Integration of ERS-2 SAR and IRS-1 D LISS-III Image Data for Improved Coastal Wetland Mapping of southern India

As the launches of a series of remote sensing satellites, there are various multiresolution and multi-spectral images available nowadays. This diversity in remotely sensed image data has created a need to be able to integrate data from different sources. The C-band imaging radar of ERS-2 due to its high sensitivity to coastal wetlands holds tremendous potential in mapping and monitoring coastal wetland features. This paper investigates the advantages of using ERS-2 SAR data combined with IRS-ID LISS-3 data for mapping complex coastal wetland features of Tamil Nadu, southern India. We present a methodology in this paper that highlights the mapping potential of different combinations of filtering and integration techniques. The methodology adopted here consists of three major steps as following: (i) speckle noise reduction by comparative performance of different filtering algorithms, (ii) geometric rectification and coregistration, and (iii) application of different integration techniques. The results obtained from the analysis of optical and microwave image data have proved their potential use in improving interpretability of different coastal wetland features of southern India. Based visual and statistical analyzes, this study suggests that brovey transform will perform well in terms of preserving spatial and spectral content of the original image data. It was also realized that speckle filtering is very important before fusing optical and microwave data for mapping coastal mangrove wetland ecosystem.