Multi-temporal Landsat Satellite Research Articles

Significant decline of forest fires in Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India

Yet there is considerable uncertainty over management effectiveness of many protected areas around the world. In this regard, long-term monitoring and management of disturbances in the protected areas need to be properly addressed and documented. The present study is aimed to analyze spatial extent, frequency and distribution of forest fires in Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, Western Ghats, India over four decades (1973–2014). Multi-temporal Landsat and Indian Remote Sensing satellite data were used to quantify forest burnt area. The results showed that the spatial extent of burnt area greatly varied between 1318 km2 (in 1989) to 15.7 km2 (in 2013). The monitoring of fires during the recent decade (2005–2014) was observed to have a gradual decline over the reserve. High frequency of fires has been found in dry deciduous forest followed by moist deciduous forest, scrub, grassland and semi-evergreen forest. Among six protected areas, Bandipur National Park had represented more fire incidents followed by Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary, Nagarhole and Mukurthi National Parks. Grid analysis shows that 67% of the grids were affected by forest fires. Large burnt patches have steadily decreased in their size while the other patch classes showed a significant reduction in their size over the study period. This study had revealed the role of climate and accessibility in relation to fire occurrences. Based on historical burnt area mapping outputs, fire hotspots have been modeled to address fire risk zones. Indeed, the Mann-Kendall trend test has indicated that the overall trend of fire incidents have been declining and this indicates the management effectiveness in Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.

Irrigation History Estimation Using Multitemporal Landsat Satellite Images: Application to an Intensive Groundwater Irrigated Agricultural Watershed in India

Groundwater has rapidly evolved as a primary source for irrigation in Indian agriculture. Over-exploitation of the groundwater substantially depletes the natural water table and has negative impacts on the water resource availability. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to identify the historical evolution of irrigated cropland for the post-monsoon (rabi) and summer cropping seasons in the Berambadi watershed (Area = 89 km2) of Kabini River basin, southern India. Approximately five-year interval irrigated area maps were generated using 30 m spatial resolution Landsat satellite images for the period from 1990 to 2016. The potential of Support Vector Machine (SVM) was assessed to discriminate irrigated and non-irrigated croplands. Three indices, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), were derived from multi-temporal Landsat satellite images. Spatially distributed intensive ground observations were collected for training and validation of the SVM models. The irrigated and non-irrigated croplands were estimated with high classification accuracy (kappa coefficient greater than 0.9). At the watershed scale, this approach allowed highlighting the contrasted evolution of multiple-cropping (two successive crops in rabi and summer seasons that often imply dual irrigation) with a steady increase in the upstream and a recent decrease in the downstream of the watershed. Moreover, the multiple-cropping was found to be much more frequent in the valleys. These intensive practices were found to have significant impacts on the water resources, with a drastic decline in the water table level (more than 50 m). It also impacted the ecosystem: Groundwater level decline was more pronounced in the valleys and the rivers are no more fed by the base flow.

Determining land use change pattern in southern Nigeria: a comparative study

The use of land for different purposes makes it an essential commodity. The fact that it is fixed in supply constitute a problem to land usage. This paper presents a land use change pattern analysis in the three geopolitical zones of southern Nigeria as a prerequisite towards the development of adequate human health monitoring model for the study area. The land area of Ebonyi Edo and Ondo states were used for the study. Time series of multitemporal landsat satellite imageries of four different epochs from 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2016 that were obtained from the United State Geological Survey was used for the analysis. The results indicate that there is substantial change of land use from 2000 to 2016 for the built-up land, forestland, farmland and mixed land in the study area. On the other hand, water body and rock outcrop land show less significant land use change. Other types of land decreases as the built-up land increases. The findings suggest that animals such as rat, monkey and rabbit that have their homes in the forest and farmland would be displaced, and might be tempted to dwell among men, which implies that humanity in the Southern Nigeria might become susceptible to diseases.

