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

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

Urban forest ecosystem analysis using fused airborne hyperspectral and lidar data

Urban trees are strategically important in a city's effort to mitigate their carbon footprint, heat island effects, air pollution, and stormwater runoff. Currently, the most common method for quantifying urban forest structure and ecosystem function is through field plot sampling. However, taking intensive structural measurements on private properties throughout a city is difficult, and the outputs from sample inventories are not spatially explicit. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to develop methods for mapping urban forest structure and function using fused hyperspectral imagery and waveform lidar data at the individual tree crown scale. Urban forest ecosystem services estimated using the USDA Forest Service’s i-Tree Eco (formerly UFORE) model are based largely on tree species and leaf area index (LAI). Accordingly, tree species were mapped in my Santa Barbara, California study area for 29 species comprising >80% of canopy. Crown-scale discriminant analysis methods were introduced for fusing Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometry (AVIRIS) data with a suite of lidar structural metrics (e.g., tree height, crown porosity) to maximize classification accuracy in a complex environment. AVIRIS imagery was critical to achieving an overall species-level accuracy of 83.4% while lidar data was most useful for improving the discrimination of small and morphologically unique species. LAI was estimated at both the field-plot scale using laser penetration metrics and at the crown scale using allometry. Agreement of the former with photographic estimates of gap fraction and the latter with allometric estimates based on field measurements was examined. Results indicate that lidar may be used reasonably to measure LAI in an urban environment lacking in continuous canopy and characterized by high species diversity. Finally, urban ecosystem services such as carbon storage and building energy-use modification were analyzed through combination of aforementioned methods and the i-Tree Eco modeling framework. The remote sensing methods developed in this dissertation will allow researchers to more precisely constrain urban ecosystem spatial analyses and equip cities to better manage their urban forest resource

Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop of the EARSeL Special Interest Group on Forest Fires Advances in Remote Sensing and GIS Applications in Forest Fire Management Towards an Operational Use of Remote Sensing in Forest Fire Management

During the last two decades, interest in forest fire research has grown steadily, as more and more local and global impacts of burning are being identified. The definition of fire regimes as well as the identification of factors explaining spatial and temporal variations in these fire characteristics are recently hot fields of research. Changes in these fire regimes have important social and ecological implications. Whether these changes are mainly caused by land use or climate warming, greater efforts are demanded to manage forest fires at different temporal and spatial scales. The European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories (EARSeL)’s Special Interest Group (SIG) on Forest Fires was created in 1995, following the initiative of several researchers studying Mediterranean fires in Europe. It has promoted five technical meetings and several specialised publications since then, and represents one of the most active groups within the EARSeL. The SIG has tried to foster interaction among scientists and managers who are interested in using remote sensing data and techniques to improve the traditional methods of fire risk estimation and the assessment of fire effect. The aim of the 6th international workshop is to analyze the operational use of remote sensing in forest fire management, bringing together scientists and fire managers to promote the development of methods that may better serve the operational community. This idea clearly links with international programmes of a similar scope, such as the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) and the Global Observation of Forest Cover/Land Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) who, together with the Joint Research Center of the European Union sponsor this event. Finally, I would like to thank the local organisers for the considerable lengths they have gone to in order to put this material together, and take care of all the details that the organization of this event requires.JRC.H.3-Global environement monitorin

Develop Urban Configurations to Mitigate the Urban Heat Island Effect in Sydney

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon, which is the excessive warmth of parts of cities relative to other regions and rural regions, has been caused by the rapid growth of metropolitan areas concurrent with climate change. The second factor causing increased urban heat in the following years is urban expansion. In Australia, where the annual mean temperature is increasing at a pace of 0.9°C per year. In this instance, the peculiarities of the urban structure and how it contributes to the establishment of the heat island are crucial. However, due to the insufficient understanding of urban energy balance at the precinct level, the effectiveness of urban planning and implementation for UHI mitigation is substantially limited. Most past studies have concentrated on the single building, region and metro area, but relatively little study has been done at the precinct level. In addition, the structural parameters of the built environment have a significant impact on the urban energy balance. However, few researchers are examining how morphological features at the precinct level can minimize UHIs and enhance outdoor thermal comfort. This study establishes a structure for categorising the urban context into clusters representative of Open and Compact arrangements with the seven subdivisions ranging from the low-rise to high-rise that assist in urban climate research and evaluate precinct urban energy budget and its effects on UHIs, wind patterns, and outdoor thermal comfort to address these gaps. The framework discusses the correlations between precinct morphological traits, environmental climatic conditions, UHIs, and outdoor thermal comfort. This study investigates the correlation between, precinct morphological traits and the heat island effect at the urban canopy layer. Besides, to discover the most appropriate scenarios under Sydney's climate setting, appropriate mitigation techniques are also investigated in the context of suggested urban categories. Empirical investigations were carried out throughout this dissertation in a region near the Bondi precinct that has a diversity of urban settlements. Envi-met, a realistic tool for modelling the distribution of the primary climatic elements in urban environments, is a three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model that implements a thorough numerical simulation. Over three summer days, we evaluated urban designs concerning ambient air temperature, wind characteristics, heat intensity, and outdoor thermal comfort. In all 9 configurations, we connected the results to density and built-up ratio and discovered that the greatest configurational influence on the heat island was 2.33 °C. The average wind speed figure exhibits a significant decreasing trend in configurations with built-up ratios between 0.37 and 0.5, while a built-up ratio of 0.63 indicates the minimum. In high-rise compact layouts, the average temperature dropped by 1.12 °C per hour. In terms of mitigation strategies, when the albedo of the streets and pavements is increased between 0.12-0.36 and that of the pavements between 0.3 and 0.9, the scenario predicts to lower peak ambient temperature by 0.56 °C to 1.18 °C. However, in canyons surrounded by low-to medium-height structures that are rarely covered by other buildings, this approach raises the outdoor thermal comfort. The maximum ambient temperature is lowered by 0.47 to 1.35 °C when full mitigation techniques, including surface albedo adjustments and an increase in the proportion of outdoor vegetation, are used. The peak ambient temperature at ground level is not significantly lowered by mitigation strategies employing additional roof vegetation. Furthermore, a strong connection between building layout and mitigation strategies was defined. As that in terms of suitable mitigation strategies on the urban canopy layer results shows that a maximum cooling potential of 2.15°C in OT1 and a minimum of 0.07°C in CT7 relative to the reference scenario were anticipated by full mitigation scenarios. This study focuses on urban heat island impacts, urban layout cooling potential, and related mitigation techniques to solve the major problem confronting the built environment. The intricate interconnections between precinct geometry, precinct thermodynamic efficiency, urban heat island effects, and outdoor thermal comfort are addressed using a multidisciplinary approach. The need for UHI mitigation techniques for ecologically sustainable urban growth in Sydney and other Australian cities with similar climatic conditions should be made clear by these thorough findings. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of how selective mitigation strategies affect UHI on the urban canopy layer and can be used by decision-makers to develop effective urban planning and development control plans to improve urban resilience, such as expanding urban density and growing with a poly-centric spatial form