Making the invisible visible: using UAS-based high-resolution color-infrared imagery to identify buried medieval monastery walls

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 58-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Rudolf Karl Lehmann ◽  
Keturah Zoe Smithson ◽  
Torsten Prinz
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Water Stress ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Systems ◽  
Surrounding Water ◽  
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Remote Sensing Techniques ◽  
Aerial Systems

Remote sensing techniques have become an increasingly important tool for surveying archaeological sites. However, budgeting issues in archaeological research often limit the application of satellite or airborne imagery. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) provide a flexible, quick, and more economical alternative to commonly used remote sensing techniques. In this study, the buried features of the archaeological site of the Kleinburlo monastery, near Münster, Germany, were identified using high-resolution color–infrared (CIR) images collected from a UAS platform. Based on these CIR images, a modified normalised difference vegetation index (NDVIblue) was calculated, showing reflectance spectra of vegetation anomalies caused by water stress. In the presented study, the vegetation growing on top of the buried walls was better nourished than the surrounding plants because very wet conditions over the days previous to data collection caused higher levels of water stress in the surrounding water-drenched land. This difference in water stress was a good indicator for detecting archaeological remains.

scholarly journals Error simulations of uncorrected NDVI and DCVI during remote sensing measurements from UAS

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał T. Chiliński ◽  
Marek Ostrowski
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Radiative Transfer ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Vegetation Mapping ◽  
Radiative Transfer Model ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Systems ◽  
Transfer Model ◽  
Digital Cameras ◽  
Aerial Systems

Abstract Remote sensing from unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has been gaining popularity in the last few years. In the field of vegetation mapping, digital cameras converted to calculate vegetation index (DCVI) are one of the most popular sensors. This paper presents simulations using a radiative transfer model (libRadtran) of DCVI and NDVI results in an environment of possible UAS flight scenarios. The analysis of the results is focused on the comparison of atmosphere influence on both indices. The results revealed uncertainties in uncorrected DCVI measurements up to 25% at the altitude of 5 km, 5% at 1 km and around 1% at 0.15 km, which suggests that DCVI can be widely used on small UAS operating below 0.2 km.

scholarly journals A commentary review on the use of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in the era of popular remote sensing

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sha Huang ◽  
Lina Tang ◽  
Joseph P. Hupy ◽  
Yang Wang ◽  
Guofan Shao
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Systems ◽  
Atmospheric Effect ◽  
Saturation Phenomenon ◽  
Near Ir ◽  
Critical Problems ◽  
Low Costs ◽  
Aerial Systems

AbstractThe Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), one of the earliest remote sensing analytical products used to simplify the complexities of multi-spectral imagery, is now the most popular index used for vegetation assessment. This popularity and widespread use relate to how an NDVI can be calculated with any multispectral sensor with a visible and a near-IR band. Increasingly low costs and weights of multispectral sensors mean they can be mounted on satellite, aerial, and increasingly—Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). While studies have found that the NDVI is effective for expressing vegetation status and quantified vegetation attributes, its widespread use and popularity, especially in UAS applications, carry inherent risks of misuse with end users who received little to no remote sensing education. This article summarizes the progress of NDVI acquisition, highlights the areas of NDVI application, and addresses the critical problems and considerations in using NDVI. Detailed discussion mainly covers three aspects: atmospheric effect, saturation phenomenon, and sensor factors. The use of NDVI can be highly effective as long as its limitations and capabilities are understood. This consideration is particularly important to the UAS user community.

scholarly journals Deserted Medieval Village Reconstruction Using Applied Geosciences

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1975
Author(s):  
Alexandru Hegyi ◽  
Apostolos Sarris ◽  
Florin Curta ◽  
Cristian Floca ◽  
Sorin Forțiu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Vegetation Indices ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Small Satellites ◽  
High Resolution Images ◽  
Remote Sensing Techniques

