171 research outputs found
An assessment of tropical dryland forest ecosystem biomass and climate change impacts in the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) region of Southern Africa
The dryland forests of the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) region in Southern Africa are highly susceptible to disturbances from an increase in human population, wildlife pressures and the impacts of climate change. In this environment, reliable forest extent and structure estimates are difficult to obtain because of the size and remoteness of KAZA (519,912 km²). Whilst satellite remote sensing is generally well-suited to monitoring forest characteristics, there remain large uncertainties about its application for assessing changes at a regional scale to quantify forest structure and biomass in dry forest environments. This thesis presents research that combines Synthetic Aperture Radar, multispectral satellite imagery and climatological data with an inventory from a ground survey of woodland in Botswana and Namibia in 2019. The research utilised a multi-method approach including parametric and non-parametric algorithms and change detection models to address the following objectives: (1) To assess the feasibility of using openly accessible remote sensing data to estimate the dryland forest above ground biomass (2) to quantify the detail of vegetation dynamics using extensive archives of time series satellite data; (3) to investigate the relationship between fire, soil moisture, and drought on dryland vegetation as a means of characterising spatiotemporal changes in aridity. The results establish that a combination of radar and multispectral imagery produced the best fit to the ground observations for estimating forest above ground biomass. Modelling of the time-series shows that it is possible to identify abrupt changes, longer-term trends and seasonality in forest dynamics. The time series analysis of fire shows that about 75% of the study area burned at least once within the 17-year monitoring period, with the national parks more frequently affected than other protected areas. The results presented show a significant increase in dryness over the past 2 decades, with arid and semi-arid regions encroaching at the expense of dry sub-humid, particularly in the south of the region, notably between 2011-2019
Forage supply of West African rangelands : Towards a better understanding of ecosystem services by application of hyperspectral remote sensing
Grazing is the predominant type of land use in savanna regions all over the world. Although large savanna areas in Africa are still grazed by wild herbivores, the West African Sudanian savanna region mainly comprises rangeland ecosystems, providing the important ecosystem service of forage supply for domestic livestock. However, these dryland rangelands are threatened by global change, including a predicted in-crease in climatic aridity and variability as well as land degradation caused by overgrazing. In this context, the international research project WASCAL (West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use) was initiated to investigate the effects of climatic change in this region and to develop effective adaptation and mitigation measures. This cumulative dissertation aims at providing a methodology for a regular knowledge-driven monitoring of forage resources in West Africa. Due to the vast and remote nature of Sudanian savannas, remote sensing technologies are required to achieve this goal. Hence, as a first step, it was necessary to test whether hyperspectral near-surface remote sensing offers the means to model and estimate the two most important aspects of forage supply, i.e. forage quantity (green biomass) and quality (metabolisable energy) (Chapter 2.1). Evidence was provided that partial least squares regression was able to generate robust and transferable forage models. In a second step, direct and indirect drivers of forage supply on the plot and site level were identified by using path modelling within the well-defined concept of social-ecological systems (Chapter 2.2). Results indicate that the provisioning ecosystem service of forage supply is mainly driven by land use, while climatic aridity exerts foremost indirect control by determining the way people use their environment. Building on these findings, upscaling of models was tested to generate maps of forage quality and quantity from satellite images (Chapter 2.3). Here, two different available data sources, i.e. multi- and hyperspectral satellites, were compared to serve the overall objective to install a regular forage monitoring system. In conclusion, preliminary forage maps could be created from both systems. An independent validation would be a research desiderate for future studies. Moreover, both systems feature certain shortcomings that might only be overcome by future satellite missions
Remote sensing environmental change in southern African savannahs : a case study of Namibia
Savannah biomes cover a fifth of Earth’s surface, harbour many of the world’s most iconic
species and most of its livestock and rangeland, while sustaining the livelihoods of an
important proportion of its human population. They provide essential ecosystem services and
functions, ranging from forest, grazing and water resources, to global climate regulation and
carbon sequestration. However, savannahs are highly sensitive to human activities and climate
change. Across sub-Saharan Africa, climatic shifts, destructive wars and increasing
anthropogenic disturbances in the form of agricultural intensification and urbanization, have
resulted in widespread land degradation and loss of ecosystem services. Yet, these threatened
ecosystems are some of the least studied or protected, and hence should be given high
conservation priority. Importantly, the scale of land degradation has not been fully explored,
thereby comprising an important knowledge gap in our understanding of ecosystem services
and processes, and effectively impeding conservation and management of these biodiversity
hotspots.
