Regression-based models are widely used for retrieving water quality parameters from optical imagery. However, developing robust and accurate models in inland and nearshore coastal waters remains challenging, particularly when transferring the models in space or time. This study builds upon a machine learning regression model called extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) to retrieve total suspended matter (TSM) concentration in optically-complex waters. XGBoost is an ensemble of decision tree models that benefits from a boosting mechanism to compensate for the prediction errors by adding more trees. We employ the trending XGBoost method for the first time for TSM retrieval. The dark spectrum fitting (DSF) atmospheric correction method is first performed on multitemporal Sentinel-2 imagery of our study area in San Francisco Bay. Then, the XGBoost-based model is trained considering samples distributed in space and time. For training, the atmospherically-corrected spectral bands of Sentinel-2 at the visible and near-infrared portion of the spectrum are used, along with the collocated in-situ measurements of TSM. We examine the temporal transferability of the proposed model by retrieving TSM for images acquired after the training period. The results are assessed based on independent in-situ matchups (70 samples). Moreover, we compare the TSM estimates with a standard optimal band ratio analysis (OBRA) model. The in-situ matchup analysis indicates a high potential of XGBoost in providing temporally robust retrievals of TSM (R2 ≈ 0.77; RMSE ≈ 6 g/m3 for estimates up to 70 g/m3). On the contrary, OBRA provides poor results when transferring the model in time. Moreover, the XGBoost demonstrated to be robust to sun-glint effects.
The accurate monitoring and understanding of glacier dynamics are of high relevance for climate science and water-resources management. The glacier parameters are typically estimated by data assimilation methods which inject field measurements into the numerical simulations with the aim of improving the physical model estimates. However, these methods often are not able to capture and model the complexity of the estimation problem. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a method that integrates remote sensing (RS) data, in-situ observations and a physical-based model to accurately estimate the Glacier Mass Balance (GMB). The RS data are used to represent the physical properties of the glaciers by characterizing their topography and spectral properties. Instead of assimilating the observations into the model, the in-situ measurements are used to perform a data-driven correction of the GMB estimates derived from the physically-based simulations in the informative RS feature space. The method is applied to the Alpine MUltiscale Numerical Distributed Simulation ENgine (AMUNDSEN) hydro-climatological model. In the experimental analysis, the multispectral images used to define the feature space are high-resolution Sentinel-2 images. The method is validated on three glaciers in Tyrol (Hintereis, Kasselwand and Varnagt glaciers), in 2015 and 2016. The obtained results show the effectiveness of the method in improving the GMB estimates.
Spatial heterogeneities of substrate type, water-surface roughness and also inherent optical properties (IOPs) of the water column can pose substantial challenges to optical remote sensing of fluvial bathymetry. Development of robust techniques with respect to the optical complexities of riverine environments is then central to produce accurate bathymetry maps over large spatial extents. The empirical (regression-based) techniques (e.g., Lyzenga’s model) have widely been applied for estimation of bathymetry from optical imagery in inland/coastal waters. The models in the literature are built upon only magnitude-related predictors derived from spectral radiances/reflectances at different bands. However, optically complicating factors such as variations in bottom type and water column constituents can change not only the magnitude but also the shape of water-leaving spectra. This research incorporates spectral derivatives as shaperelated predictors in order to enhance the description of spectra through the regression-based depth retrieval. A stepwise regression is utilized to select the optimal predictors among all the possible Lyzenga (i.e., magnitude-related) and derivative (i.e., shape-related) predictors. Radiative transfer simulations are used to examine the bathymetry models in optically-complex shallow rivers by considering variable bottom-types and IOPs. The methods are also applied to a WorldView-3 image of the Sarca River located in Italian Alps and resultant bathymetry estimates are assessed using insitu measurements. The results indicate the effectiveness of spectral derivatives in improving the accuracies of depth retrievals particularly for optically-complex waters.