Exploring the spatio-temporal processes of communal rangeland grabbing in Sudan

The persistent policy of successive Sudanese governments in favouring large-scale agricultural investments at the expense of traditional land use is creating material differences among significant groups of the population. A significant share of this type of investment falls within the territories of the communal rangelands of the country. The aim of this paper is to provide analytical insights of the geographical allocation and the temporal evolution of land grabbing on the expanses of communal land utilized by local inhabitants in Butana area in eastern Sudan. The study relies on multi-temporal Landsat satellite imagery (2000, 2005, 2009, and 2014), ground surveys, and key informant interviews. The results show that large-scale mechanized agriculture (LSMA) in Butana communal rangeland increased incrementally from 2.5% in 2000 to 17.6% in 2014. The starting location of the expansion of LSMA was in surrounding valleys. From the images, it is clear that land grabbing is converting the natural vegetation cover of Butana communal rangeland into spatially fragmented patches. Large-scale farmers (LSFs) involved in the process included wealthy pastoralists who own large numbers of livestock and absentee farmers who rely on hired representatives to manage their agricultural operations. Without a fundamental change in governmental policy, which currently turns a blind eye to the illegal activities of LSFs on communal rangeland, the gloomy scenario of land-based conflict may erupt in the eastern part of the country.

CALIBRATED MULTI-TEMPORAL EDGE IMAGES FOR CITY INFRASTRUCTURE GROWTH ASSESSMENT AND PREDICTION

Abstract. Urban Growth or urbanization can be defined as the gradual process of city’s population growth and infrastructure development. It is typically demonstrated by the expansion of a city’s infrastructure, mainly development of its roads and buildings. Uncontrolled urban Growth in cities has been responsible for several problems that include living environment, drinking water, noise and air pollution, waste management, traffic congestion and hydraulic processes. Accurate identification of urban growth is of great importance for urban planning and water/land management. Recent advances in satellite imagery, in terms of improved spatial and temporal resolutions, allows for efficient identification of change patterns and the prediction of built-up areas. In this study, two approaches were adapted to quantify and assess the pattern of urbanization, in Ajman City at UAE, during the last three decades. The first approach relies on image processing techniques and multi-temporal Landsat satellite images with ground resolution varying between 15 to 60 meters. In this approach, the derived edge images (roads and buildings) were used as the basis of change detection. The second approach relies on digitizing features from high-resolution images captured at different years. The latest approach was adopted, as a reference and ground truth, to calibrate extracted edges from Landsat images. It has been found that urbanized area almost increased by 12 folds during the period 1975–2015 where the growth of buildings and roads were almost parallel until 2005 when the roads spatial expansion witnessed a steep increase due to the vertical expansion of the City. Extracted Edges features, were successfully used for change detection and quantification in term of buildings and roads.

Dune fields in Jericoacoara: human intervention as a possible indicator of changes in the morphological dynamics

Coastal dunes play an important role in the sediment transport of the coastal zone. The morphology of the Jericoacoara National Park in the northeastern Brazilian state of Ceará consists of a headland covered by a mobile dune field consisting of large mobile barchans dune fields that migrate from east to west. These dunes are responsible for the bypass and transportation of essential sediments for the maintenance of the coastline without cumulative erosive effects. The present study focused on the morphodynamic evolution of these isolated mobile dunes through the recovery of multitemporal Landsat and QuickBird satellite images of the years between 1975 and 2010. The spatiotemporal analysis of the distribution and morphology of these dunes over this 35-year period revealed significant shifts in their area, perimeter, and movement patterns. It was possible to confirm that the flow of material and energy was linked to a process of continuous migration in the direction of the beach. The dynamics of the dune migration in the years following 2000 was established, indicates possible impacts on the morphology of the dunes resulting from the increase in tourism within the area. These changes were most significant between 2001 and 2005, possibly reflecting a anthropogenic impacts.

Campos de dunas em Jericoacoara: intervenções humanas como possível indicador de mudança na dinâmica morfológica

Coastal dunes play an important role in the sediment transport of the coastal zone. The morphology of the Jericoacoara National Park in the northeastern Brazilian state of Ceará consists of a headland covered by a mobile dune field consisting of large mobile barchans dune fields that migrate from east to west. These dunes are responsible for the bypass and transportation of essential sediments for the maintenance of the coastline without cumulative erosive effects. The present study focused on the morphodynamic evolution of these isolated mobile dunes through the recovery of multitemporal Landsat and QuickBird satellite images of the years between 1975 and 2010. The spatiotemporal analysis of the distribution and morphology of these dunes over this 35-year period revealed significant shifts in their area, perimeter, and movement patterns. It was possible to confirm that the flow of material and energy was linked to a process of continuous migration in the direction of the beach. The dynamics of the dune migration in the years following 2000 was established, indicates possible impacts on the morphology of the dunes resulting from the increase in tourism within the area. These changes were most significant between 2001 and 2005, possibly reflecting a anthropogenic impacts.

