Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Monitoring
Topology, homogeneity and scale factors for object detection: application of eCognition software for urban mapping using multispectral satellite image
Published: 2019-01-25
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Education, Educational Methods, Engineering, Environmental Education, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces, International and Area Studies, Life Sciences, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Other Computer Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Science and Mathematics Education, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science, Sustainability
The research scope of this paper is to apply spatial object based image analysis (OBIA) method for processing panchromatic multispectral image covering study area of Brussels for urban mapping. The aim is to map different land cover types and more specifically, built-up areas from the very high resolution (VHR) satellite image using OBIA approach. A case study covers urban landscapes in the [...]
A Sensitivity Analysis Study of the SPITFIRE Fire Model
Published: 2018-10-31
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This MS describes a sensitivity analysis of the SPITFIRE fire model coupled to the Lund-Potsdam-Jena (LPJ) dynamic global vegetation model (DGVM). The study aims to investigate the parameters that control how the fire model calculates burnt area across different ecosystems. In different fire systems, different parameters are found to have higher sensitivity to burnt area, but in general, [...]
Spectral Mixture Analysis as a Unified Framework for the Remote Sensing of Evapotranspiration
Published: 2018-10-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
This analysis proposes a unified framework for estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) using spectral mixture analysis (SMA) based on globally standardized substrate, vegetation, and dark (SVD) endmembers (EMs). Using all available Landsat 8 scenes from a month in the peak growing season (June) in a diverse 90 x 120 km region in northern California, we characterize the relationship between each of [...]
Vulnerability of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands to present-day rates of relative sea-level rise
Published: 2018-09-30
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Risk Analysis, Sedimentology, Soil Science, Stratigraphy, Sustainability
Coastal Louisiana has lost about 5,000km2 of wetlands over the past century and concern exists whether remaining wetlands will persist while facing some of the world’s highest rates of relative sea-level rise (RSLR). Here we analyse an unprecedented data set derived from 274 rod surface-elevation table-marker horizon stations, to determine present-day surface-elevation change, vertical accretion [...]
Reactionary fence installation for post-Superstorm Sandy dune recovery
Published: 2018-09-24
Subjects: Biology, Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Sustainability
Dunes are invaluable to coastal areas as dynamic buffers to erosion during high tides and storms, but do not accrue naturally in developed areas without assistance. Wood paling fencing is commonly used to cultivate dune development and thereby increase the protection afforded to coastal areas. In 2012, Superstorm Sandy devastated the mid-Atlantic, especially New Jersey where many areas are still [...]
Mapping and Monitoring Rice Agriculture with Multisensor Temporal Mixture Models
Published: 2018-08-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Soil Science
Rice feeds more humans than any other crop on Earth. Accurate prediction of the timing and volume of rice harvests therefore has considerable global importance for food security and economic stability, especially in the developing world. Optical and thermal satellite imagery can provide critical constraints on the spatial extent of rice planting and the timing of rice phenology. We present a [...]
Quantifying the Fate of Wastewater Nitrogen Discharged to a Canadian River
Published: 2018-06-21
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Systems Biology, Water Resource Management
Addition of nutrients, such as nitrogen, can degrade water quality in lakes, rivers, and estuaries. To predict the fate of nutrient inputs, an understanding of the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients is needed. We develop and employ a novel, parsimonious, process-based model of nitrogen concentrations and stable isotopes that quantifies the competing processes of volatilization, uptake, [...]
Landscape classification with deep neural networks.
Published: 2018-06-18
Subjects: Computer and Systems Architecture, Computer Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Other Statistics and Probability, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistics and Probability
The application of deep learning, specifically deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs), to the classification of remotely sensed imagery of natural landscapes has the potential to greatly assist in the analysis and interpretation of geomorphic processes. However, the general usefulness of deep learning applied to conventional photographic imagery at a landscape scale is, at yet, largely [...]
Surface albedo as a proxy for land-cover clearing in seasonally dry forests: evidence from the Brazilian Caatinga
Published: 2018-05-16
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Ongoing increase in human and climate pressures, in addition to the lack of monitoring initiatives, makes the Caatinga one of the most vulnerable forests in the world. The Caatinga is located in the semi-arid region of Brazil and its vegetation phenology is highly dependent on precipitation, which has a high spatial and temporal variability. Under these circumstances, satellite image-based [...]
Fish species classification in underwater video monitoring using Convolutional Neural Networks
Published: 2018-05-15
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Computer Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Other Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Software Engineering
This report presents a case study for automatic fish species classification in underwater video monitoring of fish passes. Although the presented approach is based on the FishCam monitoring system, it can be used with any video-based monitoring system. The presented classification scheme in this study, is based on Convolutional Neural Networks that do not require the calculation of any [...]
Tracking CO2 plumes in clay-rich rock by distributed fiber optic strain sensing (DFOSS): a laboratory demonstration
Published: 2018-04-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Fluid Dynamics, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Hydrology, Mineral Physics, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Optics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics
Monitoring the migration of pore pressure, deformation, and saturation plumes with effective tools is important for the storage and utilization of fluids in underground reservoirs, such as geological stores of carbon dioxide (CO2) and natural gas. Such tools would also verify the security of the fluid contained reservoir–caprock system. Utilizing the swelling strain attributed to pressure [...]
Fine-Scale SAR Soil Moisture Estimation in the Subarctic Tundra
Published: 2018-03-31
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
In the subarctic tundra, soil moisture information can benefit permafrost monitoring and ecological studies, but fine-scale remote sensing approaches are lacking. We explore the suitability of C-band SAR, paying attention to two challenges soil moisture retrieval faces. First, the microtopography and the heterogeneous organic soils impart unique microwave scattering properties, even in absence of [...]
Ambient noise image Campi Flegrei 2011-2013
Published: 2018-03-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure, Volcanology
Earthquakes at Campi Flegrei have been low-magnitude and sparse for more than thirty years, denying onshore monitoring observations of their usual source for structural constraint: seismic tomography. Here, we used ambient seismic noise recorded between 2011 and 2013 to reconstruct period-dependent Rayleigh-wave velocity maps of caldera-wide structures and volcanic reservoirs. The lowest [...]
Climatic influences on the offset between d18O of cave drip waters and precipitation inferred from global monitoring data
Published: 2018-03-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Speleology
We present a meta-analysis of data from 22 caves and 96 drip sites from 4 continents where both the cave drip water d18O and the weighted mean d18O of precipitation have been measured. Drip water d18O is similar to the weighted mean d18O of precipitation (within ± 0.3 ‰) for sites where mean annual temperature (MAT) is less than 15 °C (85% of drips where MAT < 15 °C) and an aridity index [...]
Impacts of land-use and land-cover change on stream hydrochemistry in the Cerrado and Amazon biomes
Published: 2018-01-28
Subjects: Chemistry, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Fresh Water Studies, Geography, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Soil Science
Studies on the impacts of land-use and land-cover change on stream hydrochemistry in active deforestation zones of the Amazon agricultural frontier are limited and have often used low-temporal-resolution datasets. Moreover, these impacts are not concurrently assessed in well-established agricultural areas and new deforestations hotspots. We aimed to identify these impacts using an experimental [...]