Multisource Remote Sensing based Impervious Surface Mapping

Impervious surface (IS) not only serves as a key indicator of urbanization, but also affects the micro-ecosystem. Therefore, it is essential to monitor IS distribution timely and accurately. Remote sensing is an effective approach as it can provide straightforward and consistent information over large area with low cost. This thesis integrates multi-source remote sensing data to interpretate urban patterns and provide more reliable IS mapping results. Registration of optical daytime and nighttime lights (NTL) data is developed in the first contribution. An impervious surface based optical-to-NTL image registration algorithm with iterative blooming effect reduction (IS_iBER) algorithm is proposed. This coarse-to-fine procedure investigates the correlation between optical and NTL features. The iterative registration and blooming effect reduction method obtains precise matching results and reduce the spatial extension of NTL. Considering the spatial transitional nature of urban-rural fringes (URF) areas, the second study proposed approach for URF delineation, namely optical and nighttime lights (NTL) data based multi-scale URF (msON_URF).The landscape heterogeneity and development vitality derived from optical and NTL features are analyzed at a series of scales to illustrate the urban-URF-rural pattern. Results illustrate that msON_URF is effective and practical for not only concentric, but also polycentric urban patterns. The third study proposes a nighttime light adjusted impervious surface index (NAISI) to detect IS area. Parallel to baseline subtraction approaches, NAISI takes advantage of features, rather than spectral band information to map IS. NAISI makes the most of independence between NTL-ISS and pervious surface to address the high spectral similarity between IS and bare soil in optical image. An optical and NTL based spectral mixture analysis (ON_SMA) is proposed to achieve sub-pixel IS mapping result in the fourth study. It integrates characteristics of optical and NTL imagery to adaptively select local endmembers. Results illustrate the proposed method yields effective improvement and highlight the potential of NTL data in IS mapping. In the fifth study, GA-SVM IS mapping algorithm is investigated with introduction of the achieved urban-URF-rural spatial structure. The combination of optical, NTL and SAR imagery is discussed. GA is implemented for feature selection and parameter optimization in each urban scenario

Urban Forests and Landscape Ecology

Urbanization is a dominant driver of landscape transformation across the world, with cities representing centers of economic and socio-cultural development. Today, more than 4.2 billion people live in urban areas, which represent ~3% of the Earth’s land area. By 2050, it is predicted this number will increase to 6.6 billion people (~70% of the predicted global population). As the human population grows, cities around the globe will continue to expand, increasing the demand for food and services. Within cities, urban forests provide multiple nature-based solutions, as well as other environmental services and socio-economic benefits, such as heat mitigation and social integration. Urban forests are also important for coping with psychological stress during events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, urban forests are a priority for basic and applied forest research because they are intimately connected with people’s physical, cultural, and economic well-being in the urban environment, and can also be important reservoirs of biodiversity. To promote a better understanding of urban forests and landscape ecology, this book in “Urban Forests and Landscape Ecology” compiled research set in urban forests and focused on some spatially explicit processes. Studies presented in this book are highly interdisciplinary and use a wide range of research approaches. This book present nine scientific publications from global urban forests demonstrating that these forests, as a nature-based solution, provide multiple environmental services and are crucial to improve urban livability and thereby the wellbeing of city dwellers

Book of short Abstracts of the 11th International Symposium on Digital Earth

The Booklet is a collection of accepted short abstracts of the ISDE11 Symposium

Integrated Applications of Geo-Information in Environmental Monitoring

This book focuses on fundamental and applied research on geo-information technology, notably optical and radar remote sensing and algorithm improvements, and their applications in environmental monitoring. This Special Issue presents ten high-quality research papers covering up-to-date research in land cover change and desertification analyses, geo-disaster risk and damage evaluation, mining area restoration assessments, the improvement and development of algorithms, and coastal environmental monitoring and object targeting. The purpose of this Special Issue is to promote exchanges, communications and share the research outcomes of scientists worldwide and to bridge the gap between scientific research and its applications for advancing and improving society