Картографирование наземных экосистем Печоро-Илычского заповедника и его окрестностей на основе восстановленных мультивременных спутниковых данных Landsat

Картографирование наземных экосистем Печоро-Илычского заповедника и его окрестностей на основе восстановленных мультивременных спутниковых данных Landsat

Application of Object Oriented Image Classification and Markov Chain Modeling for Land Use and Land Cover Change Analysis

Object oriented image classification (OOIC) and neural network aided Markov Chain (MC) modeling tools were used to map and predict land use and land cover (LULC) changes. A case study in the Kiskatinaw River Watershed (KRW) of Canada was presented. With an overall classification accuracy of 90.45%, the multi-temporal Landsat satellite images of KRW were analyzed for 11 selected LULC types. It was found that KRW experienced a significant wetland depletion along with a change in forest cover types from 1984 to 2010. The vulnerability of LULC change in different parts of KRW was predicted through MC modeling based on the obtained transition probability, and the results indicated slight LULC changes from 2010 with a wetland depletion of 67.89 km2. In summary, the proposed methods generated valuable results for informed LULC management and hold the potential to be applied to other watersheds.

Analyzing and modeling of a large river basin dynamics applying integrated cellular automata and Markov model

Historical and exact information about the land use/land cover change is very important for regional sustainable development. The aim of this paper is to determine the rapid changes in land use/land cover (LULC) pattern due to agriculture expansion, environmental calamities such as flood and government policies over Upper Narmada basin, India. Multi-temporal Landsat satellite images for years 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2015 were used to analyze and monitor the changes in LULC with an overall accuracy of more than 85%. Results revealed a potential decrease in natural vegetation (− 9.52%) due to the expansion of settlement (+ 0.52%) and cropland (+ 9.43%) from 1990 to 2015. In the present study, Cellular Automata and Markov (CA–Markov), an integrated tool was used to project the short-term LULC map of year 2030. The projected LULC (2030) indicated the expansion of built-up area along with the cropland and degradation in the vegetation area. The outcomes from the study can help as a guiding tool for protection of natural vegetation and the management of the built-up area. Additionally, it will help in devising the strategies to utilize every bit of land in the study area for decision makers.

Dynamic analysis and ecological evaluation of urban heat islands in Raipur city, India

Spatial–temporal distribution of the urban heat islands (UHI) and their changes over Raipur city have been analyzed using multitemporal Landsat satellite data from 1995 to 2016. Land surface temperature (LST) was retrieved through a mono-window algorithm. Some selected land use/land cover (LU–LC) indices were analyzed with LST using linear regression. The urban thermal field variance index (UTFVI) was applied to measure the thermal comfort level of the city. Results show that during the observed period, the study area experienced a gradual increasing rate in mean LST (>1% per annum). The UHI developed especially along the north-western industrial area and south-eastern bare land of the city. A difference in mean LST between UHI and non-UHI for different time periods (2.6°C in 1995, 2.85°C in 2006, 3.42°C in 2009, and 3.63°C in 2016) reflects the continuous warming status of the city. The LST map also shows the existence of a few urban hot spots near the industrial areas, metal roofs, and high density transport parking lots, which are more abundant in the north-western part of the city. The UTFVI map associated with UHI indicates that the inner parts of the city are ecologically more comfortable than the outer peripheries.

Impact of the Atatürk Dam Lake on Agro-Meteorological Aspects of the Southeastern Anatolia Region, Turkey

In this study, the spatial and temporal impacts of the Ataturk Dam on agro-meteorological aspects of the Southeastern Anatolia region have been investigated. Change detection and environmental impacts due to water-reserve changes in Ataturk Dam Lake have been determined and evaluated using multi-temporal Landsat satellite imageries and meteorological datasets within a period of 1984–2011. These time series have been evaluated for three time periods. Dam construction period constitutes the first part of the study. Land cover/use changes especially on agricultural fields under the Ataturk Dam Lake and its vicinity have been identified between the periods of 1984–1992. The second period comprises the 10-year period after the completion of filling up the reservoir in 1992. At this period, Landsat and meteorological time-series analyses are examined to assess the impact of the Ataturk Dam Lake on selected irrigated agricultural areas. For the last 9-year period from 2002 to 2011, the relationships between seasonal water-reserve changes and irrigated plains under changing climatic factors primarily driving vegetation activity (monthly, seasonal, and annual fluctuations of rainfall rate, air temperature, humidity) on the watershed have been investigated using a 30-year meteorological time series. The results showed that approximately 368 km2 of agricultural fields have been affected because of inundation due to the Ataturk Dam Lake. However, irrigated agricultural fields have been increased by 56.3% of the total area (1552 of 2756 km2) on Harran Plain within the period of 1984–2011.