Every individual attribute of a riverine environment defines the overall spectral signature to be observed by an optical sensor. The spectral characteristic of riverbed is influenced not only by the type but also the roughness of substrates. Motivated by this assumption, potential of optical imagery for mapping grain size of shallow rivers (< 1 m deep) is examined in this research. The previous studies concerned with grain size mapping are all built upon the texture analysis of exposed bed material using very high resolution (i.e. cm resolution) imagery. However, the application of texturebased techniques is limited to very low altitude sensors (e.g. UAVs) to ensure the sufficient spatial resolution. Moreover, these techniques are applicable only in the presence of exposed substrates along the river channel. To address these drawbacks, this study examines the effectiveness of spectral information to make distinction among grain sizes for submerged substrates. Spectroscopic experiments are performed in controlled condition of a hydraulic lab. The spectra are collected over a water flume in a range of water depths and bottoms with several grain sizes. A spectral convolution is performed to match the spectra to WorldView-2 spectral bands. The material type of substrates is considered the same for all the experiments with only variable roughness/size of grains. The spectra observed over dry beds revealed that the brightness/reflectance increases with the grain size across all the spectral bands. Based on this finding, the above-water spectra over a river channel are simulated considering different grain sizes in the bottom. A water column correction method is then used to retrieve the bottom reflectances. Then the inferred bottom reflectances are clustered to segregate among grain sizes. The results indicate high potential of the spectral approach for clustering grain sizes (overall accuracy of 92%) which opens up some horizons for mapping this valuable attribute of rivers using remotely sensed data.
KEYWORDS: Calibration, Data modeling, Animal model studies, Coastal modeling, Statistical modeling, Water, Radiative transfer, Sensors, Analytical research, Global Positioning System
The optical imagery has the potential for extraction of spatially and temporally explicit bathymetric information in inland/coastal waters. Lyzenga’s model and optimal band ratio analysis (OBRA) are main bathymetric models which both provide linear relations with water depths. The former model is sensitive and the latter is quite robust to substrate variability. The simple regression is the widely used approach for calibration of bathymetric models either Lyzenga’s model or OBRA model. In this research, a multiple regression is examined for empirical calibration of the models in order to take the advantage of all spectral channels of the imagery. This method is applied on both Lyzenga’s model and OBRA model for the bathymetry of a shallow Alpine river in Italy, using WorldView-2 (WV-2) and GeoEye images. Insitu depths are recorded using RTK GPS in two reaches. One-half of the data is used for calibration of models and the remaining half as independent check-points for accuracy assessment. In addition, radiative transfer model is used to simulate a set of spectra in a range of depths, substrate types, and water column properties. The simulated spectra are convolved to the sensors’ spectral bands for further bathymetric analysis. Investigating the simulated spectra, it is concluded that the multiple regression improves the robustness of the Lyzenga’s model with respect to the substrate variability. The improvements of multiple regression approach are much more pronounced for the Lyzenga’s model rather than the OBRA model. This is in line with findings from real imagery; for instance, the multiple regression applied for calibration of Lyzenga’s and OBRA models demonstrated, respectively, 22% and 9% higher determination coefficients (R2) as well as 3 cm and 1 cm better RMSEs compared to the simple regression using the WV-2 image.
Taking the advantages of remotely sensed data for mapping and monitoring of water boundaries is of particular importance in many different management and conservation activities. Imagery data are classified using automatic techniques to produce maps entering the water bodies’ analysis chain in several and different points. Very commonly, medium or coarse spatial resolution imagery is used in studies of large water bodies. Data of this kind is affected by the presence of mixed pixels leading to very outstanding problems, in particular when dealing with boundary pixels. A considerable amount of uncertainty inescapably occurs when conventional hard classifiers (e.g., maximum likelihood) are applied on mixed pixels.
In this study, Linear Spectral Mixture Model (LSMM) is used to estimate the proportion of water in boundary pixels. Firstly by applying an unsupervised clustering, the water body is identified approximately and a buffer area considered ensuring the selection of entire boundary pixels. Then LSMM is applied on this buffer region to estimate the fractional maps. However, resultant output of LSMM does not provide a sub-pixel map corresponding to water abundances. To tackle with this problem, Pixel Swapping (PS) algorithm is used to allocate sub-pixels within mixed pixels in such a way to maximize the spatial proximity of sub-pixels and pixels in the neighborhood.
The water area of two segments of Tagliamento River (Italy) are mapped in sub-pixel resolution (10m) using a 30m Landsat image. To evaluate the proficiency of the proposed approach for sub-pixel boundary mapping, the image is also classified using a conventional hard classifier. A high resolution image of the same area is also classified and used as a reference for accuracy assessment. According to the results, sub-pixel map shows in average about 8 percent higher overall accuracy than hard classification and fits very well in the boundaries with the reference map.
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