UAVs for the Environmental Sciences

This book gives an overview of the usage of UAVs in environmental sciences covering technical basics, data acquisition with different sensors, data processing schemes and illustrating various examples of application

드론을 활용한 위성 지표반사도 산출물 공간 패턴 분석

학위논문(석사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 농업생명과학대학 생태조경·지역시스템공학부(생태조경학), 2021.8. 조대솔.High-resolution satellites are assigned to monitor land surface in detail. The reliable surface reflectance (SR) is the fundamental in terrestrial ecosystem modeling so the temporal and spatial validation is essential. Usually based on multiple ground control points (GCPs), field spectroscopy guarantees the temporal continuity. Due to limited sampling, however, it hardly illustrates the spatial pattern. As a map, the pixelwise spatial variability of SR products is not well-documented. In this study, we introduced drone-based hyperspectral image (HSI) as a reference and compared the map with Sentinel 2 and Landsat 8 SR products on a heterogeneous rice paddy landscape. First, HSI was validated by field spectroscopy and swath overlapping, which assured qualitative radiometric accuracy within the viewing geometry. Second, HSI was matched to the satellite SRs. It involves spectral and spatial aggregation, co-registration and nadir bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF)-adjusted reflectance (NBAR) conversion. Then, we 1) quantified the spatial variability of the satellite SRs and the vegetation indices (VIs) including NDVI and NIRv by APU matrix, 2) qualified them pixelwise by theoretical error budget and 3) examined the improvement by BRDF normalization. Sentinel 2 SR exhibits overall good agreement with drone HSI while the two NIRs are biased up to 10%. Despite the bias in NIR, the NDVI shows a good match on vegetated areas and the NIRv only displays the discrepancy on built-in areas. Landsat 8 SR was biased over the VIS bands (-9 ~ -7.6%). BRDF normalization just contributed to a minor improvement. Our results demonstrate the potential of drone HSI to replace in-situ observation and evaluate SR or atmospheric correction algorithms over the flat terrain. Future researches should replicate the results over the complex terrain and canopy structure (i.e. forest).원격탐사에서 지표 반사도(SR)는 지표정보를 비파괴적이고 즉각적인 방법으로 전달해주는 매개체 역할을 한다. 신뢰할 수 있는 SR은 육상 생태계 모델링의 기본이고, 이에 따라 SR의 시공간적 검증이 요구된다. 일반적으로 SR은 여러 지상 기준점(GCP)을 기반으로 하는 현장 분광법을 통해서 시간적 연속성이 보장된다. 그러나 현장 분광법은 제한적인 샘플링으로 공간 패턴을 거의 보여주지 않아, 위성 SR의 픽셀 별 공간 변동성은 잘 분석되지 않았다. 본 연구에서는 드론 기반의 초분광 영상(HSI)을 참고자료로 도입하여, 이를 이질적인 논 경관에서 Sentinel 2 및 Landsat 8 SR과 비교하였다. 우선, 드론 HSI는 현장 분광법 및 경로 중첩을 통해서 관측각도 범위 내에서 정성적인 방사 측정을 보장한다고 검증되었다. 이후, 드론 HSI는 위성 SR의 분광반응특성, 공간해상도 및 좌표계를 기준으로 맞춰졌고, 관측 기하를 통일하기 위해서 드론 HIS와 위성 SR은 각각 양방향반사율분포함수 (BRDF) 정규화 반사도 (NBAR)로 변환되었다. 마지막으로, 1) APU 행렬으로 위성 SR과 NDVI, NIRv를 포함하는 식생지수(VI)의 공간변동성을 정량화 했고, 2) 대기보정의 이론적 오차를 기준으로 SR과 VI를 픽셀별로 평가했고, 3) BRDF 정규화를 통한 개선 사항을 검토했다. Sentinel 2 SR은 드론 HSI와 전반적으로 좋은 일치를 보이나, 두 NIR 채널은 최대 10% 편향되었다. NIR의 편향은 식생지수에서 토지 피복에 따라 다른 영향을 미쳤다. NDVI는 식생에서는 낮은 편향을 보여줬고, NIRv는 도시시설물 영역에서만 높은 편향을 보였다. Landsat 8 SR은 VIS 채널에 대해 편향되었다 (-9 ~ -7.6%). BRDF 정규화는 위성 SR의 품질을 개선했지만, 그 영향은 부수적이었다. 본 연구에서는 평탄한 지형에서 드론 HSI가 현장 관측을 대체할 수 있고, 따라서 위성 SR이나 대기보정 알고리즘을 평가하는데 활용될 수 있다는 것을 보였다. 향후 연구에서는 산림으로 대상지를 확대하여, 지형과 캐노피 구조가 드론 HSI 및 위성 SR에 미치는 영향을 분석할 필요가 있다.Chapter 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Background 1 Chapter 2. Method 3 2.1 Study Site 3 2.2 Drone campaign 4 2.3 Data processing 4 2.3.1 Sensor calibration 5 2.3.2 Bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) calculation 7 2.3.3 BRDF correction 7 2.3.4 Orthorectification 8 2.3.5 Spatial Aggregation 9 2.3.6 Co-registration 10 2.4 Satellite dataset 10 2.4.2 Landsat 8 12 Chapter 3. Result and Discussion 12 3.1 Drone BRF map quality assessment 12 3.1.1 Radiometric accuracy 12 3.1.2 BRDF effect 15 3.2 Spatial variability in satellite surface reflectance product 16 3.2.1 Sentinel 2B (10m) 17 3.2.2 Sentinel 2B (20m) 22 3.2.3 Landsat 8 26 Chapter 4. Conclusion 28 Supplemental Materials 30 Bibliography 34 Abstract in Korean 43석

