Development of a New Phenology Algorithm for Fine Mapping of Cropping Intensity in Complex Planting Areas Using Sentinel-2 and Google Earth Engine

Cropping intensity is a key indicator for evaluating grain production and intensive use of cropland. Timely and accurately monitoring of cropping intensity is of great significance for ensuring national food security and improving the level of national land management. In this study, we used all Sentinel-2 images on the Google Earth Engine cloud platform, and constructed an improved peak point detection method to extract the cropping intensity of a heterogeneous planting area combined with crop phenology. The crop growth cycle profiles were extracted from the multi-temporal normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface water index (LSWI) datasets. Results show that by 2020, the area of single cropping, double cropping, and triple cropping in the Henan Province are 52,236.9 km2, 74,334.1 km2, and 1927.1 km2, respectively; the corresponding producer accuracies are 86.12%, 93.72%, and 91.41%, respectively; the corresponding user accuracies are 88.99%, 92.29%, and 71.26%, respectively. The overall accuracy is 90.95%, and the Kappa coefficient is 0.81. Using the sown area in the statistical yearbook data of cities in the Henan Province to verify the extraction results of this paper, the R2 is 0.9717, and the root mean square error is 1715.9 km2. This study shows that using all the Sentinel-2 data, the phenology algorithm, and cloud computing technology has great potential in producing a high spatio-temporal resolution dataset for crop remote sensing monitoring and agricultural policymaking in complex planting areas.

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Mapping Winter Wheat with Optical and SAR Images Based on Google Earth Engine in Henan Province, China

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs14020284 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 284

Author(s):

Changchun Li ◽

Weinan Chen ◽

Yilin Wang ◽

Yu Wang ◽

Chunyan Ma ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Winter Wheat ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Growth Period ◽

Google Earth ◽

Henan Province ◽

Sar Images ◽

Modis Ndvi ◽

Optical Images ◽

Google Earth Engine

The timely and accurate acquisition of winter wheat acreage is crucial for food security. This study investigated the feasibility of extracting the spatial distribution map of winter wheat in Henan Province by using synthetic aperture radar (SAR, Sentinel-1A) and optical (Sentinel-2) images. Firstly, the SAR images were aggregated based on the growth period of winter wheat, and the optical images were aggregated based on the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer normalized difference vegetation index (MODIS-NDVI) curve. Then, five spectral features, two polarization features, and four texture features were selected as feature variables. Finally, the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform was employed to extract winter wheat acreage through the random forest (RF) algorithm. The results show that: (1) aggregated images based on the growth period of winter wheat and sensor characteristics can improve the mapping accuracy and efficiency; (2) the extraction accuracy of using only SAR images was improved with the accumulation of growth period. The extraction accuracy of using the SAR images in the full growth period reached 80.1%; and (3) the identification effect of integrated images was relatively good, which makes up for the shortcomings of SAR and optical images and improves the extraction accuracy of winter wheat.

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Analisis Fenomena Pulau Panas Perkotaan Kota Bandung Menggunakan Google Earth Engine

10.31227/osf.io/bej3n ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Muhammad Malik Ar-Rahiem ◽

Muhamad Riza Fakhlevi

Keyword(s):

Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Google Earth ◽

Landsat 8 ◽

Heat Island ◽

Urban Heat ◽

Google Earth Engine

Pulau Panas Perkotaan (Urban Heat Island) adalah fenomena antropogenik akibat pengaruh urbanisasi. Kawasan perkotaan yang terbangun memiliki temperatur yang lebih hangat dibandingkan kawasan sekitarnya. Fenomena Pulau Panas Perkotaan di Kota Bandung diteliti menggunakan data Suhu Permukaan Tanah (Land Surface Temperature) yang diakuisisi dari satelit Landsat 8. Lima tahun data satelit dianalisis menggunakan piranti daring Google Earth Engine untuk menganalisis variasi temporal Pulau Panas Perkotaan di Kota Bandung dan sekitarnya. Suhu yang diakuisisi dari satelit dikonversi menjadi estimasi suhu permukaan dengan mempertimbangkan nilai Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah peta persebaran rata-rata dan median suhu permukaan di Cekungan Bandung tahun 2013-2018, serta grafik seri waktu suhu permukaan di 3 jenis tata guna lahan yang mewakili daerah kota (sekitar Jalan Sudirman), hutan kota (Hutan Babakan Siliwangi), dan hutan (Tamah Hutan Raya Djuanda). Suhu rata-rata Kota Bandung pada tahun 2013-2018 adalah 26,93 oC (median seluruh data) dan 25,57oC (rata-rata seluruh data). Sementara perbandingan berdasarkan tata guna lahan; daerah kota memiliki suhu permukaan rata-rata 27,30 oC, daerah hutan kota memiliki suhu 21,31oC, dan daerah hutan memiliki suhu 18,60oC. Peta persebaran suhu panas permukaan dari citra Landsat 8 menunjukkan bahwa daerah hutan secara konsisten memiliki suhu paling rendah, diikuti dengan hutan kota, dan kemudian daerah kota menjadi area yang paling panas dengan suhu maksimal hingga 33,73oC. Penggunaan Google Earth Engine yang berbasis komputasi awan sangat memudahkan pengolahan data citra satelit dalam jumlah besar yang selama ini tidak memungkinkan dilakukan dengan cara konvensional (mengunduh dan memproses di komputer).