Rising groundwater levels in the Neapolitan area and its impacts on civil engineering structures, agricultural soils and archaeological sites

The rise of groundwater levels (GWLr) is a worldwide phenomenon with several consequences for urban and rural environment, cultural heritage and human health. In this thesis the phenomenon and its effects are analysed in two sectors of the Metropolitan City of Naples (southern Italy). These areas are the central sector of the eastern plain of Naples and the Cumae archaeological site in the western coastal sector of Phlegraean Fields. The triggering mechanism of GWLr is attributed to anthropogenic and natural causes, as the groundwater rebound (GR) process and the relative sea level rise due to volcano-tectonic subsidence of coastal areas. In the eastern plain of Naples, the interruption of pumping for public and private purposes occurred in 1990, leading to a progressive increase of piezometric levels with values up to 16.54 m. Since the end of 2000s, episodes of groundwater flooding (GF) have been registered on underground structures and agricultural soils. The historical piezometric levels and a comprehensive conceptual model of the aquifer have been reconstructed, as well as a first inventory of GF episodes and the hydrogeological controlling factors of GF occurrence have been detected. The economic consequences of GF have been analysed for an experimental building of study area, in which a sharp increment of expenditures has been registered. These costs include technical and legal support, construction and maintenance of GF mitigation measures and electricity consumption. Others GWLr-induced phenomena have been recognised, as ground vertical deformation and variations of the groundwater contamination. A relationship between GWLr and ground uplift emerges from the coupled analysis of piezometric and interferometric data, referred to the 1989-2013 period. The ground deformation occurs in response to the recovery of pore-pressure in the aquifer system, reaching an uplift magnitude up to 40-50 mm. In the 1989-2017 period, the piezometric levels and the concentrations of some natural contaminants in groundwater (Fe, Mn, fluorides) show opposite trends, conversely the same rising trend has been observed with nitrates. These different responses to piezometric rise are related to the lack of mobilization of deep fluids due to the interruption of pumping and to the reduction of the surficial contaminants' time travel caused by a shorter thickness of the vadose zone. In the western sector of Phlegraean Fields, the naturally triggered GWLr has caused GF in the Cumae archaeological site for the last decade, threatening safeguard and conservation of the archaeological heritage. From an integrated hydrogeological, hydrochemical and isotopic survey, a considerable contamination of groundwater resulted, due to the presence of rising highly mineralized fluids, mobilized during pumping periods, and others anthropogenic sources of contamination. Lastly, a novel methodology for groundwater flooding susceptibility (GFS) assessment has been developed by using machine learning techniques and tested in the eastern plain of Naples. Points of GF occurrence have been connected to environmental predisposing factors through Spatial Distribution Models' algorithms to estimate the most prone areas' distribution. Ensemble Models have been carried out to reduce the uncertainty associated with each algorithm and increase its reliability. Mapping of GFS has been realized by dividing occurrence probability values into five classes of susceptibility. Results show an optimal correspondence between GF points' location and the highest classes (93% of GF points falls into high and very high classes). The results of this research provide new knowledge on the GWLr phenomenon that has impacted a large territory of the Metropolitan City of Naples. The methodological approach used can be exported in others hydrogeological contexts to characterize GWLr and its impacts. In addition, the implemented GFS methodology represents a new tool to assist local government authorities, planners and water decision-makers in addressing the problems deriving from GF, and a first step for the evaluation of GF risk as required by Italian and European legislation

