Early Detection of Bark Beetle Attack Using Remote Sensing and Machine Learning: A Review

Bark beetle outbreaks can result in a devastating impact on forest ecosystem processes, biodiversity, forest structure and function, and economies. Accurate and timely detection of bark beetle infestations is crucial to mitigate further damage, develop proactive forest management activities, and minimize economic losses. Incorporating remote sensing (RS) data with machine learning (ML) (or deep learning (DL)) can provide a great alternative to the current approaches that rely on aerial surveys and field surveys, which are impractical over vast geographical regions. This paper provides a comprehensive review of past and current advances in the early detection of bark beetle-induced tree mortality from three key perspectives: bark beetle & host interactions, RS, and ML/DL. We parse recent literature according to bark beetle species & attack phases, host trees, study regions, imagery platforms & sensors, spectral/spatial/temporal resolutions, spectral signatures, spectral vegetation indices (SVIs), ML approaches, learning schemes, task categories, models, algorithms, classes/clusters, features, and DL networks & architectures. This review focuses on challenging early detection, discussing current challenges and potential solutions. Our literature survey suggests that the performance of current ML methods is limited (less than 80%) and depends on various factors, including imagery sensors & resolutions, acquisition dates, and employed features & algorithms/networks. A more promising result from DL networks and then the random forest (RF) algorithm highlighted the potential to detect subtle changes in visible, thermal, and short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectral regions.Comment: Under review, 33 pages, 5 figures, 8 Table

Understanding forest health with Remote sensing-Part II-A review of approaches and data models

Stress in forest ecosystems (FES) occurs as a result of land-use intensification, disturbances, resource limitations or unsustainable management, causing changes in forest health (FH) at various scales from the local to the global scale. Reactions to such stress depend on the phylogeny of forest species or communities and the characteristics of their impacting drivers and processes. There are many approaches to monitor indicators of FH using in-situ forest inventory and experimental studies, but they are generally limited to sample points or small areas, as well as being time- and labour-inte

The data concept behind the data: From metadata models and labelling schemes towards a generic spectral library

Spectral libraries play a major role in imaging spectroscopy. They are commonly used to store end-member and spectrally pure material spectra, which are primarily used for mapping or unmixing purposes. However, the development of spectral libraries is time consuming and usually sensor and site dependent. Spectral libraries are therefore often developed, used and tailored only for a specific case study and only for one sensor. Multi-sensor and multi-site use of spectral libraries is difficult and requires technical effort for adaptation, transformation, and data harmonization steps. Especially the huge amount of urban material specifications and its spectral variations hamper the setup of a complete spectral library consisting of all available urban material spectra. By a combined use of different urban spectral libraries, besides the improvement of spectral inter- and intra-class variability, missing material spectra could be considered with respect to a multi-sensor/ -site use. Publicly available spectral libraries mostly lack the metadata information that is essential for describing spectra acquisition and sampling background, and can serve to some extent as a measure of quality and reliability of the spectra and the entire library itself. In the GenLib project, a concept for a generic, multi-site and multi-sensor usable spectral library for image spectra on the urban focus was developed. This presentation will introduce a 1) unified, easy-to-understand hierarchical labeling scheme combined with 2) a comprehensive metadata concept that is 3) implemented in the SPECCHIO spectral information system to promote the setup and usability of a generic urban spectral library (GUSL). The labelling scheme was developed to ensure the translation of individual spectral libraries with their own labelling schemes and their usually varying level of details into the GUSL framework. It is based on a modified version of the EAGLE classification concept by combining land use, land cover, land characteristics and spectral characteristics. The metadata concept consists of 59 mandatory and optional attributes that are intended to specify the spatial context, spectral library information, references, accessibility, calibration, preprocessing steps, and spectra specific information describing library spectra implemented in the GUSL. It was developed on the basis of existing metadata concepts and was subject of an expert survey. The metadata concept and the labelling scheme are implemented in the spectral information system SPECCHIO, which is used for sharing and holding GUSL spectra. It allows easy implementation of spectra as well as their specification with the proposed metadata information to extend the GUSL. Therefore, the proposed data model represents a first fundamental step towards a generic usable and continuously expandable spectral library for urban areas. The metadata concept and the labelling scheme also build the basis for the necessary adaptation and transformation steps of the GUSL in order to use it entirely or in excerpts for further multi-site and multi-sensor applications

Earth resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes (issue 58)

This bibliography lists 500 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between April 1 and June 30, 1988. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis

Earth resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes, issue 18

This bibliography lists 434 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between April 1 and June 30, 1978. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis

Earth Resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes, issue 36

This bibliography lists 576 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System between October 1 and December 31, 1982. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis

VGC 2023 - Unveiling the dynamic Earth with digital methods: 5th Virtual Geoscience Conference: Book of Abstracts