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Modeling of Durum Wheat Yield Based on Sentinel-2 Imagery

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11081486 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 1486

Author(s):

Chris Cavalaris ◽

Sofia Megoudi ◽

Maria Maxouri ◽

Konstantinos Anatolitis ◽

Marios Sifakis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Vegetation Index ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Vegetation Indices ◽

Model Development ◽

Wheat Yield ◽

Growth Period ◽

Yield Data ◽

Water Index ◽

Normalized Difference Water Index ◽

Sentinel 2

In this study, a modelling approach for the estimation/prediction of wheat yield based on Sentinel-2 data is presented. Model development was accomplished through a two-step process: firstly, the capacity of Sentinel-2 vegetation indices (VIs) to follow plant ecophysiological parameters was established through measurements in a pilot field and secondly, the results of the first step were extended/evaluated in 31 fields, during two growing periods, to increase the applicability range and robustness of the models. Modelling results were examined against yield data collected by a combine harvester equipped with a yield-monitoring system. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) were examined as plant signals and combined with Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and/or Normalized Multiband Drought Index (NMDI) during the growth period or before sowing, as water and soil signals, respectively. The best performing model involved the EVI integral for the 20 April–31 May period as a plant signal and NMDI on 29 April and before sowing as water and soil signals, respectively (R2 = 0.629, RMSE = 538). However, model versions with a single date and maximum seasonal VIs values as a plant signal, performed almost equally well. Since the maximum seasonal VIs values occurred during the last ten days of April, these model versions are suitable for yield prediction.

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Accurate extraction of surface water in complex environment based on Google Earth Engine and Sentinel-2

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0253209 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (6) ◽

pp. e0253209

Author(s):

Jianfeng Li ◽

Biao Peng ◽

Yulu Wei ◽

Huping Ye

Keyword(s):

Surface Water ◽

Google Earth ◽

Water Extraction ◽

Practical Significance ◽

Commission Error ◽

Complex Environment ◽

Visual Interpretation ◽

Water Index ◽

Google Earth Engine ◽

Sentinel 2

To realize the accurate extraction of surface water in complex environment, this study takes Sri Lanka as the study area owing to the complex geography and various types of water bodies. Based on Google Earth engine and Sentinel-2 images, an automatic water extraction model in complex environment(AWECE) was developed. The accuracy of water extraction by AWECE, NDWI, MNDWI and the revised version of multi-spectral water index (MuWI-R) models was evaluated from visual interpretation and quantitative analysis. The results show that the AWECE model could significantly improve the accuracy of water extraction in complex environment, with an overall accuracy of 97.16%, and an extremely low omission error (0.74%) and commission error (2.35%). The AEWCE model could effectively avoid the influence of cloud shadow, mountain shadow and paddy soil on water extraction accuracy. The model can be widely applied in cloudy, mountainous and other areas with complex environments, which has important practical significance for water resources investigation, monitoring and protection.

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Mapping and Tracking Forest Burnt Areas in the Indio Maiz Biological Reserve Using Sentinel-3 SLSTR and VIIRS-DNB Imagery

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s19245423 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (24) ◽

pp. 5423

Author(s):

Shou-Hao Chiang ◽

Noel Ivan Ulloa

Keyword(s):

Land Surface ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Infrared Imaging ◽

Fast Marching Method ◽

Fast Marching ◽

Burnt Area ◽

Water Index ◽

Multiple Sensors ◽

Biological Reserve

Wildfires are considered one of the most major hazards and environmental issues worldwide. Recently, Earth observation satellite (EOS) sensors have proven to be effective for wildfire detection, although the quality and usefulness of the data are often hindered by cloud presence. One practical workaround is to combine datasets from multiple sensors. This research presents a methodology that utilizes data of the recently-launched Sentinel-3 sea and land surface temperature radiometer (S3-SLSTR) to reflect its applicability for detecting wildfires. In addition, visible infrared imaging radiometer suite day night band (VIIRS-DNB) imagery was introduced to assure day-night tracking capabilities. The wildfire event in the Indio Maiz Biological Reserve, Nicaragua, during 3–13 April 2018, was the study case. Six S3-SLSTR images were processed to compute spectral indices, such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the normalized difference water index (NDWI), and the normalized burn ratio (NBR), to perform image segmentation for estimating the burnt area. The results indicate that 5870.7 ha of forest was affected during the wildfire, close to the 5945 ha reported by local authorities. In this study, the fire expansion was delineated and tracked in the Indio Maiz Biological Reserve using a modified fast marching method on nighttime-sensed temporal VIIRS-DNB. This study shows the importance of S3-SLSRT for wildfire monitoring and how it can be complemented with VIIRS-DNB to track burning biomass at daytime and nighttime.

