak, the addition of morphological parameters such as leaf area index (LAI) and leaf length enhanced the relationship yielding an r2 = 0.66. Empirically, NDVI saturates at high LAI, which may limit its use to estimate the biomass in very dense vegetation. Further studies using NDVI calculated from narrower spectral bands than those contained in Landsat 5 TM are recommended.


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