Forestation in Puerto Rico, 1970s to Present

It is important to monitor the trend of forestland changes, as forests are vital sources and sinks of carbon on the earth. One of the most densely populated jurisdictions of the United States, Puerto Rico, has experienced significant transformations in the past century. This study examines forestation in the main island of Puerto Rico during the past four decades using feature extraction and change detection analysis in multitemporal Landsat satellite imagery. The results of the study show that forest cover in Puerto Rico had almost tripled from 15.7% to 45.7% between 1972 and 2014. Moreover, the forestation trend and pace in abandoned coffee plantations and pastures continued after 1990, driven by continuous socioeconomic transformation. Natural forestation and conservation efforts from the government and nongovernment organizations have also contributed to the forest growth on the island. The information gained and lessons learned during the process may be applied to other densely populated tropical insular territories.

Mapping and assessing crop diversity in the irrigated Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan

Crop diversity (e.g. the number of agricultural crop types and the level of evenness in area distribution) in the agricultural systems of arid Central Asia has recently been increased mainly to achieve food security of the rural population, however, not throughout the irrigation system. Site-specific factors that promote or hamper crop diversification after the dissolvent of the Soviet Union have hardly been assessed yet. While tapping the potential of remote sensing, the objective was to map and explain spatial patterns of current crop diversity by the example of the irrigated agricultural landscapes of the Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan. Multi-temporal Landsat and RapidEye satellite data formed the basis for creating annual and multi-annual crop maps for 2010–2012 while using supervised classifications. Applying the Simpson index of diversity (SID) to circular buffers with radii of 1.5 and 5 km elucidated the spatial distribution of crop diversity at both the local and landscape spatial scales. A variable importance analysis, rooted in the conditional forest algorithm, investigated potential environmental and socio-economic drivers of the spatial patterns of crop diversity. Overall accuracy of the annual crop maps ranged from 0.84 to 0.86 whilst the SID varied between 0.1 and 0.85. The findings confirmed the existence of areas under monocultures as well as of crop diverse patches. Higher crop diversity occurred in the more distal parts of the irrigation system and sparsely settled areas, especially due to orchards. In contrast, in water-secure and densely settled areas, cotton-wheat rotations dominated due to the state interventions in crop cultivation. Distances to irrigation infrastructure, settlements and the road network influenced crop diversity the most. Spatial explicit information on crop diversity per se has the potential to support policymaking and spatial planning towards crop diversification. Driver analysis as exemplified at the study region in Uzbekistan can help reaching the declared policy to increase crop diversity throughout the country and even beyond.

DETECTION OF ACID SLUDGE CONTAMINATED AREA BASED ON NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE VEGETATION INDEX (NDVI) VALUE

The solid form of oil heavy metal waste is known as acid sludge. The aim of this research is to exercise the correlation between acid sludge concentration in soil and NDVI value, and further studying the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) anomaly by multi-temporal Landsat satellite images. The implemented method is NDVI. In this research, NDVI is analyzed using the remote sensing data on dry season and wet season. Between 1997 to 2012, NDVI value in dry season is around – 0.007 (July 2001) to 0.386 (May 1997), meanwhile in wet season NDVI value is around – 0.005 (November 2006) to 0.381 (December 1995). The high NDVI value shows the leaf health or thickness, where the low NDVI indicates the vegetation stress and rareness which can be concluded as the evidence of contamination. The rehabilitation has been executed in the acid sludge contaminated location, where the high value of NDVI indicates the successfull land rehabilitation effort.