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High-Resolution Urban Land Mapping in China from Sentinel 1A/2 Imagery Based on Google Earth Engine

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs11070752 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 752 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Zhongchang Sun ◽

Ru Xu ◽

Wenjie Du ◽

Lei Wang ◽

Dengsheng Lu

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Urban Land ◽

Google Earth ◽

Economic Research ◽

Optical Data ◽

Large Area ◽

Google Earth Engine ◽

Sar Data ◽

Sentinel 2

Accurate and timely urban land mapping is fundamental to supporting large area environmental and socio-economic research. Most of the available large-area urban land products are limited to a spatial resolution of 30 m. The fusion of optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data for large-area high-resolution urban land mapping has not yet been widely explored. In this study, we propose a fast and effective urban land extraction method using ascending/descending orbits of Sentinel-1A SAR data and Sentinel-2 MSI (MultiSpectral Instrument, Level 1C) optical data acquired from 1 January 2015 to 30 June 2016. Potential urban land (PUL) was identified first through logical operations on yearly mean and standard deviation composites from a time series of ascending/descending orbits of SAR data. A Yearly Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maximum and modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) mean composite were generated from Sentinel-2 imagery. The slope image derived from SRTM DEM data was used to mask mountain pixels and reduce the false positives in SAR data over these regions. We applied a region-specific threshold on PUL to extract the target urban land (TUL) and a global threshold on the MNDWI mean, and slope image to extract water bodies and high-slope regions. A majority filter with a three by three window was applied on previously extracted results and the main processing was carried out on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. China was chosen as the testing region to validate the accuracy and robustness of our proposed method through 224,000 validation points randomly selected from high-resolution Google Earth imagery. Additionally, a total of 735 blocks with a size of 900 × 900 m were randomly selected and used to compare our product’s accuracy with the global human settlement layer (GHSL, 2014), GlobeLand30 (2010), and Liu (2015) products. Our method demonstrated the effectiveness of using a fusion of optical and SAR data for large area urban land extraction especially in areas where optical data fail to distinguish urban land from spectrally similar objects. Results show that the average overall, producer’s and user’s accuracies are 88.03%, 94.50% and 82.22%, respectively.

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A Long-term Spatial and Temporal Analysis of NDVI Changes in Java Island Using Google Earth Engine

IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science ◽

10.1088/1755-1315/936/1/012038 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 936 (1) ◽

pp. 012038

Author(s):

Benedict ◽

Lalu Muhamad Jaelani

Keyword(s):

Vegetation Cover ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Image Data ◽

Temporal Analysis ◽

Google Earth ◽

Vegetation Density ◽

Angle Sensor ◽

Study Results ◽

Google Earth Engine

Abstract Java is Indonesia’s and the world’s most populous island. The increase in population on the island of Java reduces the area of forest and other vegetation covers. Landslides, floods, and other natural disasters are caused by reduced vegetation cover. Furthermore, it has the potential to lead to the extinction of flora and fauna. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) can be used to monitor the vegetation cover. This study analyzes the NDVI changes value from 2005 to 2020 using Terra and Aqua MODIS image data processed using Google Earth Engine. Processing was carried out in some stages: down-setting, performing NDVI processing, calculating monthly average NDVI, calculating annual average NDVI, and analyzing. From the study results, the NDVI value of Terra and Aqua MODIS data has a solid but imperfect correlation coefficient due to differences in orbital time which causes differences in solar zenith angle, sensor viewing angle, and azimuth angle. Then from this study, it was found that overall, changes in vegetation density cover on the island of Java decreased, which was indicated by the NDVI decline rate of -0.00047/year. The most significant decrease in NDVI value occurred in the period 2015–2016, covering an area of 13994.630 km2, and the most significant increase in NDVI occurred in the period 2010–2011, covering an area of 2256.101 km2.