The primary drivers of land degradation include deforestation, triggered by the increasing
need for urban and arable land, and concurrently, shrub encroachment, a process in which the
herbaceous layer, a defining characteristic of savannahs, is replaced with hardy shrubs. These
processes have significant repercussions on ecosystem service provision, both locally and
globally, although the extents, drivers and impacts of either remain poorly quantified and
understood. Additionally, regional aridification anticipated under climate change, will lead to
important shifts in vegetation composition, amplified warming and reduced carbon
sequestration. Together with a growing human population, these processes are expected to
compound the risk of land degradation, thus further impacting key ecosystem services.
Namibia is undergoing significant environmental and socio-economic changes. The most
pervasive change processes affecting its savannahs are deforestation, degradation and shrub
encroachment. Yet, the extent and drivers of such change processes are not comprehensively
quantified, nor are the implications for rural livelihoods, sustainable land management, the
carbon cycle, climate and conservation fully explored. This is partly due to the complexities
of mapping vegetation changes with satellite data in savannahs. They are naturally spatially
and temporally variable owing to erratic rainfall, divergent plant functional type phenologies
and extensive anthropogenic impacts such as fire and grazing. Accordingly, this thesis aims to
(i) quantify distinct vegetation change processes across Namibia, and (ii) develop
methodologies to overcome limitations inherent in savannah mapping. Multi-sensor satellite
data spanning a range of spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions are integrated with field
datasets to achieve these aims, which are addressed in four journal articles.
Chapters 1 and 2 are introductory. Chapter 3 exploits the Landsat archive to track changes in
land cover classes over five decades throughout the Namibian Kalahari woodlands. The
approach addresses issues implicit in change detection of savannahs by capturing the distinct
phenological phases of woody vegetation and integrating multi-sensor, multi-source data.
Vegetation extent was found to have decreased due to urbanization and small-scale arable
farming. An assessment of the limitations leads to Chapter 4, which elaborates on the
previous chapter by quantifying aboveground biomass changes associated with deforestation
and shrub encroachment. The approach centres on fusing multiple satellite datasets, each
acting as a proxy for distinct vegetation properties, with calibration/validation data consisting
of concurrent field and LiDAR measurements. Biomass losses predominate, demonstrating
the contribution of land management to ecosystem carbon changes.
To identify whether biomass is declining across the country, Chapter 5 focuses on regional,
moderate spatial resolution time-series analyses. Phenological metrics extracted from MODIS
data are used to model observed fractional woody vegetation cover, a proxy for biomass.
Trends in modelled fractional woody cover are then evaluated in relation to the predominant
land-uses and precipitation. Negative trends slightly outweighed positive trends, with
decreases arising largely in protected, urban and communal areas. Since precipitation is a
fundamental control on vegetation, Chapter 6 investigates its relation to NDVI, by assessing
to what extent observed trends in vegetation cover are driven by rainfall. NDVI is modelled as
a function of precipitation, with residuals assumed to describe the fraction of NDVI not
explained by rainfall. Mean annual rainfall and rainfall amplitude show a positive trend,
although extensive “greening” is unrelated to rainfall. NDVI amplitude, used as a proxy for
vegetation density, indicates a widespread shift to a denser condition.
In Chapter 7, trend analysis is applied to a Landsat time-series to overcome spatial and
temporal limitations characteristic of the previous approaches. Results, together with those of
the previous chapters, are synthesized and a synopsis of the main findings is presented.
