Extraction, processing, production and display of geographic data
Maryam Kouhani; Abbas Kiani; Yasser Ebrahimian Ghajari
Abstract
Extended AbstractIntroductionVegetation has always been affected by various environmental and human factors that have directly or indirectly affected the conditions and performance of the environment over time. Consequently, monitoring and investigating the vegetation cover in the northern regions of ...
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Extended AbstractIntroductionVegetation has always been affected by various environmental and human factors that have directly or indirectly affected the conditions and performance of the environment over time. Consequently, monitoring and investigating the vegetation cover in the northern regions of Iran is also highly considered important. Research suggests that the destruction and change of vegetation cover and forests are among the most important factors influencing natural hazards such as floods, erosion, and earthquakes. In addition to processing and presenting well-known spatial data, remote sensing can also be used to improve human understanding of annual changes in vegetation cover, from a local to a global scale. In this regard, the anomaly evaluation criterion with high differentiation can separate and display anomalous areas in order to recognize the change process and reveal the areas with anomalies over time. Thus, medium-resolution images, vegetation indices, and anomaly criteria can be used to evaluate long-term vegetation changes. Therefore, a positive step in reducing the environmental effects of a region can be made by locating the urban areas that have experienced changes over time and making decisions related to future planning.Material and methodsThis study utilized a time series of Landsat 5, 7, and 8 images downloaded from the Google Earth engine. To get the best representation of the vegetation in this study, spring and summer were chosen because vegetation at this time is at its greenest. The main focus of this study was on the evaluation of vegetation changes over time quantitatively and qualitatively, using remote sensing data from Google Earth Engine to prepare a map of vegetation changes over time. The general process of implementing this research can be summarized in 7 phases. The first phase involves taking Landsat images and preparing statistical meteorological data. In the second phase, the time series images were collected according to the specific period and in the third phase, the obtained images were corrected and pre-processed. As a next step, the EVI index is extracted from all Landsat images, and then to determine the anomaly of changes, a series of statistical analyses, including the mean and standard deviation, are applied. The next step involves generating the map of anomalous time series changes and extracting the map of vegetation changes to improve understanding. The end of the process also includes evaluating the results obtained from this research. Results and DiscussionSince vegetation and drought changes are non-uniform depending on location and distance from the sea and humid areas, and vegetation is destroyed to build villas, residential areas, commercial areas, and towns, several study areas were divided into smaller pieces. Then each area was analyzed and evaluated separately for its changes. It has been observed in the first and third study areas that vegetation has generally been on the rise in the past 36 years, although sometimes there have been anomalies and fluctuations in EVI value. It was significant to see the reduced vegetation in 2008 in both regions. For example, 262.5 mm of precipitation in the first region fell this year, indicating a rain shortage. The results obtained from the second region, considered one of the coastal regions, indicate that the anomaly graph in the region during the period had a downward slope in the direction of decreasing vegetation, and EVI values reached 0.14 in 2005 and 0.09 in 2013. The 4th and 5th regions have shown a lot of fluctuations in anomalous changes and EVI values, although the trend has generally been downward. Results obtained in the 4th region show that vegetation cover peaked in 2004 and 2011. Rainfall in the 5th region, a highland region, in 2008 was deficient, with 259.8 mm reported by the meteorological station. The anomaly value in this year was -1.96. According to the Department of Meteorology in Mazandaran province, most droughts that have affected the underground water in the province have taken place in coastal and plain areas in the province's east and center, and in western cities, they have mostly affected mountainous areas.ConclusionThirty-six years of EVI time series images obtained from Landsat images were utilized in this study to investigate the changes and identify anomalies. In order to conduct a more detailed investigation, the study area was divided into several different regions, and each region was evaluated separately. The results obtained with existing meteorological statistical data were analyzed because vegetation can be affected by climatic and environmental conditions such as weather conditions. According to the results from study area )4(, vegetation cover has consistently decreased over the last three decades due to various factors like tree cutting, landslides, or land use changes. As shown in the map showing the obtained changes, there appears to be an increase in the value of the vegetation index in some northern areas of Chalus city until around 2002, indicating an improvement in greenness. While In some areas close to the Caspian Sea and the coastline, because of the construction of villas and commercial areas, there has been a loss of vegetation, such as in area (2) based on the changed map, a major part of the vegetation in that area has been destroyed because of the establishment of a settlement and construction of a road. As a result of comparing the evaluation of two anomaly approaches, it has also been concluded that both modes show almost the same trend of changes, but the graphs in "Anomaly compared to the overall average" mode compared to "Anomaly compared to the average of each set" display the change process better.
Leyla Karami; Seyed Mohammad Tavakkoli Sabour; Ali Asghar Torahi
Abstract
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Vegetation is considered to be one of the most important elements in all major ecosystems on the Earth. Thus, a proper understanding of vegetation and its growth trends and other environmental factors has always been of particular importance for environmental research. ...