Remote Sensing of Land Surface Phenology

Land surface phenology (LSP) uses remote sensing to monitor seasonal dynamics in vegetated land surfaces and retrieve phenological metrics (transition dates, rate of change, annual integrals, etc.). LSP has developed rapidly in the last few decades. Both regional and global LSP products have been routinely generated and play prominent roles in modeling crop yield, ecological surveillance, identifying invasive species, modeling the terrestrial biosphere, and assessing impacts on urban and natural ecosystems. Recent advances in field and spaceborne sensor technologies, as well as data fusion techniques, have enabled novel LSP retrieval algorithms that refine retrievals at even higher spatiotemporal resolutions, providing new insights into ecosystem dynamics. Meanwhile, rigorous assessment of the uncertainties in LSP retrievals is ongoing, and efforts to reduce these uncertainties represent an active research area. Open source software and hardware are in development, and have greatly facilitated the use of LSP metrics by scientists outside the remote sensing community. This reprint covers the latest developments in sensor technologies, LSP retrieval algorithms and validation strategies, and the use of LSP products in a variety of fields. It aims to summarize the ongoing diverse LSP developments and boost discussions on future research prospects

The structure of a fundamental intellectual process for the scholarship of sustainability

This thesis addresses fundamental issues in sustainability thinking, especially in relation to its epistemological and methodological bases. The sustainability crisis has invoked multiple schools of thought cross-cutting wide range of human activities/ scholarships. The resultant diversity of perspectives has imparted a high degree of ambiguity, and an intellectual ‘looseness’, potentially obfuscating many sustainability issues, which in consequence deepened social confusion and political inaction. Despite this, sustainability has taken on a certain moral tone as a normative goal of society, which is based upon implicit assumptions about the constituent forms of knowledge and the methods by which this knowledge is legitimated. It is out of these normative bases of sustainability that ‘sustainability science’ has emerged as an overt attempt aiming to champion pluralistic and integrated forms of knowledge and research in addressing the sustainability crisis. Chapter 1 analyzes the intellectual standing of sustainability. This reveals the necessity for an intellectual perspective to replace the normative essence associated with the notion, and a necessary pluralistic orientation and avenue of knowledge. This intellectual perspective—formed in Chapter 2—stipulates that sustainability scholarship needs to operate both across and within disciplines, albeit cognizant of a more integrated reality. The reductionist mode of enquiry is unable to do this. Thus, the sustainability crisis requires a new mode of enquiry, which can enable the production of ‘bricks of knowledge while looking at the whole building’, in contrary to the production of ‘specialized bricks of knowledge at the expense of not seeing the whole building’ as characteristic of the reductionist mode. This new mode of enquiry necessitates a fundamental intellectual process, capable of enabling the pluralistic orientation and avenue of knowledge. Accordingly, based on fundamental research the thesis aims to analyze the sustainability science discourse and, through both deductive and inductive methods, develop a fundamental intellectual process to inform on the dimensions and structure of a pluralistic knowledge avenue, leading to the laying of an intellectual foundation for the scholarship of sustainability. This is corresponded to three key research questions (KRQs): KRQ-1: How can an intellectual process fundamentally be framed in order to study the pluralistic knowledge and research structures regarding sustainability? KRQ-2: What are the basic structures of the discourse of sustainability science and how are they structured? KRQ-3: How might a pluralistic knowledge avenue and the layout of an intellectual foundation for the scholarship of sustainability be elicited based on the rationale, framing and application of the fundamental intellectual process? The thesis takes the first decade’s ‘body of work’ of sustainability science as a dataset for analysis in answering these questions through heuristic fundamental research. Chapters 1-3 reflect fundamental research, while Chapters 4-6 and Chapter 7 present the results of heuristic deductive analysis and inductive analysis, respectively. The rationale for the KRQs is formed in Chapters 1-2, besides forming the intellectual perspective of sustainability. KRQ-1 is addressed in Chapter 3 in empirically framing a fundamental intellectual process. The analysis of the first decade’s ‘body of work’ of sustainability science is presented in Chapters 4-6, elucidating the discursive, integrative and contextual structures of its discourse, thus, addressing KRQ-2. These together form a continuous thread of inquiry on the intellectual treatment of sustainability, leading to addressing KRQ-3 in Chapter 7. In framing the fundamental intellectual process the Chapter 3 produces a fundamental