Vegetation indices

Vegetation metrics are another ancillary data for more accurate LUC mapping. Deriving the metrics is dependent on the spectral resolution of an optical image. A vegetation index derived from combination of image wavebands. The most used vegetation indices are normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), normalized difference water index (NDWI), green vegetation index (GVI) and perpendicular vegetation index (PVI) at the literature. Vegetation indices indicate health condition (NDVI) and water content (NDWI) of the vegetation canopy. There are many textbooks and papers about calculation of vegetation indices. These indices provide extra information for LUC classification to discriminate subtle classes.

For instead, NDVI calculated using red and near infrared band (NIR) combination as shown in following equation (Rouse et al 1974);

NIR – RED / NIR + RED (5)

NDVI data was included to Landsat TM data to show the effect of a vegetation index on LUC mapping. Overall accuracy was unchanged significantly, but sand dunes, baregrounds, deciduous classes were classified more accurately.

Besides, there are some indices specifically designed for sensors. For example; Envisat MERIS data has own chlorophyll index called MERIS terrestrial chlorophyll index (MTCI). Additionally, vegetation metrics such as fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR), leaf area index (LAI) and fraction of green vegetation covering a unit area of horizontal soil (fCover) can be obtained using specific equations from MERIS data. Berberoglu et al. (2009) used this vegetation metrics to improve RT soft classification accuracy using MERIS data. When only MERIS wavebands used to determine the tree cover percentage, correlation coefficiency obtained as 0.58. Vegetation metrics and MERIS wavebands enhanced accuracy to 0.67.

5. Conclusions

This chapter has demonstrated various issues in LUC classification including, ability of optical remotely sensed data, different classifiers, training data size and ancillary data in the example of Eastern Mediterranean region. Parametric, non-parametric hard and soft LUC mapping techniques in local scale were assessed. Main findings of this chapter are:

Selection of a classification scheme and the optical data are vital for a reliable result in LUC mapping. Remotely sensed data must be defined according to the mapping scale and study purpose. LUC classification scheme and level should be defined based on optical data ability such as spatial and spectral resolution. Image pre-processing such as, geometric registration, atmospheric correction, geometric correction and radiometric calibration are essential parts in change detection studies.

Training data size, quality and mapping details are also important to select suitable classifier for LUC mapping. MLC, LDA, and DT techniques are useful for hard classification outputs. On the other hand, to derive a continuous map like cover percentage of each LUC or probability of each LUC needs soft classifiers such as RT and LMM. Training data size and quality affect the classification accuracy and classifier selection. Although model based classifiers has potential when strong training data set was used. In this case, data dependent classifiers can be chosen for better accurate LUC map. Linear techniques are suitable if mixture degree is small in a pixel. LMM is ideal if there are enough training data and pure pixel for each LUC. However, if training pixel size and pure pixels are weak, non-linear techniques like RT or ANN are suggested.

Hard classifiers were performed inaccurately with coarse spatial resolution images (e. g. MODIS, MERIS, NOAA, SPOTveg) because of mixed pixel problem. Fuzzy classifiers are reduced this problem and provided better accuracy than hard classification. Hard pixel based mapping techniques were successful using medium spatial resolution data (e. g. Landsat TM/ETM, Aster and Alos AVNIR) in regional and local scale, however, for the specific purposes like detailed crop pattern mapping or urban pattern mapping, object based classification approach was recommended for more reliable LUC mapping. Object based classification is appropriate when using very high spatial resolution data (e. g. rapid eye, Ikonos, Aerial photos, Geoeye). In segmentation stage of object based classification, pixels were merged to create each segment or object according to spectral, structural and textural similarities. This method is tolerated the pixel misclassification if there is a pixel noise in an area (Figure 15).

In this chapter ancillary data integration were also discussed using several data from satellite remote sensing sensors. Three types of ancillary data were integrated to the DT hard classifier. DEM resulted the largest improvement in overall classification accuracy among others. Surface texture and vegetation indices were improved the accuracy of specific land cover types. When all data used together, overall classification accuracy were reduced. Additionally, more ancillary data is not important to enhance classification accuracy. Success of the ancillary data varies based on classification target, study area characteristics and remotely sensed data.

Updated: October 1, 2015 — 4:39 am