Applications of Remote Sensing and GIS in Hydrological and Hydrogeological Studies

Integrated watershed management is a holistic approach aimed at linking upstream and downstream areas. It encompasses preventing the watershed from being polluted and maintaining the quality of water and prevention of soil erosion. Remote sensing and GIS techniques play a crucial role in assessing watershed conditions through modeling. These techniques are also very helpful in acquiring the spatial information of the land use, land cover, vegetation, water resources, etc. With the available data, characteristics of aquifers can easily be deciphered. Remote sensing aids in identifying and assessing the topographical features and alienates the unnecessary ones. Integration of GIS with remote sensing along with hydrological, hydrogeological, geomorphologic studies will make the practice of integrated watershed management more effective. The primary aim of this chapter is to encompass the remote sensing and GIS technologies currently in use for watershed monitoring and management.

Simulating the Relationship between Land Use/Cover Change and Urban Thermal Environment Using Machine Learning Algorithms in Wuhan City, China

The changes of land use/land cover (LULC) are important factor affecting the intensity of the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Based on Landsat image data of Wuhan, this paper uses cellular automata (CA) and artificial neural network (ANN) to predict future changes in LULC and LST. The results show that the built-up area of Wuhan has expanded, reaching 511.51 and 545.28 km2, while the area of vegetation, water bodies and bare land will decrease to varying degrees in 2030 and 2040. If the built-up area continues to expand rapidly, the proportion of 30~35 °C will rise to 52.925% and 55.219%, and the affected area with the temperature >35 °C will expand to 15.264 and 33.612 km2, respectively. The direction of the expansion range of the LST temperature range is obviously similar to the expansion of the built-up area. In order to control and alleviate UHI, the rapid expansion of impervious layers (built-up areas) should be avoided to the greatest extent, and the city’s “green development” strategy should be implemented.

Land Use Changes Analysis in Jakarta Bay Coastal Area Between 1998, 2008 and 2018

As the national capital and one of the largest cities in the world, environmental conditions and land use in Jakarta have changed a lot in the last twenty years. Economic growth and high population growth in Jakarta have resulted in massive development of infrastructure and residential areas in Jakarta. Economic growth and an increase in population are become problems, especially with the decreasing of green areas due to the development process carried out without paying attention to the surrounding environment. Environmental problems such as water pollution, land subsidence, coastal erosion and flooding often occur in the Jakarta area, especially in the coastal areas of North Jakarta. The research from 1998 to 2018 show that from the observations area of mangrove land cover has increased by 79 hectares during that period. The same trend applied on area of built and open land that increased by 292 hectares and 887 hectares respectively. Meanwhile, the area of land for vegetation, water bodies, and fishpond has decreased from 1998 to 2018 by 393 hectares, 797 hectares and 309 hectares respectively. Development and reclamation have changed land use in the Northern area of Jakarta. However, it is also necessary to pay attention to the impact of development on environmental and social conditions in the North Jakarta area.

Application of Reflectance Indices for Remote Sensing of Plants and Revealing Actions of Stressors

Environmental conditions are very changeable; fluctuations in temperature, precipitation, illumination intensity, and other factors can decrease a plant productivity and crop. The remote sensing of plants under these conditions is the basis for the protection of plants and increases their survivability. This problem can be solved through measurements of plant reflectance and calculation of reflectance indices. Reflectance indices are related to the vegetation biomass, specific physiological processes, and biochemical compositions in plants; the indices can be used for both short-term and long-term plant monitoring. In our review, we considered the applications of reflectance indices in plant remote sensing. In Optical Methods and Platforms of Remote Sensing of Plants, we briefly discussed multi- and hyperspectral imaging, including descriptions of multispectral and hyperspectral cameras with different principles and their efficiency for the remote sensing of plants. In Main Reflectance Indices, we described the main reflectance indices, including vegetation, water, and pigment reflectance indices, as well as the photochemical reflectance index and its modifications. We focused on the relationships of leaf reflectance and reflectance indices to plant biomass, development, and physiological and biochemical characteristics. In Problems of Measurement and Analysis of Reflectance Indices, we discussed the methods of the correction of the reflectance indices that can be used for decreasing the influence of environmental conditions (mainly illumination, air, and soil) and plant characteristics (orientation of leaves, their thickness, and others) on their measurements and the analysis of the plant remote sensing. Additionally, the variability of plants was also considered as an important factor that influences the results of measurement and analysis.

