Estimation of Fractional Vegetation Cover in Sand Dunes Using Multi-spectral Images from Fixed-wing UAV

Abstract

Since the use of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) is convenient for the acquisition of data on broad or inaccessible regions, it is nowadays used to establish spatial information for various fields, such as the environment, ecosystem, forest, or for military purposes. In this study, the process of estimating FVC (Fractional Vegetation Cover), based on multi-spectral UAV, to overcome the limitations of conventional methods is suggested. Hence, we propose that the FVC map is generated by using multi-spectral imaging. First, two types of result classifications were obtained based on RF (Random Forest) using RGB images and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) with RGB images. Then, the result map was reclassified into vegetation and non-vegetation. Finally, an FVC map-based RF were generated by using pixel calculation and FVC map-based GI (Gutman and Ignatov) model were indirectly made by fixed parameters. The method of adding NDVI shows a relatively higher accuracy compared to that of adding only RGB, and in particular, the GI model shows a lower RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) with 0.182 than RF. In this regard, the availability of the GI model which uses only the values of NDVI is higher than that of RF whose accuracy varies according to the results of classification. Our results showed that the GI mode ensures the quality of the FVC if the NDVI maintained at a uniform level. This can be easily achieved by using a UAV, which can provide vegetation data to improve the estimation of FVC.