Detection of Microphytobenthos in the Saemangeum Tidal Flat by Linear Spectral Unmixing Method

It is difficult to classify tidal flat surface that is composed of a mixture of mud, sand, water and microphytobenthos. We used a Linear Spectral Unmixing (LSU) method for effectively classifying the tidal flat surface characteristics within a pixel. This study aims at 1) detecting algal mat using LSU in the Saemangeum tidal flats, 2) determining a suitable end-member selection method in tidal flats, and 3) find out a habitual characteristics of algal mat. Two types of end-member were built; one is a reference end-member derived from field spectrometer measurements and the other image end-member. A field spectrometer was used to measure spectral reflectance, and a spectral library was accomplished by shape difference of spectra, r.m.s. difference of spectra, continuum removal and Mann-Whitney U-test. Reference end-members were extracted from the spectral library. Image end-members were obtained by applying Principle Component Analysis (PCA) to an image. The LSU method was effective to detect microphytobenthos, and successfully classified the intertidal zone into algal mat, sediment, and water body components. The reference end-member was slightly more effective than the image end-member for the classification. Fine grained upper tidal flat is generally considered as a rich habitat for algal mat. We also identified unusual microphytobenthos that inhabited coarse grained lower tidal flats.