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HazMapper: a global open-source natural hazard mapping application in Google Earth Engine

Natural Hazards and Earth System Science ◽

10.5194/nhess-21-1495-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (5) ◽

pp. 1495-1511

Author(s):

Corey M. Scheip ◽

Karl W. Wegmann

Keyword(s):

Vegetation Index ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Volcanic Eruptions ◽

Relative Difference ◽

Google Earth ◽

Satellite Networks ◽

Pyroclastic Flows ◽

Hazard Mapping ◽

Polar Regions ◽

Google Earth Engine

Abstract. Modern satellite networks with rapid image acquisition cycles allow for near-real-time imaging of areas impacted by natural hazards such as mass wasting, flooding, and volcanic eruptions. Publicly accessible multi-spectral datasets (e.g., Landsat, Sentinel-2) are particularly helpful in analyzing the spatial extent of disturbances, however, the datasets are large and require intensive processing on high-powered computers by trained analysts. HazMapper is an open-access hazard mapping application developed in Google Earth Engine that allows users to derive map and GIS-based products from Sentinel or Landsat datasets without the time- and cost-intensive resources required for traditional analysis. The first iteration of HazMapper relies on a vegetation-based metric, the relative difference in the normalized difference vegetation index (rdNDVI), to identify areas on the landscape where vegetation was removed following a natural disaster. Because of the vegetation-based metric, the tool is typically not suitable for use in desert or polar regions. HazMapper is not a semi-automated routine but makes rapid and repeatable analysis and visualization feasible for both recent and historical natural disasters. Case studies are included for the identification of landslides and debris flows, wildfires, pyroclastic flows, and lava flow inundation. HazMapper is intended for use by both scientists and non-scientists, such as emergency managers and public safety decision-makers.

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Estimating Proportion of Vegetation Cover at the Vicinity of Archaeological Sites Using Sentinel-1 and -2 Data, Supplemented by Crowdsourced OpenStreetMap Geodata

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app10144764 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (14) ◽

pp. 4764 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Athos Agapiou

Keyword(s):

Vegetation Cover ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Hazard Analysis ◽

Archaeological Site ◽

Google Earth ◽

Archaeological Sites ◽

Radar Images ◽

Optical Images ◽

Sentinel 2

Monitoring vegetation cover is an essential parameter for assessing various natural and anthropogenic hazards that occur at the vicinity of archaeological sites and landscapes. In this study, we used free and open access to Copernicus Earth Observation datasets. In particular, the proportion of vegetation cover is estimated from the analysis of Sentinel-1 radar and Sentinel-2 optical images, upon their radiometric and geometric corrections. Here, the proportion of vegetation based on the Radar Vegetation Index and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index is estimated. Due to the medium resolution of these datasets (10 m resolution), the crowdsourced OpenStreetMap service was used to identify fully and non-vegetated pixels. The case study is focused on the western part of Cyprus, whereas various open-air archaeological sites exist, such as the archaeological site of “Nea Paphos” and the “Tombs of the Kings”. A cross-comparison of the results between the optical and the radar images is presented, as well as a comparison with ready products derived from the Sentinel Hub service such as the Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar Urban and Sentinel-2 Scene classification data. Moreover, the proportion of vegetation cover was evaluated with Google Earth red-green-blue free high-resolution optical images, indicating that a good correlation between the RVI and NDVI can be generated only over vegetated areas. The overall findings indicate that Sentinel-1 and -2 indices can provide a similar pattern only over vegetated areas, which can be further elaborated to estimate temporal changes using integrated optical and radar Sentinel data. This study can support future investigations related to hazard analysis based on the combined use of optical and radar sensors, especially in areas with high cloud-coverage.

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Mapping Regional Ecosystem Functional Types Based on Sentinel-2 Satellite Imagery

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202019405047 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 194 ◽

pp. 05047

Author(s):

Rong Liu ◽

Fang Huang ◽

Yue Ren

Keyword(s):

Land Surface ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Time Series Data ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

Ecosystem Functions ◽

Series Data ◽

Fine Scale ◽

Functional Types ◽

Sentinel 2

Ecosystem functional types (EFTs) are the patches of land surface showing similar in carbon dynamics. EFTs are not defined by the structure and composition of vegetation and represent the spatial heterogeneity of ecosystem functions. Identifying EFTs based on low-resolution satellite remote sensing data cannot satisfy the needs of fine-scale characterization of regional ecosystem functional patterns. Here, taking Zhenlai County, Northeast China as an example, the heterogeneity in ecosystem functions was characterized by identifying EFTs from Sentinel-2 time series data using ISODATA algorithm. Ecosystem functional attributes derived from dynamics of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR), and canopy water content (CWC) in the growing season were calculated. The correspondence analysis (CA) method was used to reveal relationships between the EFTs and land cover types. Our results showed that the nine selected remotely sensed variables indicating carbon and water flux of the regional ecosystems could be adopted in ecosystem functions classification. The obtained EFTs based on Sentinel-2 images reflected the internal structure of carbon balance well and the distribution pattern of ecosystem functional diversity a fine scale. This study helps to understand the functional heterogeneity pattern of temperate terrestrial ecosystems.

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