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Extended Abstract
Introduction
Vegetation is considered to be one of the most important elements in all major ecosystems on the Earth. Thus, a proper understanding of vegetation and its growth trends and other environmental factors has always been of particular importance for environmental research. Estimating vegetation phenology parameters (VPPs) requires continuous NDVI data collection over a specific period of time. However, soil moisture, cloud cover, and particulate matter may affect the energy reflected from the vegetation cover and result in noisy images or erroneous data. Vegetation phenology parameters cannot be extracted from raw data due to the presence of random errors. These errors do not follow the phenological process and thus, overestimate or underestimate NDVI and fail to produce accurate results. Smoothing functions and especially the TIMESAT model are used to resolve this issue and eliminate errors in the NDVI time series. There is still no general consensus on which function acts more efficient and accurate in the TIMESAT model especially regarding the highlands. Naturally, each method yields different results in different regions, and thus it is necessary to compare and evaluate different functions used in the TIMESAT model and determine their accuracy in producing a continuous time series. The present study aimed to evaluate the performance of various functions such as asymmetric Gaussian (AG), double-logistic (DL), and Savitzky–Golay (SG) used to extract VPPs especially in mountainous regions.
Materials and Methods
TIMESAT model is a time-series analysis model based on remote sensing (RS) vegetation indices. It includes three functions: Savitzky–Golay, asymmetric Gaussian, and double-logistic, which are used to smooth collected data and identify outliers. Savitzky–Golay is an adaptive-degree polynomial filter (ADPF). The other two functions fit the information using nonlinear functions. These functions use unmodified NDVI data as input to produce modified and smoothed NDVI output. Four wheat farms in cold and warm regions of Khorramabad were used in the present study to investigate plant phenological behaviors and extract VPPs. The northern and eastern parts of Khorramabad have a cold climate, while the southern and western parts have a warm climate. One-year time series (2020) data of MODIS sensor was used in the present study. Using the infrared and near-infrared spectral reflectance values, NDVI was calculated in the Google Earth Engine environment. Errors of the NDVI time series were first corrected and a phenology curve was produced for wheat in both warm and cold farms. Asymmetric Gaussian, double-logistic, and Savitzky–Golay filter functions were also used to adapt the NDVI data. Following the reconstruction of growth curves in the time series of vegetation indices and smoothing the curve, various VPPs such as start of the season (SOS), end of the season (EOS), middle of the season (MOS), length of the growing season (LOS), base limit and value, maximum NDVI, vegetation growth season range, large seasonal integral, and small seasonal integral were extracted.
Results and Discussion
The model indicated that on average, beginning of the wheat growing season (SOS) in the warm regions of Khoramabad coincided with the 31.5th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, whereas it happened on the 90th day of the year in the cold regions, thus indicating a 1.5-2 month difference between the beginning of the wheat growing season in cold and warm regions. The wheat growing season ended (EOS) on the 163rd day of year in the warm regions and on the 193rd day in the cold regions. In addition, in order to analyze the effect of climate on VPPs such as SOS and EOS, a comparison was made between the parameters obtained from farms in warm and cold regions. On average, the peak of vegetation growth has occurred in late March (Mar. 28, 2020) in farms of warm regions while cold regions experienced the peak of growth on May 20, 2020. In other words, warm regions have experienced peak growth approximately two months earlier than cold regions. Finally, the models were assessed and obtained values were compared with ground-based data collected in field surveys. Validation results showed that with an average RMSE of 2, Savitzky–Golay smoothing model reconstruct data more accurately as compared to asymmetric Gaussian, and double logistic function with an RMSE of 4 and 11, respectively. In other words, Savitzky–Golay estimates SOS and EOS with a higher accuracy and lower errors.
Conclusion
Findings indicate that Savitzky–Golay filter outperformed asymmetric Gaussian and double logistic functions in extracting VPPs in mountainous areas. Accordingly, it is suggested to use Savitzky–Golay in future studies aiming to investigate the phenological behavior of different vegetation covers in other Iranian highlands. The study has also showed that different climatic conditions within the study area affect plant phenological behaviors, which can lead to differences in SOS, peak of growing season, and EOS in different cold and warm regions of the province. Growing season of plants in cold regions of the province has occurred with an approximately two-month delay compared to the warm regions of the province.
Hamid Reza Ghafarian Malamiri; Hadi Zare Khormizi
Abstract
Introduction Investigation of vegetation changes can provide valuable information on global warming, the carbon cycle,water cycle and energy exchange. Satellite imagery timeseriesandremote sensing techniques offers a great deal of information on variations and dynamics of vegetation. Harmonic ANalysis ...
