Remote Sensing of Ecology, Biodiversity and Conservation: A Review from the Perspective of Remote Sensing Specialists

Remote sensing, the science of obtaining information via noncontact recording, has swept the fields of ecology, biodiversity and conservation (EBC). Several quality review papers have contributed to this field. However, these papers often discuss the issues from the standpoint of an ecologist or a biodiversity specialist. This review focuses on the spaceborne remote sensing of EBC from the perspective of remote sensing specialists, i.e., it is organized in the context of state-of-the-art remote sensing technology, including instruments and techniques. Herein, the instruments to be discussed consist of high spatial resolution, hyperspectral, thermal infrared, small-satellite constellation, and LIDAR sensors; and the techniques refer to image classification, vegetation index (VI), inversion algorithm, data fusion, and the integration of remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS)

Challenges and Opportunities of Multimodality and Data Fusion in Remote Sensing

International audience—Remote sensing is one of the most common ways to extract relevant information about the Earth and our environment. Remote sensing acquisitions can be done by both active (synthetic aperture radar, LiDAR) and passive (optical and thermal range, multispectral and hyperspectral) devices. According to the sensor, a variety of information about the Earth's surface can be obtained. The data acquired by these sensors can provide information about the structure (optical, synthetic aperture radar), elevation (LiDAR) and material content (multi and hyperspectral) of the objects in the image. Once considered together their comple-mentarity can be helpful for characterizing land use (urban analysis, precision agriculture), damage detection (e.g., in natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, oil-spills in seas), and give insights to potential exploitation of resources (oil fields, minerals). In addition, repeated acquisitions of a scene at different times allows one to monitor natural resources and environmental variables (vegetation phenology, snow cover), anthropological effects (urban sprawl, deforestation), climate changes (desertification, coastal erosion) among others. In this paper, we sketch the current opportunities and challenges related to the exploitation of multimodal data for Earth observation. This is done by leveraging the outcomes of the Data Fusion contests, organized by the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society since 2006. We will report on the outcomes of these contests, presenting the multimodal sets of data made available to the community each year, the targeted applications and an analysis of the submitted methods and results: How was multimodality considered and integrated in the processing chain? What were the improvements/new opportunities offered by the fusion? What were the objectives to be addressed and the reported solutions? And from this, what will be the next challenges

Optical and radar remotely sensed data for large-area wildlife habitat mapping

Wildlife habitat mapping strongly supports applications in natural resource management, environmental conservation, impacts of anthropogenic activity, perturbed ecosystem restoration, species-at-risk recovery and species inventory. Remote sensing has long been identified as a feasible and effective technology for large-area wildlife habitat mapping. However, existing and future uncertainties in remote sensing will definitely have a significant effect on relevant scientific research, such as the limitation of Landsat-series data; the negative impact of cloud and cloud shadows (CCS) in optical imagery; and landscape pattern analysis using remote sensing classification products. This thesis adopted a manuscript-style format; it addresses these challenges (or uncertainties) and opportunities through exploring the state-of-the-art optical and radar remotely sensed data for large-area wildlife habitat mapping, and investigating their feasibility and applicability primarily by comparison either on the level of direct remote sensing products (e.g. classification accuracy) or indirect ecological model (e.g. presence/absence and frequency of use model based on landscape pattern analysis). A framework designed to identify and investigate the potential remotely sensed data, including Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC), Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM), Indian Remote Sensing (IRS), and RADARSAT-2, has been developed. The chosen DMC and RADARSAT-2 imagery have acceptable capability of addressing the existing and potential challenges (or uncertainties) in remote sensing of large-area habitat mapping, in order to produce cloud-free thematic maps for the study of wildlife habitat. A quantitative comparison between Landsat-based and IRS-based analyses showed that the characteristics of remote sensing products play an important role in landscape pattern analysis to build grizzly bear presence/absence and frequency of use models