Vegetation loss is predominantly caused by demand for urban and arable land. Greening
trends are attributed to shrub encroachment and to a lesser extent conservation laws, agroforestry
and rangeland management, with precipitation presenting little influence. Despite
prevalent greening, degradation processes associated with shrub encroachment, including soil
erosion, are likely to be widespread. Deforestation occurs locally while shrub encroachment
occurs regionally. This thesis successfully integrates multi-source data to map, measure and
monitor distinct change processes across scales
Mapping fractional woody cover in semi-arid savannahs using multi-seasonal composites from Landsat data
Increasing attention is being directed at mapping the fractional woody cover of savannahs using Earth-observation data. In this study, we test the utility of Landsat TM/ ETM-based spectral-temporal variability metrics for mapping regional-scale woody cover in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, for 2010. We employ a machine learning framework to compare the accuracies of Random Forest models derived using metrics calculated from different seasons. We compare these results to those from fused Landsat-PALSAR data to establish if seasonal metrics can compensate for structural information from the PALSAR signal. Furthermore, we test the applicability of a statistical variable selection method, the recursive feature elimination (RFE), in the automation of the model building process in order to reduce model complexity and processing time. All of our tests were repeated at four scales (30, 60, 90, and 120 m-pixels) to investigate the role of spatial resolution on modelled accuracies. Our results show that multi-seasonal composites combining imagery from both the dry and wet seasons produced the highest accuracies (R2 = 0.77, RMSE = 9.4, at the 120 m scale). When using a single season of observations, dry season imagery performed best (R2 = 0.74, RMSE = 9.9, at the 120 m resolution). Combining Landsat and radar imagery was only marginally beneficial, offering a mean relative improvement of 1% in accuracy at the 120 m scale. However, this improvement was concentrated in areas with lower densities of woody coverage (<30%), which are areas of concern for environmental monitoring. At finer spatial resolutions, the inclusion of SAR data actually reduced accuracies. Overall, the RFE was able to produce the most accurate model (R2 = 0.8, RMSE = 8.9, at the 120 m pixel scale). For mapping savannah woody cover at the 30 m pixel scale, we suggest that monitoring methodologies continue to exploit the Landsat archive, but should aim to use multi-seasonal derived information. When the coarser 120 m pixel scale is adequate, integration of Landsat and SAR data should be considered, especially in areas with lower woody cover densities. The use of multiple seasonal compositing periods offers promise for large-area mapping of savannahs, even in regions with a limited historical Landsat coverage
Assessment of terrain elevation estimates from ICESat-2 and GEDI spaceborne LiDAR missions across different land cover and forest types
Accurate measurements of terrain elevation are crucial for many ecological applications. In this study, we sought
to assess new global three-dimensional Earth observation data acquired by the spaceborne Light Detection and
Ranging (LiDAR) missions Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) and Global Ecosystem Dynamics
Investigation (GEDI). For this, we examined the “ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height”, version 5
(20 × 14 m and 100 × 14 m segments) and the “GEDI Level 2A Footprint Elevation and Height Metrics”, version
2 (25 m circle). We conducted our analysis across four land cover classes (bare soil, herbaceous, forest, savanna),
and six forest types (temperate broad-leaved, temperate needle-leaved, temperate mixed, tropical upland,
tropical floodplain, and tropical secondary forest). For assessment of terrain elevation estimates from spaceborne
LiDAR data we used high resolution airborne data. Our results indicate that both LiDAR missions provide accurate terrain elevation estimates across different land cover classes and forest types with mean error less than 1
m, except in tropical forests. However, using a GEDI algorithm with a lower signal end threshold (e.g., algorithm
5) can improve the accuracy of terrain elevation estimates for tropical upland forests. Specific environmental
parameters (terrain slope, canopy height and canopy cover) and sensor parameters (GEDI degrade flags, terrain
estimation algorithm; ICESat-2 number of terrain photons, terrain uncertainty) can be applied to improve the
accuracy of ICESat-2 and GEDI-based terrain estimates. Although the goodness-of-fit statistics from the two
spaceborne LiDARs are not directly comparable since they possess different footprint sizes (100 × 14 m segment
or 20 × 14 m segment vs. 25 m circle), we observed similar trends on the impact of terrain slope, canopy cover
and canopy height for both sensors. Terrain slope strongly impacts the accuracy of both ICESat-2 and GEDI
terrain elevation estimates for both forested and non-forested areas. In the case of GEDI the impact of slope is,
however, partly caused by horizontal geolocation error. Moreover, dense canopies (i.e., canopy cover higher than
90%) affect the accuracy of spaceborne LiDAR terrain estimates, while canopy height does not, when considering
samples over flat terrains. Our analysis of the accuracy and precision of current versions of spaceborne LiDAR
products for different vegetation types and environmental conditions provides insights on parameter selection
and estimated uncertainty to inform users of these key global datasets
Terrestrial laser scanning for vegetation analyses with a special focus on savannas
Savannas are heterogeneous ecosystems, composed of varied spatial combinations and proportions of woody and herbaceous vegetation. Most field-based inventory and remote sensing methods fail to account for the lower stratum vegetation (i.e., shrubs and grasses), and are thus underrepresenting the carbon storage potential of savanna ecosystems. For detailed analyses at the local scale, Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) has proven to be a promising remote sensing technology over the past decade. Accordingly, several review articles already exist on the use of TLS for characterizing 3D vegetation structure. However, a gap exists on the spatial concentrations of TLS studies according to biome for accurate vegetation structure estimation. A comprehensive review was conducted through a meta-analysis of 113 relevant research articles using 18 attributes. The review covered a range of aspects, including the global distribution of TLS studies, parameters retrieved from TLS point clouds and retrieval methods. The review also examined the relationship between the TLS retrieval method and the overall accuracy in parameter extraction. To date, TLS has mainly been used to characterize vegetation in temperate, boreal/taiga and tropical forests, with only little emphasis on savannas. TLS studies in the savanna focused on the extraction of very few vegetation parameters (e.g., DBH and height) and did not consider the shrub contribution to the overall Above Ground Biomass (AGB). Future work should therefore focus on developing new and adjusting existing algorithms for vegetation parameter extraction in the savanna biome, improving predictive AGB models through 3D reconstructions of savanna trees and shrubs as well as quantifying AGB change through the application of multi-temporal TLS. The integration of data from various sources and platforms e.g., TLS with airborne LiDAR is recommended for improved vegetation parameter extraction (including AGB) at larger spatial scales. The review highlights the huge potential of TLS for accurate savanna vegetation extraction by discussing TLS opportunities, challenges and potential future research in the savanna biome
ESTIMATION OF ABOVEGROUND CARBON STOCK USING SAR SENTINEL-1 IMAGERY IN SAMARINDA CITY
Estimation of aboveground carbon stock on stands vegetation, especially in green open space, has become an urgent issue in the effort to calculate, monitor, manage, and evaluate carbon stocks, especially in a massive urban area such as Samarinda City, Kalimantan Timur Province, Indonesia. The use of Sentinel-1 imagery was maximised to accommodate the weaknesses in its optical imagery, and combined with its ability to produce cloud-free imagery and minimal atmospheric influence. The study aims to test the accuracy of the estimated model of above-ground carbon stocks, to ascertain the total carbon stock, and to map the spatial distribution of carbon stocks on stands vegetation in Samarinda City. The methods used included empirical modelling of carbon stocks and statistical analysis comparing backscatter values and actual carbon stocks in the field using VV and VH polarisation. Model accuracy tests were performed using the standard error of estimate in independent accuracy test samples. The results show that Samarinda Utara subdistrict had the highest carbon stock of 3,765,255.9 tons in the VH exponential model. Total carbon stocks in the exponential VH models were 6,489,478.1 tons, with the highest maximum accuracy of 87.6 %, and an estimated error of 0.57 tons/pixel
The application of UASs in forest management and monitoring : challenges and opportunities for use in the Miombo woodland
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The data are available on request from the corresponding authorThe Miombo woodland is the most extensive tropical woodland in south-central Africa.
However, field sample plot data on forest cover changes, species distribution and carbon stocks in the
Miombo ecoregion are inadequate for effective forest management. Owing to logistical challenges that
come with field-based inventory methods, remote sensing plays an important role in supplementing
field methods to fill in data gaps. Traditional satellite and manned aircraft remote sensing platforms
have their own advantages and limitations. The advent of unmanned aerial systems (UASs) has made
it possible to acquire forest data at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales. UASs are adaptable to
various forest applications in terms of providing flexibility in data acquisition with different sensors
(RGB, multispectral, hyperspectral, thermal and light detection and ranging (lidar)) at a convenient
time. To highlight possible applications in the Miombo woodlands, we first provide an overview
of the Miombo woodlands and recent progress in remote sensing with small UASs. An overview
of some potential forest applications was undertaken to identify key prospects and challenges for
UAS applications in the Miombo region, which will provide expertise and guidance upon which
future applications in the Miombo woodlands should be based. While much of the potential of using
UASs for forest data acquisition in the Miombo woodlands remains to be realized, it is likely that
the next few years will see such systems being used to provide data for an ever-increasing range of
forest applications.The United States Agency for International Development through Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) program, Oliver R Tambo African Research Chair Initiative (ORTARChI) project, an initiative of Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), in partnership with the Oliver & Adelaide Tambo Foundation (OATF) and National Science and Technology Council, Zambia.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/forestsam2023Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)Plant Production and Soil Scienc
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