Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Beyond Inventories: Emergence Of A New Era In Rangeland Monitoring, Matthew O. Jones, David E. Naugle, Dirac Twidwell, Daniel R. Uden, Jeremy D. Maestas, Brady W. Allred

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

In the absence of technology-driven monitoring platforms, US rangeland policies, management practices, and outcome assessments have been primarily informed by the extrapolation of local information from national-scale rangeland inventories. A persistent monitoring gap between plot-level inventories and the scale at which rangeland assessments are conducted has required decision makers to fill data gaps with statistical extrapolations or assumptions of homogeneity and equilibrium. This gap is now being bridged with spatially comprehensive, annual, rangeland monitoring data across all western US rangelands to as- sess vegetation conditions at a resolution appropriate to inform cross-scale assessments and decisions. In this paper, 20-yr trends …

Current Frameworks For Reference Et And Crop Coefficient Calculation, R G. Allen, Ayse Kilic, Clarence W. Robison

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Estimation of evapotranspiration is under continual development and evolution, with significant developments and standardizations made during the past three decades for both reference ET (ETref) and for crop coefficients (Kc). These standardizations provide consistency and reproducibility in estimating ETref and a consistent basis for determining and expressing Kc curves, especially at the local scale. The application of the dual Kc procedure is growing, and has strong potential for improving accuracy of ET estimates as compared to the single Kc approach. This article describes current structures for estimating crop coefficients including the standardized FAO-56 dual Kc approach, with example applications. Emphasis …

Metric-Gis: An Advanced Energy Balance Model For Computing Crop Evapotranspiration In A Gis Environment, J. M. Ramírez-Cuesta, R G. Allen, D. S. Intrigliolo, Ayse Kilic, Clarence W. Robison, Ricardo Trezza, C. Santos, I. J. Lorite

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

A novel ArcGIS toolbox that applies the Mapping Evapotranspiration with Internalized Calibration model was developed and tested in a semi-arid environment. The tool, named METRIC-GIS, facilitates the pre-processing operations and the automatic identification of potential calibration and pixels review. The energy balance components obtained from METRIC-GIS were contrasted with those from the original METRIC version (R² = 1; RMSE = 0 W m^–2 or mm day^–1 for ET_c) Additionally, an irrigated scheme located at southern Spain was considered for assessing Kc variability in the maize fields with METRIC-GIS. The identified spatial variability was mainly due …

A Review Of Vegetation Phenological Metrics Extraction Using Time-Series, Multispectral Satellite Data, Linglin Zeng, Brian D. Wardlow, Daxiang Xiang, Shun Hu, Deren Li

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Vegetation dynamics and phenology play an important role in inter-annual vegetation changes in terrestrial ecosystems and are key indicators of climate-vegetation interactions, land use/land cover changes, and variation in year-to-year vegetation productivity. Satellite remote sensing data have been widely used for vegetation phenology monitoring over large geographic domains using various types of observations and methods over the past several decades. The goal of this paper is to present a detailed review of existing methods for phenology detection and emerging new techniques based on the analysis of time-series, multispectral remote sensing imagery. This paper summarizes the objective and applications of detecting …

Burning With Potential: Understanding The Relationship Between Biochar And Agriculture Of The Northern Glaciated Plains Ecoregion, Kaitlyn Abrahamson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Achieving global sustainable agriculture is one of the most incredible challenges of this century, yet many continue to try to solve this problem through the development of precision technologies. Biotechnologies, such as biochar, can perform like a precision technology while protecting agricultural land from soil erosion and fertility loss. The Northern Glaciated Plains ecoregion of the United States is little researched in the benefits from the use of biochar through improved soil nutrient capture and water retention, crop health improvements, and yield increases. The study plot has four sections of corn stover biochar and eight sections of control sections. This …

A New Semiempirical Model Determining The Dielectric Characteristics Of Citrusleaves For The Remote Sensing At C Band, Abdullah Genç, Habi̇b Doğan, İbrahi̇m Bahadir Başyi̇ği̇t

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Dielectric parameters (i.e. permittivity) are fundamental to the simulation, design, modeling, and developing of microwave applications. For targeted objects, the complex permittivity is an essential parameter that affects its characteristics of scattering and microwave radiation. Thus, in microwave remote sensing applications, the knowledge of the dielectric property of vegetable materials is used not only to detect planting areas for monitoring and to able to specify the growth stage of them in seasonal variations, but also to determine the water requirement of the plant for controlling (water stress). This paper focuses on determining the dielectric parameters of orange and lemon leaves, …