literature organization process resulting in a structure of five cross-connected layers of organizations within the literature archive, while a discourse analysis mechanism produces an analytical process based on a system of five stages of discourse analysis. These together construct a fundamental scheme for analyzing the basic structures of pluralistic knowledge/ research. There are four key findings (KF) arising from Chapters 4-6. KF-1 reveals an overall lack of precision in characterizing the concept of ‘human-environment system’ in sustainability science along with an extremely open-ended representation. KF-2, revealing the overall contribution of sustainability science as consistent across its three different basic structures demonstrates mere structural contributions while lacking in intellectual capacities to provide the functional aspects to the intellectual treatment of sustainability. Based on conceptualization and extensive exemplification of a theoretical framework on the language of conversation in sustainability research KF-3 produces a new intellectual lens for approaching effective trans-disciplinary sustainability research through facilitating knowledge co-production. KF-4 reveals a strong correlation between the dominant ‘original nature’ and the characters of ‘literature survey’ and ‘literature archive analysis’ (being the ‘mode of conduction’ and the ‘utilized research method’, respectively) of sustainability science research, together with a dominance of these characters across the other empirical classes. This reveals the significance of fundamental literature organization and analysis process in brokering common language and understanding for the enabling of sustainability scholarship, besides breaking the impasse of the conventional incompatibility between original research and literature analysis processes. In Chapter 7, the KF 1-4 are analyzed in terms of different dimensions of the pluralistic knowledge avenue. The chapter also produces the structure of this avenue through inductively projecting on the characteristics of an integration expertise in light of the new mode of enquiry. Besides, Chapter 7 also extracts nine latent elements/ characters of an intellectual foundation of the scholarship of sustainability from the rationale, framing and application of the fundamental intellectual process as well as the inductive framing of the pluralistic knowledge avenue. These together produce the basis for an integrated theory on the intellectual foundation of sustainability. In summary, new knowledge components are pertinent to KF 1-4 and the inductive framing of the pluralistic knowledge avenue. Through fundamentally analyzing the prevailing scholastic reality of sustainability that is based on normative assumption-based works, the thesis produces a structure of sustainability scholarship based on fundamental intellectual justification. Its implications for sustainability science include: (i) the possibility of overcoming reductionist methods—constraining the contribution of the practice—through active intellectual orientation of the new mode of enquiry, (ii) prospects for innovation in the practice stem from the integrative structure of its discourse and in developing functional-intellectual capabilities, and (iii) a fundamental intellectual process is a means to overcome its normative impulse

Flood Forecasting Using Machine Learning Methods

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue Flood Forecasting Using Machine Learning Methods that was published in Wate

Remote Sensing of Natural Hazards

Each year, natural hazards such as earthquakes, cyclones, flooding, landslides, wildfires, avalanches, volcanic eruption, extreme temperatures, storm surges, drought, etc., result in widespread loss of life, livelihood, and critical infrastructure globally. With the unprecedented growth of the human population, largescale development activities, and changes to the natural environment, the frequency and intensity of extreme natural events and consequent impacts are expected to increase in the future.Technological interventions provide essential provisions for the prevention and mitigation of natural hazards. The data obtained through remote sensing systems with varied spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions particularly provide prospects for furthering knowledge on spatiotemporal patterns and forecasting of natural hazards. The collection of data using earth observation systems has been valuable for alleviating the adverse effects of natural hazards, especially with their near real-time capabilities for tracking extreme natural events. Remote sensing systems from different platforms also serve as an important decision-support tool for devising response strategies, coordinating rescue operations, and making damage and loss estimations.With these in mind, this book seeks original contributions to the advanced applications of remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) techniques in understanding various dimensions of natural hazards through new theory, data products, and robust approaches

Urban Informatics

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently – to become ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ‘big’ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity