Optimal endmember-based super-resolution land cover mapping

Super-resolution mapping (SRM) aims to determine the spatial distribution of the land cover classes contained in the area represented by mixed pixels to obtain a more appropriate and accurate map at a finer spatial resolution than the input remotely sensed image. The image-based SRM models directly use the observed images as input and can mitigate the uncertainty caused by class fraction errors. However, existing image-based SRM models always adopt a fixed set of endmembers used in the entire image, ignoring the spatial variability and spectral uncertainty of endmembers. To address this problem, this letter proposed an optimal endmember-based SRM (OESRM) model, which considers the spatial variations in endmembers, and determines the best-fit one for each coarse resolution pixel using the spectral angle and the spectral distance as the spectral similarity indexes. A Sentinel-2A and a Landsat-8 multispectral images were used to analyze the performance of OESRM, by comparing with three other SRM methods which adopt a fixed endmember set or multiple endmember sets. The results showed that OESRM generated resultant land cover maps with more spatial detail, and reduced the confusion between land cover classes with similar spectral features. The proposed OESRM model produced the results with the highest overall accuracy in both experiments, showing its effectiveness in reducing the effect of endmember uncertainty on SRM

Generating a series of fine spatial and temporal resolution land cover maps by fusing coarse spatial resolution remotely sensed images and fine spatial resolution land cover maps

Studies of land cover dynamics would benefit greatly from the generation of land cover maps at both fine spatial and temporal resolutions. Fine spatial resolution images are usually acquired relatively infrequently, whereas coarse spatial resolution images may be acquired with a high repetition rate but may not capture the spatial detail of the land cover mosaic of the region of interest. Traditional image spatial–temporal fusion methods focus on the blending of pixel spectra reflectance values and do not directly provide land cover maps or information on land cover dynamics. In this research, a novel Spatial–Temporal remotely sensed Images and land cover Maps Fusion Model (STIMFM) is proposed to produce land cover maps at both fine spatial and temporal resolutions using a series of coarse spatial resolution images together with a few fine spatial resolution land cover maps that pre- and post-date the series of coarse spatial resolution images. STIMFM integrates both the spatial and temporal dependences of fine spatial resolution pixels and outputs a series of fine spatial–temporal resolution land cover maps instead of reflectance images, which can be used directly for studies of land cover dynamics. Here, three experiments based on simulated and real remotely sensed images were undertaken to evaluate the STIMFM for studies of land cover change. These experiments included comparative assessment of methods based on single-date image such as the super-resolution approaches (e.g., pixel swapping-based super-resolution mapping) and the state-of-the-art spatial–temporal fusion approach that used the Enhanced Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model (ESTARFM) and the Flexible Spatiotemporal DAta Fusion model (FSDAF) to predict the fine-resolution images, in which the maximum likelihood classifier and the automated land cover updating approach based on integrated change detection and classification method were then applied to generate the fine-resolution land cover maps. Results show that the methods based on single-date image failed to predict the pixels of changed and unchanged land cover with high accuracy. The land cover maps that were obtained by classification of the reflectance images outputted from ESTARFM and FSDAF contained substantial misclassification, and the classification accuracy was lower for pixels of changed land cover than for pixels of unchanged land cover. In addition, STIMFM predicted fine spatial–temporal resolution land cover maps from a series of Landsat images and a few Google Earth images, to which ESTARFM and FSDAF that require correlation in reflectance bands in coarse and fine images cannot be applied. Notably, STIMFM generated higher accuracy for pixels of both changed and unchanged land cover in comparison with other methods

A superresolution land-cover change detection method using remotely sensed images with different spatial resolutions

The development of remote sensing has enabled the acquisition of information on land-cover change at different spatial scales. However, a trade-off between spatial and temporal resolutions normally exists. Fine-spatial-resolution images have low temporal resolutions, whereas coarse spatial resolution images have high temporal repetition rates. A novel super-resolution change detection method (SRCD)is proposed to detect land-cover changes at both fine spatial and temporal resolutions with the use of a coarse-resolution image and a fine-resolution land-cover map acquired at different times. SRCD is an iterative method that involves endmember estimation, spectral unmixing, land-cover fraction change detection, and super-resolution land-cover mapping. Both the land-cover change/no-change map and from–to change map at fine spatial resolution can be generated by SRCD. In this study, SRCD was applied to synthetic multispectral image, Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) multispectral image and Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) multispectral image. The land-cover from–to change maps are found to have the highest overall accuracy (higher than 85%) in all the three experiments. Most of the changed land-cover patches, which were larger than the coarse-resolution pixel, were correctly detected

Reducing the impacts of intra-class spectral variability on the accuracy of soft classification and super-resolution mapping of shoreline

The main objective of this research is to assess the impact of intra-class spectral variation on the accuracy of soft classification and super-resolution mapping. The accuracy of both analyses was negatively related to the degree of intra-class spectral variation, but the effect could be reduced through use of spectral sub-classes. The latter is illustrated in mapping the shoreline at a sub-pixel scale from Landsat ETM+ data. Reducing the degree of intra-class spectral variation increased the accuracy of soft classification, with the correlation between predicted and actual class coverage rising from 0.87 to 0.94, and super-resolution mapping, with the RMSE in shoreline location decreasing from 41.13 m to 35.22 m

Key Information Retrieval in Hyperspectral Imagery through Spatial-Spectral Data Fusion

Hyperspectral (HS) imaging is measuring the radiance of materials within each pixel area at a large number of contiguous spectral wavelength bands. The key spatial information such as small targets and border lines are hard to be precisely detected from HS data due to the technological constraints. Therefore, the need for image processing techniques is an important field of research in HS remote sensing. A novel semisupervised spatial-spectral data fusion method for resolution enhancement of HS images through maximizing the spatial correlation of the endmembers (signature of pure or purest materials in the scene) using a superresolution mapping (SRM) technique is proposed in this paper. The method adopts a linear mixture model and a fully constrained least squares spectral unmixing algorithm to obtain the endmember abundances (fractional images) of HS images. Then, the extracted endmember distribution maps are fused with the spatial information using a spatial-spectral correlation maximizing model and a learning-based SRM technique to exploit the subpixel level data. The obtained results validate the reliability of the technique for key information retrieval. The proposed method is very efficient and is low in terms of computational cost which makes it favorable for real-time applications

Improving super-resolution mapping through combining multiple super-resolution land-cover maps

Super-resolution mapping (SRM) is an ill-posed problem, and different SRM algorithms may generate non-identical fine spatial resolution land-cover maps (sub-pixel maps) from the same input coarse spatial resolution image. The output sub-pixels maps may each have differing strengths and weaknesses. A multiple SRM (M-SRM) method that combines the sub-pixel maps obtained from a set of SRM analyses, obtained from a single or multiple set of algorithms, is proposed in this study. Plurality voting, which selects the class with the most votes, is used to label each sub-pixel. In this study, three popular SRM algorithms, namely, the pixel swapping algorithm (PSA), the Hopfield neural network (HNN) algorithm, and Markov random field (MRF) based algorithm, were used. The proposed M-SRM algorithm was validated using two data sets: a simulated multi-spectral image and an airborne visible/infrared imaging spectrometer (AVIRIS) hyperspectral image. Results show that the highest overall accuracies were obtained by M-SRM in all experiments. For example, in the AVIRIS image experiment, the highest overall accuracies of PSA, HNN and MRF were 88.89%, 93.81% and 82.70% respectively, and increased to 95.06%, 95.37% and 85.56% respectively for M-SRM obtained from the multiple PSA, HNN and MRF analyses

Remote sensing of impervious surface growth: A framework for quantifying urban expansion and re-densification mechanisms

A substantial body of literature has accumulated on the topic of using remotely sensed data to map impervious surfaces which are widely recognized as an important indicator of urbanization. However, the remote sensing of impervious surface growth has not been successfully addressed. This study proposes a new framework for deriving and summarizing urban expansion and re-densification using time series of impervious surface fractions (ISFs) derived from remotely sensed imagery. This approach integrates multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA), analysis of regression residuals, spatial statistics (Getis_Ord) and urban growth theories; hence, the framework is abbreviated as MRGU. The performance of MRGU was compared with commonly used change detection techniques in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach. The results suggested that the ISF regression residuals were optimal for detecting impervious surface changes while Getis_Ord was effective for mapping hot spot regions i n the regression residuals image. Moreover, the MRGU outputs agreed with the mechanisms proposed in several existing urban growth theories, but importantly the outputs enable the refinement of such models by explicitly accounting for the spatial distribution of both expansion and re - densification mechanisms. Based on Landsat data, the MRGU is somewhat restricted in its ability to measure re-densification in the urban core but this may be improved through the use of higher spatial resolution satellite imagery. The paper ends with an assessment of the present gaps in remote sensing of impervious surface growth and suggests some solutions. The application of impervious surface fractions in urban change detection is a stimulating new research idea which is driving future research with new models and algorithms

Measuring River Wetted Width from Remotely Sensed Imagery at the Subpixel Scale with a Deep Convolutional Neural Network

River wetted width (RWW) is an important variable in the study of river hydrological and biogeochemical processes. Presently, RWW is often measured from remotely sensed imagery and the accuracy of RWW estimation is typically low when coarse spatial resolution imagery is used because river boundaries often run through pixels that represent a region that is a mixture of water and land. Thus, when conventional hard classification methods are used in the estimation of RWW, the mixed pixel problem can become a large source of error. To address this problem, this paper proposes a novel approach to measure RWW at the sub‐pixel scale. Spectral unmixing is first applied to the imagery to obtain a water fraction image that indicates the proportional coverage of water in image pixels. A fine spatial resolution river map from which RWW may be estimated is then produced from the water fraction image by super‐resolution mapping (SRM). In the SRM analysis, a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) is used to eliminate the negative effects of water fraction errors and reconstruct the geographical distribution of water. The proposed approach is assessed in two experiments, with the results demonstrating that the CNN based SRM model can effectively estimate sub‐pixel scale details of rivers, and that the accuracy of RWW estimation is substantially higher than that obtained from the use of a conventional hard image classification. The improvement shows that the proposed method has great potential to derive more accurate RWW values from remotely sensed imagery

How do modern transportation projects impact on development of impervious surfaces via new urban area and urban intensification? Evidence from Hangzhou Bay Bridge, China

Many countries have been constructing modern ground transportation projects. This raises questions about the impacts of such projects on development of impervious surfaces, yet there have been few attempts to systematically analyze these impacts. This paper attempts to narrow this information gap using the Hangzhou Bay Bridge project, China, as an exploratory case study. Using remotely sensed data, we developed a framework based on statistical techniques, wavelet multi-resolution analysis and Theil-Sen slope analysis to measure the changes in impervious surfaces. The derived changes were then linked to the bridge project with respect to socio-economic factors and land use development activities. The findings highlight that the analytical framework could reliably quantify the area, pattern and form of new urban area and urban intensification. Change detection analysis showed that urban area, GDP and the length of highways increased moderately in the pre-Hangzhou Bay Bridge period (1995–2002) while all of these variables increased more substantially during (2002–2009) and after (2009–2013) the bridge construction. The results indicate that the development of impervious surfaces due to new urban area came at the expense of permeable surfaces in the urban fringe and within rural regions, while urban intensification occurred mainly in the form of the redevelopment of older structures to modern high-rise buildings within existing urban regions. In the context of improved transportation infrastructure, our findings suggest that new urban area and urban intensification can be attributed to consecutive events which act like a chain reaction: construction of improved transportation projects, their impacts on land use development policies, effects of both systems on socio-economic variables, and finally all these changes influence new urban area and urban intensification. However, more research is needed to better understand this sequential process and to examine the broader applicability of the concept in other developing regions