Investigating the potential use of RADARSAT-2 and UAS imagery for monitoring the restoration of Peatlands

14Citations
Citations of this article
31Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

The restoration of peatlands is critical to help reduce the effects of climate change and further prevent the loss of habitat for many species of flora and fauna. The objective of this research was to evaluate RADARSAT-2 satellite imagery and high-resolution Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) to determine if they could be used as surrogates for monitoring the success of peatland restoration. Areas of peatland that were being actively harvested, had been restored from past years (1994-2003), and natural shrub bog in Lac St. Jean, Quebec were used as a test case. We compared the Freeman-Durden and Touzi decompositions by applying the Bhattacharyya Distance (BD) statistic to see if the spectral signatures of restored peatland could be separated from harvested peat and natural shrub bog. We flew Unmanned Aerial Surveys (UASs) over the study site to identify Sphagnum and Polytrichum strictum, two indicator species of early peatland restoration success. Results showed that the Touzi decomposition was better able to separate the spectral signatures of harvested, restored, and natural shrub bog (BD values closer to 9). Symmetric scattering type αs1, Helicity τ1,2,3, a steep incidence angle, and peak growing season appear to be important for separating the spectral signatures. We had moderate success in detecting Sphagnum and Polytrichum strictum visually by using texture and pattern but were unable to use colour due to differences in sun angle and clouds during the UAS flights. Results suggest that RADARSAT-2 data using the Touzi decomposition and UAS imagery show potential for monitoring peatland restoration success over time.

References Powered by Scopus

A three-component scattering model for polarimetric SAR data

2245Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Satellite remote sensing of river inundation area, stage, and discharge: A review

644Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

A joint band prioritization and banddecorrelation approach to band selection for hyperspectral image classification

589Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

A review of unoccupied aerial vehicle use in wetland applications: Emerging opportunities in approach, technology, and data

40Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Status and trends of wetland studies in Canada using remote sensing technology with a focus on wetland classification: A bibliographic analysis

21Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Polarimetric SAR Image Classification Based on Feature Enhanced Superpixel Hypergraph Neural Network

18Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

White, L., McGovern, M., Hayne, S., Touzi, R., Pasher, J., & Duffe, J. (2020). Investigating the potential use of RADARSAT-2 and UAS imagery for monitoring the restoration of Peatlands. Remote Sensing, 12(15). https://doi.org/10.3390/RS12152383

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 13

72%

Researcher 3

17%

Lecturer / Post doc 2

11%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Environmental Science 10

59%

Earth and Planetary Sciences 4

24%

Engineering 2

12%

Social Sciences 1

6%

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free