This study presents a new way to reconstruct the extent of medieval archaeological sites by using approaches from the field of geoinformatics. Hence, we propose a combined use of non-invasive methodologies which are used for the first time to study a medieval village in Romania. The focus here will be on ground-based and satellite remote-sensing techniques. The method relies on computing vegetation indices (proxies), which have been utilized for archaeological site detection in order to detect the layout of a deserted medieval town located in southwestern Romania. The data were produced by a group of small satellites (3U CubeSats) dispatched by Planet Labs which delivered high-resolution images of the Earth’s surface. The globe is encompassed by more than 150 satellites (dimensions: 10 × 10 × 30 cm) which catch different images for the same area at moderately short intervals at a spatial resolution of 3–4 m. The four-band Planet Scope satellite images were employed to calculate a number of vegetation indices such as NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), DVI (Difference Vegetation Index), SR (Simple Vegetation Ratio) and others. For better precision, structure from motion (SfM) techniques were applied to generate a high-resolution orthomosaic and a digital surface model in which the boundaries of the medieval village of “Șanțul Turcilor” in Mașloc, Romania, can be plainly observed. Additionally, this study contrasts the outcomes with a geophysical survey that was attempted inside the central part of the medieval settlement. The technical results of this study also provide strong evidence from an historical point of view: the first documented case of village systematization during the medieval period within Eastern Europe (particularly Romania) found through geoscientific methods.

Soil moisture estimation from high-resolution UASs imagery based on machine learning approaches for land cover classification

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Pizzolla ◽  
Silvano Fortunato Dal Sasso ◽  
Ruodan Zhuang ◽  
Alonso Pizarro ◽  
Salvatore Manfreda
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Thermal Inertia ◽  
Bare Soil ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Systems ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Land Use Classification ◽  
Aerial Systems

<p>Soil moisture (SM) is an essential variable in the earth system as it influences water, energy and, carbon fluxes between the land surface and the atmosphere. The SM spatio-temporal variability requires detailed analyses, high-definition optics and fast computing approaches for near real-time SM estimation at different spatial scales. Remote Sensing-based Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) represents the actual solution providing low-cost approaches to meet the requirements of spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions [1; 3; 4]. In this context, a proper land use classification is crucial in order to discriminate the behaviors of vegetation and bare soil in such high-resolution imagery. Therefore, high-resolution UASs-based imagery requires a specific images classification approach also considering the illumination conditions. In this work, the land use classification was carried out using a methodology based on a combined machine learning approaches: k-means clustering algorithm for removing shadow pixels from UASs images and, binary classifier for vegetation filtering. This approach led to identifying the bare soil on which SM estimation was computed using the Apparent Thermal Inertia (ATI) method [2]. The estimated SM values were compared with field measurements obtaining a good correlation (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.80). The accuracy of the results shows good reliability of the procedure and allows extending the use of UASs also in unclassified areas and ungauged basins, where the monitoring of the SM is very complex.</p><p><strong>References</strong></p><p>[1] Manfreda, S., McCabe, M.F., Miller, P.E., Lucas, R., Pajuelo Madrigal, V., Mallinis, G., Ben Dor, E., Helman, D., Estes, L., Ciraolo, G., et al. On the Use of Unmanned Aerial Systems for Environmental Monitoring, Remote Sensing, 2018, 10, 641.</p><p>[2] Minacapilli, M., Cammalleri, C., Ciraolo, G., D’Asaro, F., Iovino, M., and Maltese, A. Thermal Inertia Modeling for Soil Surface Water Content Estimation: A Laboratory Experiment. Soil. Sci. Soc. Amer. J. 2012, vol.76, n.1, pp. 92–100</p><p>[3] Paruta, A., P. Nasta, G. Ciraolo, F. Capodici, S. Manfreda, N. Romano, E. Bendor, Y. Zeng, A. Maltese, S. F. Dal Sasso and R. Zhuang, A geostatistical approach to map near-surface soil moisture through hyper-spatial resolution thermal inertia, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2020.</p><p>[4] Petropoulos, G.P., A. Maltese, T. N. Carlson, G. Provenzano, A. Pavlides, G. Ciraolo, D. Hristopulos, F. Capodici, C. Chalkias, G. Dardanelli, S. Manfreda, Exploring the use of UAVs with the simplified “triangle” technique for Soil Water Content and Evaporative Fraction retrievals in a Mediterranean setting, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 2020.</p>

scholarly journals Remote Sensing Techniques for Soil Organic Carbon Estimation: A Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodora Angelopoulou ◽  
Nikolaos Tziolas ◽  
Athanasios Balafoutis ◽  
George Zalidis ◽  
Dionysis Bochtis
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Systems ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Remote Sensing Techniques ◽  
Aerial Systems