Improved Oxidative Stability and Sensory Quality of Beef Hamburgers Enriched with a Phenolic Extract from Olive Vegetation Water

This study aims at evaluating the effect of a phenol-rich extract obtained from the concentration and purification of olive mill wastewaters (added at a ratio of 87.5 and 175 mg of phenols/kg meat) on the stability and sensory quality of beef hamburgers packed under modified atmosphere and stored under alternating exposure to fluorescent light at 4 ± 2 °C for 9 days. The hamburgers were sampled at different times (0, 6, and 9 days) and grilled at 200 °C. After 9 days, more than 56% of the added phenols in the raw burgers and more than 20% the grilled ones were retained. The results show that both concentrations of phenolic extract proved to effectively reduce primary and secondary lipid oxidation, as well as cholesterol oxidation products (COPs), during the shelf-life of raw hamburgers. Peroxide value, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, and total COPs were up to 1.4-, 4.5-, and 8.8-fold lower in phenol-enriched raw hamburgers, respectively, than in the control samples; a similar trend was noted also in phenol-enriched cooked hamburgers (1.3-, 5.7-, and 4-fold lower). The sensory analysis also confirmed the effectiveness of the addition of phenolic extract, resulting in a positive effect on the red color intensity (raw product) and thus reducing browning during storage.

Change Detection for Wasit Province’s Land Coverbetween 2013 and 2020

It is well known that On Earth there are only a few places, which are now intheir natural state and have not been affected by human activity in any way. These human activities lead to significant changes in land use at the regional and local levels. In this research, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) are integrated to monitor, map, and quantify the main land cover types (vegetation, water, soil, bare area, and urban) in Wasit province. The result of supervised classification for two classified Landsat-8 images for 2020, 2013 after combining 13 subclasses: Water area in 2013 (0.719%) increases to (1.521%) in 2020, vegetation class increases from (2.864) to (6.148%). Urban increases from 2.095% to 4.629%, Bare area in 2020 became 24.307% but in 2013 was 29.03% and finally, soil decreased from (15.821%) to (13.922%).

The Spatiotemporal Implications of Urbanization for Urban Heat Islands in Beijing: A Predictive Approach Based on CA–Markov Modeling (2004–2050)

The rapid increase in infrastructural development in populated areas has had numerous adverse impacts. The rise in land surface temperature (LST) and its associated damage to urban ecological systems result from urban development. Understanding the current and future LST phenomenon and its relationship to landscape composition and land use/cover (LUC) changes is critical to developing policies to mitigate the disastrous impacts of urban heat islands (UHIs) on urban ecosystems. Using remote sensing and GIS data, this study assessed the multi-scale relationship of LUCC and LST of the cosmopolitan exponentially growing area of Beijing, China. We investigated the impacts of LUC on LST in urban agglomeration for a time series (2004–2019) of Landsat data using Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and a single channel algorithm (SCA), respectively. We built a CA–Markov model to forecast future (2025 and 2050) LUCC and LST spatial patterns. Our results indicate that the cumulative changes in an urban area (UA) increased by about 908.15 km2 (5%), and 11% of vegetation area (VA) decreased from 2004 to 2019. The correlation coefficient of LUCC including vegetation, water bodies, and built-up areas with LST had values of r = −0.155 (p > 0.419), −0.809 (p = 0.000), and 0.526 (p = 0.003), respectively. The results surrounding future forecasts revealed an estimated 2309.55 km2 (14%) decrease in vegetation (urban and forest), while an expansion of 1194.78 km2 (8%) was predicted for a built-up area from 2019 to 2050. This decrease in vegetation cover and expansion of settlements would likely cause a rise of about ~5.74 °C to ~9.66 °C in temperature. These findings strongly support the hypothesis that LST is directly related to the vegetation index. In conclusion, the estimated overall increase of 7.5 °C in LST was predicted from 2019–2050, which is alarming for the urban community’s environmental health. The present results provide insight into sustainable environmental development through effective urban planning of Beijing and other urban hotspots.