A Comparative Analysis of Phytovolume Estimation Methods Based on UAV-Photogrammetry and Multispectral Imagery in a Mediterranean Forest

Management and control operations are crucial for preventing forest fires, especially in Mediterranean forest areas with dry climatic periods. One of them is prescribed fires, in which the biomass fuel present in the controlled plot area must be accurately estimated. The most used methods for estimating biomass are time-consuming and demand too much manpower. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) carrying multispectral sensors can be used to carry out accurate indirect measurements of terrain and vegetation morphology and their radiometric characteristics. Based on the UAV-photogrammetric project products, four estimators of phytovolume were compared in a Mediterranean forest area, all obtained using the difference between a digital surface model (DSM) and a digital terrain model (DTM). The DSM was derived from a UAV-photogrammetric project based on the structure from a motion algorithm. Four different methods for obtaining a DTM were used based on an unclassified dense point cloud produced through a UAV-photogrammetric project (FFU), an unsupervised classified dense point cloud (FFC), a multispectral vegetation index (FMI), and a cloth simulation filter (FCS). Qualitative and quantitative comparisons determined the ability of the phytovolume estimators for vegetation detection and occupied volume. The results show that there are no significant differences in surface vegetation detection between all the pairwise possible comparisons of the four estimators at a 95% confidence level, but FMI presented the best kappa value (0.678) in an error matrix analysis with reference data obtained from photointerpretation and supervised classification. Concerning the accuracy of phytovolume estimation, only FFU and FFC presented differences higher than two standard deviations in a pairwise comparison, and FMI presented the best RMSE (12.3 m) when the estimators were compared to 768 observed data points grouped in four 500 m2 sample plots. The FMI was the best phytovolume estimator of the four compared for low vegetation height in a Mediterranean forest. The use of FMI based on UAV data provides accurate phytovolume estimations that can be applied on several environment management activities, including wildfire prevention. Multitemporal phytovolume estimations based on FMI could help to model the forest resources evolution in a very realistic way

Earth Resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes, issue 36

This bibliography lists 576 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System between October 1 and December 31, 1982. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis

Remote Sensing

This dual conception of remote sensing brought us to the idea of preparing two different books; in addition to the first book which displays recent advances in remote sensing applications, this book is devoted to new techniques for data processing, sensors and platforms. We do not intend this book to cover all aspects of remote sensing techniques and platforms, since it would be an impossible task for a single volume. Instead, we have collected a number of high-quality, original and representative contributions in those areas

Earth Resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes

This bibliography lists 475 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between January 1 and March 31, 1984. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economical analysis