Use Of Landsat Imagery To Map Spread Of The Invasive Alien Species Acacia Nilotica In Baluran National Park, Indonesia, Sutomo Sutomo, Eddie Van Etten, Rajif Iryadi

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 Seameo Biotrop. In the late 1960s, Acacia nilotica was introduced to Baluran National Park to establish fire breaks which would prevent the spread of fire from Baluran Savanna to the adjacent teak forest. However, A. nilotica has spread rapidly and has threatened the existence of Baluran Savanna as it has caused an ecosystem transition from an open savanna to a closed canopy of A. nilotica in some areas. This study is one of the few that examines A. nilotica invasion in Baluran National Park through remote sensing. Land cover dynamics were quantified using a supervised classification approach on …

Mapping Long-Term Spatiotemporal Dynamics Of Pen Aquaculture In A Shallow Lake: Less Aquaculture Coming Along Better Water Quality, Juhua Luo, Ruiliang Pu, Ronghua Ma, Xiaolong Wang, Xijun Lai, Zhigang Mao, Li Zhang, Zhaoliang Peng, Zhe Sun

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Pen aquaculture is the main form of aquaculture in some shallow lakes in eastern China. It is valuable to map the spatiotemporal changes of pen aquaculture in eutrophic lakes to assess its effect on water quality, thereby helping the relevant decision-making agencies to manage the water quality (WQ) of lakes. In this study, an automatic approach for extracting the pen aquaculture area was developed based on Landsat data. The approach integrates five algorithms, including grey transformation, discrete wavelet transform, fast Fourier transform, singular value decomposition and k-nearest neighbor classification. It was successfully applied in the automatic mapping of the pen …

Changes At The Edge: Trends In Sea Ice, Ocean Temperature And Ocean Color At The Northwest Atlantic/Southern Arctic Interface, Ashley V. York, Karen E. Frey, Luisa N.C. Young

Geography

Spatial and temporal trends of remotely sensed sea-ice cover, sea surface temperatures, chlorophyll-a concentration and primary production in the Baffin Bay, Davis Strait and Labrador Sea were analyzed for the 1998-2017 period. We found spatial variability in the trends of these cryospheric, biologic and oceanographic phenomena. For example, in the northern Baffin Bay, we observed decreases in annual sea-ice persistence, yet increases along the Labrador Sea-ice edge during winter, with the latter having significant correlations with broader atmospheric patterns. In general, we observed increases in summer sea surface temperatures across the study region, except a small area of cooling along …

Annual And Seasonal Surface Circulation Over The Mid Atlantic Bight Continental Shelf Derived From A Decade Of High Frequency Radar Observations, Hugh Roarty, Scott Glenn, Joseph Brodie, Laura Nazzaro, Michael Smith, Ethan Handel, Josh Kohut, Teresa Updyke, Larry Atkinson, William Boicourt, Wendell Brown, Harvey Seim, Mike Muglia, Haixing Wang, Donglai Gong

CCPO Publications

A decade (2007–2016) of hourly 6‐km‐resolution maps of the surface currents across the Mid‐Atlantic Bight (MAB) generated by a regional‐scale High Frequency Radar network are used to reveal new insights into the spatial patterns of the annual and seasonal mean surface flows. Across the 10‐year time series, temporal means and interannual and intra‐annual variability are used to quantify the variability of spatial surface current patterns. The 10‐year annual mean surface flows are weaker and mostly cross‐shelf near the coast, increasing in speed and rotating to more alongshore directions near the shelfbreak, and increasing in speed and rotating to flow off‐shelf …

Towards Sustained Monitoring Of Subsidence At The Coast Using Insar And Gps: An Application In Hampton Roads, Virginia, Brett Buzzanga, David P.S. Bekaert, Ben D. Hamlington, Simran S. Sangha

OES Faculty Publications

Hampton Roads is among the regions along the U.S. Atlantic Coast experiencing high rates of relative sea level rise. Partly to mitigate subsidence from aquifer compaction, Hampton Roads is injecting treated wastewater into the underlying aquifer. However, the GPS (Global Positioning System) station spacing (∼30 km) is too coarse to capture the spatial variability of subsidence and potential uplift from the injection. We present a cost‐effective workflow for generating an InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar) and GPS combined displacement product. We leverage a live, open‐access archive of InSAR products generated from Sentinel‐1 data. We find an overall subsidence rate of …

Performance Across Worldview-2 And Rapideye For Reproducible Seagrass Mapping, Megan M. Coffer, Blake A. Schaeffer, Richard C. Zimmerman, Victoria Hill, Jiang Li, Kazi A. Islam, Peter J. Whitman