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

Démélange d'images radar polarimétrique par séparation thématique de sources

Land cover is a layer of information of significant interest for land management issues. In this context, combining remote sensing observations of different types is expected to produce more reliable results on land cover classification. The objective of this work is to explore the use of polarimetric radar images in association with co-registered higher resolution optical images. Extracting information from a polarimetric representation consists in decomposing it with target decomposition algorithms. Understanding these mechanisms is challenging as they are mixed inside the radar cell resolution but it is the key to producing a reliable land cover classification. The problem while using these target decomposition algorithms is that average physical parameters are obtained. As a result, each land cover type of a mixed pixel might not be well described by the average polarimetric parameters. The effect is all the more important as speckle affecting radar observations requires a local estimation of the polarimetric matrices. In this context, we chose to assess whether optical images can improve the understanding of radar images at the observation scale so as to retrieve more information. Spatial and spectral unmixing methods, traditionally designed for optical image fusion, were found to be an interesting framework. As a consequence, the idea of unmixing physical radar scattering mechanisms with the optical images is proposed. The original method developed is the decomposition of the polarimetric information, based on land cover type. This thematic decomposition is performed before applying usual target decomposition algorithms. A linear mixing model for radar images and an unmixing algorithm are proposed in this document. Having pointed out that the linear unmixing model is able to split off polarimetric information on a land cover type basis, the information contained in the unmixed matrices is evaluated. The assesment is carried out with generated simulated data and polarimetric radar images from the Radarsat-2 satellite. For this experiment, textit {Bare soil} and textit {Forested area} were considered for land cover types. It was found that despite speckle the reconstructed radar information after the unmixing is statically relevant with the observations. Moreover, the unmixing algorithm is capable of assimilating information from optical images. The question whether the unmixed radar images contain relevant thematic information is more challenging. Results on real and simulated data show that this capacity depends on the types of land cover considered and their respective proportions. Future work will be carried out to make the estimation step more robust to speckle and to test this unmixing algorithm on longer wavelength radar images. In this case, this method could be used to have a better estimation of vegetation biomass in the context of open forested areasCette thèse s'inscrit dans le contexte de l'amélioration de la caractérisation de l'occupation du sol à partir d'observations de télédétection de natures très différentes : le radar polarimétrique et les images optiques multispectrales. Le radar polarimétrique permet la détermination de mécanismes de rétrodiffusion provenant de théorèmes de décomposition de l'information polarimétrique utiles à la classification des types d'occupation du sol. Cependant ces décompositions sont peu compréhensibles lorsque que plu- sieurs classes thématiques co-existent dans des proportions très variables au sein des cellules de résolution radar. Le problème est d'autant plus important que le speckle inhérent à l'imagerie radar nécessite l'estimation de ces paramètres sur des voisinages locaux. Nous nous interrogeons alors sur la capacité des données optiques multispectrales sensiblement plus résolues spatialement que le radar polarimétrique à améliorer la compréhension des mécanismes radar. Pour répondre à cette question, nous mettons en place une méthode de démélange des images radar polarimétrique par séparation thématique de sources. L'image optique peut être considérée comme un paramètre de réglage du radar fournissant une vue du mélange. L'idée générale est donc de commencer par un démélange thématique (décomposer l'information radar sur les types d'occupation du sol) avant de réaliser les décompositions polarimétriques (identifier des mécanismes de rétrodiffusion).Dans ce travail nous proposons d'utiliser un modèle linéaire et présentons un algorithme pour réaliser le démélange thématique. Nous déterminons ensuite la capacité de l'algorithme de démé- lange à reconstruire le signal radar observé. Enfin nous évaluons si l'information radar démélangée contient de l'information thématique pertinente. Cette évaluation est réalisée sur des données simulées que nous avons générées et sur des données Radarsat-2 complètement polarimétriques pour un cas d'application de mélange sol nu/forêt. Les résultats montrent que, malgré le speckle, la reconstruction est valable. Il est toujours possible d'estimer localement des bases thématiques permettant de décomposer l'information radar polarimétrique puis de reconstruire le signal observé. Cet algorithme de démélange permet aussi d'assimiler de l'information portée par les images optiques. L'évaluation de la pertinence thématique des bases de la décomposition est plus problématique. Les expériences sur des données simulées montrent que celles-ci représentent bien l'information thématique souhaitée, mais que cette bonne estimation est dépendante de la nature des types thématiques et de leurs proportions de mélange. Cette méthode nécessite donc des études complémentaires sur l'utilisation de méthodes d'estimation plus robustes aux statistiques des images radar. Son application à des images radar de longueur d'onde plus longue pourrait permettre, par exemple, une meilleure estimation du volume de végétation dans le contexte de forêts ouverte

Growing stock volume estimation in temperate forsted areas using a fusion approach with SAR Satellites Imagery

Forest monitoring plays a central role in the context of global warming mitigation and in the assessment of forest resources. To meet these challenges, significant efforts have been made by scientists to develop new feasible remote sensing techniques for the retrieval of forest parameters. However, much work remains to be done in this area, in particular in establishing global assessments of forest biomass. In this context, this Ph.D. Thesis presents a complete methodology for estimating Growing Stock Volume (GSV) in temperate forested areas using a fusion approach based on Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite imagery. The investigations which were performed focused on the Thuringian Forest, which is located in Central Germany. The satellite data used are composed of an extensive set of L-band (ALOS PALSAR) and X-band (TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X, Cosmo-SkyMed) images, which were acquired in various sensor configurations (acquisition modes, polarisations, incidence angles). The available ground data consists of a forest inventory delivered by the local forest offices. Weather measurements and a LiDAR DEM complete the datasets. The research showed that together with the topography, the forest structure and weather conditions generally limited the sensitivity of the SAR signal to GSV. The best correlations were obtained with ALOS PALSAR (R2 = 0.61) and TanDEM-X (R2 = 0.72) interferometric coherences. These datasets were chosen for the retrieval of GSV in the Thuringian Forest and led with regressions to an root-mean-square error (RMSE) in the range of 100─200 m3ha-1. As a final achievement of this thesis, a methodology for combining the SAR information was developed. Assuming that there are sufficient and adequate remote sensing data, the proposed fusion approach may increase the biomass maps accuracy, their spatial extension and their updated frequency. These characteristics are essential for the future derivation of accurate, global and robust forest biomass maps

Foreword to the special issue on data fusion

International audienceDATA fusion emerged as a new topic in the late 1980s, but it was only by the first half of the following decade that the availability of remotely sensed data in digital form by different sources allowed the consideration of remote-sensing data fusion. At that point, the Data Fusion Technical Committee (DFTC) of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society recognized the need for a Special Issue on the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING about "data fusion," which was published in May 1999. That pioneering issue brought to the attention of many researchers the need for an increased effort toward the joint exploitation of multiple data or information sources