Author : Johanna Friederike Breyer
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (757 download)
Book Synopsis Habitat Classi Cation Using Airborne and Spaceborne Remote Sensing for Biodiversity Assessment in Wales by : Johanna Friederike Breyer
Download or read book Habitat Classi Cation Using Airborne and Spaceborne Remote Sensing for Biodiversity Assessment in Wales written by Johanna Friederike Breyer and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biodiversity and its conservation are an important subject as human pressure onnatural resources increases continuously. Without accurate means of measuringbiodiversity, however, monitoring is very di cult and conservation e orts mightnot be targeted e ectively. There is a great demand for biodiversity assessmenton a regional scale in order to support national conservation aims as stated, forexample, in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Remote sensing lends itself tointerpretation at the landscape scale and this study aims to assess a variety ofoptical and laser remote sensing data with regard to their usefulness for biodiversityassessment in Wales. The study was divided into four distinct areas to evaluate di erent remote sensingdata with regard to their utility for facilitating the measurement and assessmentof distinct elements of biodiversity. These components are vegetation compositionand condition, land cover on a regional scale, three-dimensional woodlandstructure and the interaction of ora and fauna within the landscape structure. Methodological advances include a novel land cover mapping approach from multispectralremote sensing data comparable to traditional manual habitat surveys aswell as an analysis of forest vertical pro le under consideration of bird habitatpreferences. Remote sensing data investigated included airborne hyperspectral data, multispectralsatellite imagery and airborne LiDAR. The potential of hyperspectral data for the di erentiation of grasslands of varyinglevels of improvement was tested at two experimental grassland study sites andthe results suggest a strong correlation between biomass and the red-edge regionof the electromagnetic spectrum. A relationship between the presence of nonphotosyntheticvegetation and the level of agricultural improvement was further established and utilized in the formulation of rules for the classi cation of grasslandhabitats. The outcomes of this study were used to support the landscape-scale land covermapping of the extent of 38 classes from a multi-temporal combination of twospaceborne multispectral sensors (SPOT 5 HRG and IRS LISS IV). The derivedmaps achieved a moderate accuracy of 64%, though individual classes, especiallywoodlands and bogs, exceeded this value. The ability of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and terrestrial laser scannerdata to capture the three-dimensional structure of forests was investigated. It wasfound that both sensor types were limited in their ability to accurately representforest vertical pro le due to respective downward and upward signal attenuationthrough the canopy. However, both provided an accurate digital terrain modeland correlated well in their estimation of canopy height. Despite the limitations of vertical forest structure assessment from airborne Li-DAR, observation of bird species could be linked to distinct forest vertical pro les. Specialist woodland species were found to have the strongest habitat preferenceswith regard to the vertical forest structure. This project has achieved advancements in the mapping of agricultural land andhabitats in Wales, using remote sensing data, speci cally in the di erentiation ofgrassland improvement levels and tree species discrimination from multispectralsatellite imagery. Furthermore, a strong correspondence between airborne andterrestrial laser scanner outputs has been established and LiDAR forest pro leshave been shown to relate well to known woodland bird habitat preferences. The added value derived from examining these four research areas as part of asingle study, consists of the knowledge gained in how best to harness the respectiveremote sensing methods for the evaluation of very di erent aspects of biodiversity. It has further been shown that it is possible to use optical remote sensing data ata high spatial and spectral resolution, but low availability to inform and improvethe utilization of more widely accessible, but less detailed images. Furthermore, a method has been developed which allows the interpolation of avian diversityfrom the assessment vertical forest structure. As biodiversity consists of manydi erent elements at a wide variety of scales it is crucial to be able to performsuch integrated analyses of its various components. However, only a combinedapproach towards the utilization of remote sensing, as demonstrated in this study, is likely to gain the necessary data. The outcomes of this research support Wales-wide assessment of biodiversity andfacilitate the production of regional or national vegetation maps as well as structuralattributes for input into models. Components of the study can be used tosupport, for example, climate change research, assessments of biodiversity and policydecisions. Optical and laser remote sensing data can be successfully utilizedfor Wales-wide biodiversity components analysis.