OES Faculty Publications

Satellite remote sensing offers an effective remedy to challenges in ground-based and aerial mapping that have previously impeded quantitative assessments of global seagrass extent. Commercial satellite platforms offer fine spatial resolution, an important consideration in patchy seagrass ecosystems. Currently, no consistent protocol exists for image processing of commercial data, limiting reproducibility and comparison across space and time. Additionally, the radiometric performance of commercial satellite sensors has not been assessed against the dark and variable targets characteristic of coastal waters. This study compared data products derived from two commercial satellites: DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 and Planet's RapidEye. A single scene from each platform …

Disaster Damage Categorization Applying Satellite Images And Machine Learning Algorithm, Farinaz Sabz Ali Pour, Adrian Gheorghe

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Special information has a significant role in disaster management. Land cover mapping can detect short- and long-term changes and monitor the vulnerable habitats. It is an effective evaluation to be included in the disaster management system to protect the conservation areas. The critical visual and statistical information presented to the decision-makers can help in mitigation or adaption before crossing a threshold. This paper aims to contribute in the academic and the practice aspects by offering a potential solution to enhance the disaster data source effectiveness. The key research question that the authors try to answer in this paper is how …

The Role Of Topography, Soil, And Remotely Sensed Vegetation Condition Towards Predicting Crop Yield, Trenton E. Franz, Sayli Pokal, Justin P. Gibson, Yuzhen Zhou, Hamed Gholizadeh, Fatima Amor Tenorio, Daran Rudnick, Derek M. Heeren, Matthew F. Mccabe, Matteo Ziliani, Zhenong Jin, Kaiyu Guan, Ming Pan, John Gates, Brian Wardlow

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Foreknowledge of the spatiotemporal drivers of crop yield would provide a valuable source of information to optimize on-farm inputs and maximize profitability. In recent years, an abundance of spatial data providing information on soils, topography, and vegetation condition have become available from both proximal and remote sensing platforms. Given the wide range of data costs (between USD $0−50/ha), it is important to understand where often limited financial resources should be directed to optimize field production. Two key questions arise. First, will these data actually aid in better fine-resolution yield prediction to help optimize crop management and farm economics? Second, what …

Remote Sensing Approaches To Predict Forest Characteristics In Northwest Montana, Ryan P. Rock

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Remote sensing can be utilized by land management organizations to save money and time. Mapping vegetation using either aerial photographs or satellite imagery and the applications for forest management are of particular interest to the Montana Department of Natural Resources. In 2018, the organization began a pilot program to test the incorporation of raster analysis of remotely sensed data into their inventory program and had limited success. This analysis identified two areas of improvement: the selection method of inventory plots and the imagery used for classification and metrics. This study found that selecting inventory plots using a generalized random tessellation …

Improving The Accessibility And Transferability Of Machine Learning Algorithms For Identification Of Animals In Camera Trap Images: Mlwic2, Michael A. Tabak, Mohammad S. Norouzzadeh, David W. Wolfson, Erica J. Newton, Raoul K. Boughton, Jacob S. Ivan, Eric Odell, Eric S. Newkirk, Reesa Y. Conrey, Jennifer Stenglein, Fabiola Iannarilli, John Erb, Ryan K. Brook, Amy J. Davis, Jesse Lewis, Daniel P. Walsh, James C. Beasley, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Jeff Clune, Ryan S. Miller

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Motion-activated wildlife cameras (or “camera traps”) are frequently used to remotely and noninvasively observe animals. The vast number of images collected from camera trap projects has prompted some biologists to employ machine learning algorithms to automatically recognize species in these images, or at least filter-out images that do not contain animals. These approaches are often limited by model transferability, as a model trained to recognize species from one location might not work as well for the same species in different locations. Furthermore, these methods often require advanced computational skills, making them inaccessible to many biologists. We used 3 million camera …

Deep Learning For Overhead Imagery: Algorithms And Applications, Anthony Manuel Ortiz Cepeda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Remote sensing using overhead imagery has critical impact to the way we understand our environment and offers crucial information for scene understanding, climate change research, disaster response, urban planning, forest management, and many other applications. At present, deep learning is increasingly used in remote sensing, but mostly borrowing algorithms developed for natural images in the computer vision community. Specific challenges arise while applying deep learning to remote sensing. These challenges include issues related to the high dimensionality and limited labeled data, security and robustness to adversarial attacks, and model generalization. In this Thesis we focus on tackling these key challenges. …

Assessing The Accuracy Of A Uav Snow Depth Survey: Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska Calm Grid, Ian Nichols