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Introduction Investigation of vegetation changes can provide valuable information on global warming, the carbon cycle,water cycle and energy exchange. Satellite imagery timeseriesandremote sensing techniques offers a great deal of information on variations and dynamics of vegetation. Harmonic ANalysis of Time Series (HANTS) has been effectively used to eliminate missing and outliers in time series of vegetation indices and land surface temperature (LST). However, the algorithm has been less frequently used to detect changes in vegetation and phenology. HANTSalgorithm decomposes periodic phenomena into their components(different sines and cosineswith different amplitudes and phases). The value of phases and amplitudes contains valuable information that can be used to investigate variations and identify different characteristics of vegetation such as growth and phenology. The present study aims to determine changes in each componentof vegetation time series in Iranin the past (1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985) and in recent years (2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018). Materials & Methods A daily NDVI product of AVHRR sensor, with a resolution of 0.05 at 0.05 ° (i.e. AVH13C1) was used in the present study. To obtain reliable harmonic components (amplitude and phase images), a reliable curve has to be fitted on the primary time series data. To do so, first,parameters of HANTS algorithm were determined and then Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the curves fitted on data related to four one-year time series in the past year’s category (1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985) and four one-year time series in recent year’s category (2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018) was estimated. This classification (i.e. four one-year time series in the past and recent years) was used for two reasons. First, extraction and comparison of harmonic components in a single time series in the past and recentyears’ categories cannot reflect real changes, as these changes may occur under the influence ofimpermanent dynamics of vegetation, such as dryor wet periods. Second, with four one-year time series in the past category (1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985), and four one-year time series (2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018) in recent years, statistical comparison of the harmonic components through one-way analysis of variance becomes possible. Following the production of reliable harmonic components, variations of the harmonic components in recent years were compared with their variations in the past using difference method, and mean difference of the harmonic components’value in four one-year time seriesin the past and present categories wasdetermined using one-way analysis of variance. Finally, some maps were produced to exhibitthe significance of differenceinmeans. Results & Discussion According to the findings of the present study, mean RMSE of the fitted curves in the four one-year periods ofpresent and past time series were always less than 0.1 unit of NDVI. Moreover, mean RMSEof total area of Iranin the past and present time series were 0.037 and 0.039, respectively. This demonstrates high efficiency of the HANTS algorithm in elimination of missing and outlier data in the daily-NDVI time series ofNOAA-AVHRR. Results indicate thatrange of zero amplitude (the mean value of NDVI or the average vegetation coverage) decreasesin the central, eastern and northeastern regions of Iran atthe 95% probability level (F-value <0.05), whileit increases significantly (F-value <0.05)in the north, northwestern and western regions (especially, the Alborz and Zagros mountains). The meandifferenceof phases value in the four-time series of the past and recent years’categories wassignificant at the 95% probability level (F-value <0.05). Compared to the past time series, first harmonic phase average of total area of Iran in the new time series has decreased by almost 14 degrees. This decrease in the value of the annual and 6-month phases indicates a quicker growth phase and phenological processes of plants compared to past times. Conclusion Results indicated that HANTS algorithm can effectively eliminateand reconstruct outliers in the NDVI time series. Zero harmonic (mean value) represents the overall level of vegetation cover and the firstharmonic phase in a one-year time series determines the starting time of growth in seasonal plants or thosewith agrowth period of6-month or less. Annual Phase indicates the angular starting position of the annual cycles and the 6-month phase inherently indicates the fluctuation and angular position of a half-year or 6-month curve. However, interpreting 6-month amplitude and phases are difficult. As most changes are controlled by the first harmonic phase, the first harmonic phase in a one-year time series contains important information about the beginning of growth and the phenological processes of plants. Therefore, harmonic components of a periodic time series canbeusedto identify and determine changes in vegetation coverage and phenological processes.
Fereydoon Nobakht Ersi; Abdolreza Safari; Mohammad Ali Sharifi
Abstract
The main purpose of the present paper is to use the ARMA probability models to model the time series of the daily positions of GPS permanent station.Daily Locations of the LLAS permanent station in the Southern California region have been selected from the SCIGN network, covering a period of seven years ...
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The main purpose of the present paper is to use the ARMA probability models to model the time series of the daily positions of GPS permanent station.Daily Locations of the LLAS permanent station in the Southern California region have been selected from the SCIGN network, covering a period of seven years from January 2000 to December 2006, to establish a time series of position and to analyze it. Based on the time series of the daily position and using the weighted least squares, the geodetic parameters such as linear trend, annual and semi-annualfluctuations, as well as offsets,have been simultaneously estimated for the LLAS permanent station. In this study, Auto correlation Functions (ACF) and Partial Auto Correction functions (PACF) are used as the study tools for identifying the time series behavior of daily position of GPS permanent station and provide the possibility to examine the dependency of the position time series daily data. Given that several different probabilistic models may be appropriate for a daily position time series, therefore,the Akaike Information Criterion has been used at the stage of identifying and selecting the useful model. In this study, numerical results show that the best autoregressive moving average (ARMA) probabilistic model for the LLAS permanent station is ARMA (1, 1) for direction N. Also, the ARMA (2, 1) probabilistic model is the most appropriate model for direction E, while the ARMA (1, 2) probabilistic model is the best model for direction U. After estimating an appropriate probabilistic model for the time series of the daily position of the GPS permanent station, it is possible to predict the time series of the position along with the trend and seasonal components.