Towards the need for sustainable development, remote sensing (RS) techniques in the Visible-Near Infrared–Shortwave Infrared (VNIR–SWIR, 400–2500 nm) region could assist in a more direct, cost-effective and rapid manner to estimate important indicators for soil monitoring purposes. Soil reflectance spectroscopy has been applied in various domains apart from laboratory conditions, e.g., sensors mounted on satellites, aircrafts and Unmanned Aerial Systems. The aim of this review is to illustrate the research made for soil organic carbon estimation, with the use of RS techniques, reporting the methodology and results of each study. It also aims to provide a comprehensive introduction in soil spectroscopy for those who are less conversant with the subject. In total, 28 journal articles were selected and further analysed. It was observed that prediction accuracy reduces from Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) to satellite platforms, though advances in machine learning techniques could further assist in the generation of better calibration models. There are some challenges concerning atmospheric, radiometric and geometric corrections, vegetation cover, soil moisture and roughness that still need to be addressed. The advantages and disadvantages of each approach are highlighted and future considerations are also discussed at the end.

scholarly journals Análisis del efecto de variables ambientales en la estimación de la erosionabilidad (Factor K) = Analysis of the Effect of Environmental Variables on the Soil Erodibility Estimation (K Factor)

2018 ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Pedro Perez Cutillas ◽  
Gonzalo G. Barberá ◽  
Carmelo Conesa García
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Input Data ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Mineralogical Composition ◽  
Soil Erodibility ◽  
Estimation Algorithms ◽  
K Factor ◽  
Remote Sensing Techniques

El objetivo principal de este trabajo se centra en la determinación y análisis de las variables ambientales que influyen en las divergencias de las estimaciones de erosionabilidad a partir de dos métodos, aplicando tres algoritmos de estimación del Factor K. La exploración de esta información permite conocer el peso que ejerce el origen de los datos de entrada a los modelos en el cómputo de erosionabilidad y qué importancia tiene en función del algoritmo elegido para la estimación del Factor K. Los resultados muestran que las pendientes, así como los índices de vegetación (NDVI) y de composición mineralógico (IOI) obtenidos mediantes técnicas de teledetección han   mostrado los valores de asociación más elevados entre ambos métodos.The main goal of this work is to determine and analyze the influence of environmental variables on the changes of two erodibility methods, through the application of three estimation algorithms of K Factor. The analysis of this information allows knowing the significance of the input data to the models in the erodibility estimation, and likewise the consequence of the algorithm selected for the estimation of K Factor. The results show that the slopes, as well as the vegetation index (NDVI) and the mineralogical composition index (IOI), generated both by remote sensing techniques, have shown the highest values of association between methods.

scholarly journals How can remote sensing techniques help monitoring the vine and maximize the terroir potential?

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 02007
Author(s):  
Cecile Tondriaux ◽  
Anne Costard ◽  
Corinne Bertin ◽  
Sylvie Duthoit ◽  
Jérôme Hourdel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Satellite Images ◽  
Sampling Strategy ◽  
Wine Quality ◽  
Wine Production ◽  
Spectral Bands ◽  
High Resolution Satellite Images ◽  
Remote Sensing Techniques ◽  
Set Up

In each winegrowing region, the winegrower tries to value its terroir and the oenologists do their best to produce the best wine. Thanks to new remote sensing techniques, it is possible to implement a segmentation of the vineyard according to the qualitative potential of the vine stocks and make the most of each terroir to improve wine quality. High resolution satellite images are processed in several spectral bands and algorithms set-up specifically for the Oenoview service allow to estimate vine vigour and a heterogeneity index that, used together, directly reflect the vineyard oenological potential. This service is used in different terroirs in France (Burgundy, Languedoc, Bordeaux, Anjou) and in other countries (Chile, Spain, Hungary and China). From this experience, we will show how remote sensing can help managing vine and wine production in all covered terroirs. Depending on the winegrowing region and its specificities, its use and results present some differences and similarities that we will highlight. We will give an overview of the method used, the advantage of implementing field intra-or inter-selection and how to optimize the use of amendment and sampling strategy as well as how to anticipate the whole vineyard management.