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Active layer depth and snow depth are annually collected across the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) Network to observe the response of the active layer and near-surface permafrost to climate change over decadal-time scales. Snow depth is typically measured using a graduated steel probe at each grid node but, in this paper, we explore the viability of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) (drone) technology to collect snow depth measurements at the 1 km² Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska CALM grid. This is achieved by comparing estimated UAV snow depths to measured snow depths collected using a MagnaProbe (MP) at each of …

Reconstruction Of The 2018 Anak Krakatau Collapse Using Planetscope Imaging And Numerical Modeling, Davide Saviano

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The study was focused on the Anak Krakatau sector collapse that occurred on 22 December 2018 in the Sunda Strait (Indonesia). The goal of the study was to monitor and analyze changes of the volcanic edifice and to try to understand causes that may have predisposed and triggered the sector collapse.

The use of different remote sensing techniques allowed the acquisition of thermal data, SO₂ emission data, structural data and the identification and analysis of the eruptive events that occurred on Anak Krakatau in the period from 1° January 2016 to 28 February 2019. The acquisition of 1221 thermal …

Rain Generated Lahars Prior To The 2018 Catastrophic Eruption Of Fuego Volcano, Guatemala, Claudia Buondonno

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Fuego volcano is one of the most active and hazardous volcanoes in the world. It is located in the northern part of the Central American Volcanic Arc in Guatemala and its activity can be characterized by long term, low-level background activity, and sporadic larger explosive eruptions. Its historical observations of eruptions date back to 1531, but it has been erupting vigorously since 2002 with major activity throughout 2018, producing three main eruptions in February, June and November. Its almost persistent activity generates major ashfalls, pyroclastic flows, lava flows; when heavy rains mobilize its deposits, they can form damaging lahars. Phenomena, …

The Vezo Communities And Fisheries Of The Coral Reef Ecosystem In The Bay Of Ranobe, Madagascar, Shane Abeare

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Madagascar, a country whose extraordinary levels of endemism and biodiversity are celebrated globally by scientists and laymen alike, yet historically has received surprisingly little research attention, is the setting of the present dissertation. Here, I contribute to the need for applied research by: 1) focusing on the most intensely fished section of the Toliara Barrier Reef, the Bay of Ranobe; 2) characterizing the marine environment, the human population, and the fisheries; and 3) collecting the longest known time-series of data on fisheries of Madagascar, thereby providing a useful baseline for future analyses. In Chapter 1, the bathymetry of the Bay …

A Feasibility Study On The Application Of Tvdi On Accessing Wildfire Danger In The Korean Peninsula, Kwang Nyun Kim, Seung Hee Kim, Myoung Soo Won, Keun Chang Jang, Won Jun Choi, Yun Gon Lee

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Wildfire is a major natural disaster affecting socioeconomics and ecology. Remote sensing data have been widely used to estimate the wildfire danger with an advantage of higher spatial resolution. Among the several wildfire related indices using remote sensing data, Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) assesses wildfire danger based on both Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST). Although TVDI has physical advantages by considering both weather and vegetation condition, previous studies have shown TVDI does not performed well compare to other wildfire related indices over the Korean Peninsula. In this study we have attempted multiple modification to …

Suitability Assessment For Integrated Urban Development In Makkah City Of Saudi Arabia, Mislat Alotaibi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Makkah – the third most populated city in Saudi Arabia with a population of 1,684,408 according to the 2010 demographic survey conducted by the Saudi General Authority for Statistics – is experiencing urban sprawl, which can be defined as an unplanned urban expansion that might degrade the environment and diminish the aesthetic view. This is a persisting problem in Makkah driven by multitude of processes involving the random expansion in its undeveloped land and the removal of its historic mountains surrounding Al-Masjid Al-Haram (the Holy Mosque) in an attempt to push the city limit of urban capacity within its administrative …

Characterizing Dryland Ecosystems Using Remote Sensing And Dynamic Global Vegetation Modeling, Abdolhamid Dashtiahangar

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Drylands include all terrestrial regions where the production of crops, forage, wood and other ecosystem services are limited by water. These ecosystems cover approximately 40% of the earth terrestrial surface and accommodate more than 2 billion people (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Moreover, the interannual variability of the global carbon budget is strongly regulated by vegetation dynamics in drylands. Understanding the dynamics of such ecosystems is significant for assessing the potential for and impacts of natural or anthropogenic disturbances and mitigation planning, and a necessary step toward enhancing the economic and social well-being of dryland communities in a sustainable manner (Global …

Informing Field Management Decisions To Enhance Alfalfa Seed Production Using Remote Sensing, Thomas V. Van Der Weide

