Meyer, M.F.; Gonçalves, J.A.; Bio, A.M.F. Using Remote Sensing Multispectral Imagery for Invasive Species Quantification: The Effect of Image Resolution on Area and Biomass Estimation. Remote Sens.2024, 16, 652.
Meyer, M.F.; Gonçalves, J.A.; Bio, A.M.F. Using Remote Sensing Multispectral Imagery for Invasive Species Quantification: The Effect of Image Resolution on Area and Biomass Estimation. Remote Sens. 2024, 16, 652.
Meyer, M.F.; Gonçalves, J.A.; Bio, A.M.F. Using Remote Sensing Multispectral Imagery for Invasive Species Quantification: The Effect of Image Resolution on Area and Biomass Estimation. Remote Sens.2024, 16, 652.
Meyer, M.F.; Gonçalves, J.A.; Bio, A.M.F. Using Remote Sensing Multispectral Imagery for Invasive Species Quantification: The Effect of Image Resolution on Area and Biomass Estimation. Remote Sens. 2024, 16, 652.
Abstract
This study assesses the applicability of different-resolution multispectral remote sensing images for mapping and estimating the aboveground biomass (AGB) of Carpobrotus edulis, a prominent invasive species in European coastal areas. The performance of three sets of multispectral images with different resolutions was compared: (i) 2.5 cm Ground Sample Distance (GSD), 5 cm GSD and 10 cm GSD images. The images were classified using the supervised classification algorithm Random Forest and later improved applying a sieve filter. The results show that the three tested image resolutions allow constructing reliable coverage maps of C. edulis, with Overall Accuracy values of 89%, 85% and 88% for the classification of the 2.5 cm, 5 cm and 10 cm GSD images, respectively. Samples were also collected, dried and weighed to estimate AGB using the relationship between the Dry Weight and Vegetation Indices (VI). The regressions were evaluated based on their R² and Normalised RMSE. The best-performing VI-DW regression models achieved: R² = 0.87 and NRMSE = 0.09 for the 2.5 cm resolution; R² = 0.77 and NRMSE = 0.12 for the 5 cm resolution; and, R² = 0.64 and NRMSE = 0.15 for the 10 cm resolution. C. edulis area and total AGB were: 3441.10 m² and 28,327.1 kg (with a Relative Error (RE) = 0.08), for the 2.5 cm resolution; 3070.04 m² and 29,170.8 kg (RE = 0.08), for the 5 cm resolution; and, 2305.06 m² and 22,135.7 kg (RE = 0.11), for the 10 cm resolution. Differences were analysed in detail, spatially, to determine their causes. Final analyses suggest that, for C. edulis, multispectral imagery of up to 5 cm GSD is adequate for the estimation of the species’ distribution and biomass.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