Impact of urban expansion on potential flooding, storage and water harvesting in the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

The work presented in this article is an extension of an earlier study [1] in which runoff in the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), was assessed for the period 1967–2010. In this study, the impacts of urban expansion on potential flooding, storage and water harvesting were assessed for the period 1976–2016 using rainfall data recorded during the same period. Sharjah is a generally a flat coastal city that is located in a dry hot region average rainfall of approximately 100 mm/y. Remote sensing and GIS techniques were used to assess the expansion of built areas in the city using multi-temporal Landsat satellite images. The built areas in the city increased during the study period by approximately four folds while the population increased by more than 10 folds. The study results demonstrate the historical increase in runoff potential, flooding potential and runoff coefficient and decline in water storage potential. The results are consistent with the observed incidence of significant local flooding episodes in urban areas during rainfall events. Furthermore, an assessment of potential urban water harvesting based on expansion of built areas in the city is provided and appropriate urban storm water management practices for the city are recommended.

Evaluating Land Use/Land Cover Change Dynamics in Bhimtal Lake Catchment Area, Using Remote Sensing & GIS Techniques

The present study was aimed at the assessment of forest cover and land use changes in the catchment area of Bhimtal lake situated in the Kumaun region of Uttarakhand, India using multitemporal Landsat satellite images. The Landsat satellite images of year 1996 to 2015 were acquired and subjected to supervised classification into four different classes viz. urban, agriculture, forest and water body. The classified maps were verified through random field samples and google earth imagery. The images of study area were categorized into four different classes viz., settlement area, agriculture area, forest area and water body. The results revealed that during last 20 years, the settlement area has been increased from 9.70% to 18.38%, agricultural area has increased from 44.32% to 47.63% and forest area has been decreased 43.58% to 31.47%. The findings from the study will be useful for lake and landscape planning and can serve as a potential source of information to the policy makers of Uttarakhand.

Quantification of Annual Urban Growth of Dar es Salaam Tanzania from Landsat Time Series Data

The information on urban land cover distribution and its dynamics is useful for understanding urbanization and its impacts on the hydrological cycle, water management, surface energy balances, urban heat island, and biodiversity. This study utilizes machine learning, texture variables and spectral bands to quantify the urban growth annually. We used multi-temporal Landsat satellite image sets from 2007 to 2016 and Random Forest classification to map urban land-use in Dar es Salaam. We also applied Annual classification approach to detect the spatiotemporal patterns of urban areas. This approach improved classification accuracy and aided in understanding the urban land-use system dynamics operating in our study area. The results pointed out that, the total built-up areas have grown from 318 km2, 388.6 km2 and 634.7 km2 in 2007, 2012 and 2016 respectively. The built up areas growth rate is almost 8%, which makes Dar es Salaam be among the fastest growing cities in Africa. The results indicate that, combining spectral bands, texture variables (NDVI BCI, MNDWI) and annual classification map approach was sufficient to map the urban areas. The approach applied in this research provides a useful guide to the urban growth studies and may also serve as a tool for land management planners.

Shoreline Change Analysis in Demak, Indonesia

Demak Regency is located in Central Java Province Indonesia bordering the Java Sea. Intense activities in the coastal area of Demak have caused changes in the shoreline. This paper aimed to determine the shoreline change for 25 years and to identify the major factors that influenced those changes in the coastal area of Demak. A shoreline change analysis was conducted based on Multitemporal Landsat satellite imagery with sensors of Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+), and Operational Land Imager (OLI). This study used the data from multitemporal Landsat imagery of year 1990, 1994, 1999, 2002, 2008, 2011, and 2015. Identification of the shoreline was performed through band ratio, histogram threshold, and composite band 457 methods. An erosion and accretion analysis has been done using the wind data via the processing of Wind Rose Plot (WRPLOT), wave prediction using Sverdrup Munk Bretschneider (SMB) method, tide data processing to know the value of Mean High Water Level (MHWL), Mean Sea Level (MSL), Mean Low Water Level (MLWL), and Lowest Low Water Level (LLWL), as well as currents data processing that has been implemented to achieve the goal. The research results showed that the shoreline change in Demak Regency was quite distinct compared to several previous years due to erosion and accretion processes. The greatest shoreline change happened in Sayung District and Wedung District. Sayung District was likely to experience erosion process while Wedung District tended to show accretion process. Several physical factors that became the major influence on these changes were the wind, waves, currents, and tides.

GIS based inter-class change analysis of classified multi-temporal landsat satellite images at a drought-prone semi-arid river basin in India

GIS based inter-class change analysis of classified multi-temporal landsat satellite images at a drought-prone semi-arid river basin in India