scholarly journals Water stress coefficient determined by orbital remote sensing techniques

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (12) ◽  
pp. 847-853
Author(s):  
Élvis da S. Alves ◽  
Roberto Filgueiras ◽  
Lineu N. Rodrigues ◽  
Fernando F. da Cunha ◽  
Catariny C. Aleman
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Water Stress ◽  
Irrigation Management ◽  
Simple Algorithm ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Stress Coefficient ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
Remote Sensing Techniques ◽  
Water Stress Coefficient ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACT In regions where the irrigated area is increasing and water availability is reduced, such as the West of the Bahia state, Brazil, the use of techniques that contribute to improving water use efficiency is paramount. One of the ways to improve irrigation is by improving the calculation of actual evapotranspiration (ETa), which among other factors is influenced by soil drying, so it is important to understand this relationship, which is usually accounted for in irrigation management models through the water stress coefficient (Ks). This study aimed to estimate the water stress coefficient (Ks) through information obtained via remote sensing, combined with field data. For this, a study was carried out in the municipality of São Desidério, an area located in western Bahia, using images of the Landsat-8 satellite. Ks was calculated by the relationship between crop evapotranspiration and ETa, calculated by the Simple Algorithm for Evapotranspiration Retrieving (SAFER). The Ks estimated by remote sensing showed, for the development and medium stages, average errors on the order of 5.50%. In the final stage of maize development, the errors obtained were of 23.2%.

scholarly journals Long‐duration fully autonomous operation of rotorcraft unmanned aerial systems for remote‐sensing data acquisition

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danylo Malyuta ◽  
Christian Brommer ◽  
Daniel Hentzen ◽  
Thomas Stastny ◽  
Roland Siegwart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Data Acquisition ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Systems ◽  
Sensing Data ◽  
Autonomous Operation ◽  
Long Duration ◽  
Aerial Systems

scholarly journals Deep Learning Based Wildfire Event Object Detection from 4K Aerial Images Acquired by UAS

AI ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziyang Tang ◽  
Xiang Liu ◽  
Hanlin Chen ◽  
Joseph Hupy ◽  
Baijian Yang
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Object Detection ◽  
Aerial Images ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Systems ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Visual Interpretation ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Aerial Systems ◽  
Spot Fires

Unmanned Aerial Systems, hereafter referred to as UAS, are of great use in hazard events such as wildfire due to their ability to provide high-resolution video imagery over areas deemed too dangerous for manned aircraft and ground crews. This aerial perspective allows for identification of ground-based hazards such as spot fires and fire lines, and to communicate this information with fire fighting crews. Current technology relies on visual interpretation of UAS imagery, with little to no computer-assisted automatic detection. With the help of big labeled data and the significant increase of computing power, deep learning has seen great successes on object detection with fixed patterns, such as people and vehicles. However, little has been done for objects, such as spot fires, with amorphous and irregular shapes. Additional challenges arise when data are collected via UAS as high-resolution aerial images or videos; an ample solution must provide reasonable accuracy with low delays. In this paper, we examined 4K ( 3840 × 2160 ) videos collected by UAS from a controlled burn and created a set of labeled video sets to be shared for public use. We introduce a coarse-to-fine framework to auto-detect wildfires that are sparse, small, and irregularly-shaped. The coarse detector adaptively selects the sub-regions that are likely to contain the objects of interest while the fine detector passes only the details of the sub-regions, rather than the entire 4K region, for further scrutiny. The proposed two-phase learning therefore greatly reduced time overhead and is capable of maintaining high accuracy. Compared against the real-time one-stage object backbone of YoloV3, the proposed methods improved the mean average precision(mAP) from 0 . 29 to 0 . 67 , with an average inference speed of 7.44 frames per second. Limitations and future work are discussed with regard to the design and the experiment results.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document