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The development rate of alfalfa seed crop depends on both environmental conditions and management decisions. Crop management decisions, such as determining when to release pollinators to optimize pollination, can be informed by the identification of plant development stages from remote sensing data. I first identify what electromagnetic wavelengths are sensitive to alfalfa plant development stages using hyperspectral data. A Random Forest regression is used to determine the best Vegetation Index (VI) to monitor how much of the plant is covered in flower. The results indicate that Blue, Green, and Near-Infrared are the important electromagnetic wavelengths for the VI. Imagery collected …

Use Of Uav Imagery And Nutrient Analyses For Estimation Of The Spatial And Temporal Contributions Of Cattle Dung To Nutrient Cycling In Grazed Ecosystems, Amanda E. Shine

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nutrient inputs from cattle dung are crucial drivers of nutrient cycling processes in grazed ecosystems. These inputs are important both spatially and temporally and are affected by variables such as grazing strategy, water location, and the nutritional profile of forage being grazed. Past research has attempted to map dung deposition patterns in order to more accurately estimate nutrient input, but the large spatial extent of a typical pasture and the tedious nature of identifying and mapping individual dung pats has prohibited the development of a time- and cost-effective methodology. The first objective of this research was to develop and validate …

New Frontiers And Perspectives In Grassland Technology, Jürgen Schellberg, E. Verbruggen

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Grassland scientists and farmers are increasingly faced with emerging new technologies and in-formation systems that have been primarily developed by engineering sciences in particular: precision agriculture, remote sensing, geographic localization and biotechnology. Whether the implementation of any of these technologies may be beneficial in economic and ecological respect is a challenging judgment call, especially for those who have to carry over that decision on their farm. Compared to arable land, new technologies have been applied on grassland only partially and with some delay. However, as we will demonstrate, there is place for a successful implementation of new technologies in various …

Satellite-Based Decadal Change Assessments Of Pan-Arctic Environments, Liza K. Jenkins, Tom Barry, Karl R. Bosse, William S. Currie, Tom Christensen, Sara Longan, Robert A. Shuchman, Danielle Tanzer, Jason J. Taylor

United States National Park Service: Publications

Remote sensing can advance the work of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program through monitoring of satellite-derived terrestrial and marine physical and ecological variables. Standardized data facilitate an unbiased comparison across variables and environments. Using MODIS standard products of land surface temperature, percent snow-covered area, NDVI, EVI, phenology, burned area, marine chlorophyll, CDOM, sea surface temperature, and marine primary productivity, significant trends were observed in almost all variables between 2000 and 2017. Analysis of seasonal data revealed significant breakpoints in temporal trends. Within the terrestrial environment, data showed significant increasing trends in land surface temperature and NDVI. In the marine environment, …

Spatially Extensive Ground‐Penetrating Radar Snow Depth Observations During Nasa's 2017 Snowex Campaign: Comparison With In Situ, Airborne, And Satellite Observations, Hans-Peter Marshall

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Seasonal snow is an important component of Earth's hydrologic cycle and climate system, yet it remains challenging to consistently and accurately measure snow depth and snow water equivalent (SWE) across the range of diverse snowpack conditions that exist on Earth. The NASA SnowEx campaign is focused on addressing the primary gaps in snow remote sensing in order to gain an improved spatiotemporal understanding of this important resource and to further efforts toward a future satellite‐based snow remote sensing mission. Ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) is an efficient and mature approach for measuring snow depth and SWE. We collected ~1.3 million GPR snow …

Capability Of Sentinel-2 Msi Data For Monitoring And Mapping Of Soil Salinity In Dry And Wet Seasons In The Ebinur Lake Region, Xinjiang, China, Jingzhe Wang, Jianli Ding, Danlin Yu, Xuankai Ma, Zipeng Zhang, Xiangyu Ge, Dexiong Teng, Xiaohang Li, Jing Liang, Ivan Lizaga, Xiangyue Chen, Lin Yuan, Yahui Guo

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Soil salinization is one of the most important causes for land degradation and desertification and is an important threat to land management, farming activities, water quality, and sustainable development in arid and semi-arid areas. Soil salinization is often characterized with significant spatiotemporal dynamics. The salt-affected soil is predominant in the Ebinur Lake region in the Northwestern China. However, detailed local soil salinity information is ambiguous at the best due to limited monitoring techniques. Nowadays, the availability of Multi-Spectral Instrument (MSI) onboard Sentinel-2, offers unprecedented perspectives for the monitoring and mapping of soil salinity. The use of MSI data is an …