Conference proceedings of the 5th Virtual Geoscience Conference, 21-22 September 2023, held in Dresden. The VGC is a multidisciplinary forum for researchers in geoscience, geomatics and related disciplines to share their latest developments and applications.:Short Courses 9 Workshops Stream 1 10 Workshop Stream 2 11 Workshop Stream 3 12 Session 1 – Point Cloud Processing: Workflows, Geometry & Semantics 14 Session 2 – Visualisation, communication & Teaching 27 Session 3 – Applying Machine Learning in Geosciences 36 Session 4 – Digital Outcrop Characterisation & Analysis 49 Session 5 – Airborne & Remote Mapping 58 Session 6 – Recent Developments in Geomorphic Process and Hazard Monitoring 69 Session 7 – Applications in Hydrology & Ecology 82 Poster Contributions 9

Remote Sensing of Plant Biodiversity

At last, here it is. For some time now, the world has needed a text providing both a new theoretical foundation and practical guidance on how to approach the challenge of biodiversity decline in the Anthropocene. This is a global challenge demanding global approaches to understand its scope and implications. Until recently, we have simply lacked the tools to do so. We are now entering an era in which we can realistically begin to understand and monitor the multidimensional phenomenon of biodiversity at a planetary scale. This era builds upon three centuries of scientific research on biodiversity at site to landscape levels, augmented over the past two decades by airborne research platforms carrying spectrometers, lidars, and radars for larger-scale observations. Emerging international networks of fine-grain in-situ biodiversity observations complemented by space-based sensors offering coarser-grain imagery—but global coverage—of ecosystem composition, function, and structure together provide the information necessary to monitor and track change in biodiversity globally. This book is a road map on how to observe and interpret terrestrial biodiversity across scales through plants—primary producers and the foundation of the trophic pyramid. It honors the fact that biodiversity exists across different dimensions, including both phylogenetic and functional. Then, it relates these aspects of biodiversity to another dimension, the spectral diversity captured by remote sensing instruments operating at scales from leaf to canopy to biome. The biodiversity community has needed a Rosetta Stone to translate between the language of satellite remote sensing and its resulting spectral diversity and the languages of those exploring the phylogenetic diversity and functional trait diversity of life on Earth. By assembling the vital translation, this volume has globalized our ability to track biodiversity state and change. Thus, a global problem meets a key component of the global solution. The editors have cleverly built the book in three parts. Part 1 addresses the theory behind the remote sensing of terrestrial plant biodiversity: why spectral diversity relates to plant functional traits and phylogenetic diversity. Starting with first principles, it connects plant biochemistry, physiology, and macroecology to remotely sensed spectra and explores the processes behind the patterns we observe. Examples from the field demonstrate the rising synthesis of multiple disciplines to create a new cross-spatial and spectral science of biodiversity. Part 2 discusses how to implement this evolving science. It focuses on the plethora of novel in-situ, airborne, and spaceborne Earth observation tools currently and soon to be available while also incorporating the ways of actually making biodiversity measurements with these tools. It includes instructions for organizing and conducting a field campaign. Throughout, there is a focus on the burgeoning field of imaging spectroscopy, which is revolutionizing our ability to characterize life remotely. Part 3 takes on an overarching issue for any effort to globalize biodiversity observations, the issue of scale. It addresses scale from two perspectives. The first is that of combining observations across varying spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions for better understanding—that is, what scales and how. This is an area of ongoing research driven by a confluence of innovations in observation systems and rising computational capacity. The second is the organizational side of the scaling challenge. It explores existing frameworks for integrating multi-scale observations within global networks. The focus here is on what practical steps can be taken to organize multi-scale data and what is already happening in this regard. These frameworks include essential biodiversity variables and the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON). This book constitutes an end-to-end guide uniting the latest in research and techniques to cover the theory and practice of the remote sensing of plant biodiversity. In putting it together, the editors and their coauthors, all preeminent in their fields, have done a great service for those seeking to understand and conserve life on Earth—just when we need it most. For if the world is ever to construct a coordinated response to the planetwide crisis of biodiversity loss, it must first assemble adequate—and global—measures of what we are losing

Remote Sensing of Plant Biodiversity

This Open Access volume aims to methodologically improve our understanding of biodiversity by linking disciplines that incorporate remote sensing, and uniting data and perspectives in the fields of biology, landscape ecology, and geography. The book provides a framework for how biodiversity can be detected and evaluated—focusing particularly on plants—using proximal and remotely sensed hyperspectral data and other tools such as LiDAR. The volume, whose chapters bring together a large cross-section of the biodiversity community engaged in these methods, attempts to establish a common language across disciplines for understanding and implementing remote sensing of biodiversity across scales. The first part of the book offers a potential basis for remote detection of biodiversity. An overview of the nature of biodiversity is described, along with ways for determining traits of plant biodiversity through spectral analyses across spatial scales and linking spectral data to the tree of life. The second part details what can be detected spectrally and remotely. Specific instrumentation and technologies are described, as well as the technical challenges of detection and data synthesis, collection and processing. The third part discusses spatial resolution and integration across scales and ends with a vision for developing a global biodiversity monitoring system. Topics include spectral and functional variation across habitats and biomes, biodiversity variables for global scale assessment, and the prospects and pitfalls in remote sensing of biodiversity at the global scale

Earth Resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes, issue 11, October 1976

This bibliography lists 714 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between July 1976 and September 1976. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis