• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2014

The Vegetation cover is a significant factor to comprehend characteristics of the ground surface for meterological and hydrological models, which measure energy in the atmosphere or predict the runoff of ground surface. Deardorff introduced vegetation cover fraction to quantitatively comprehend the vegetation cover in 1978. After Deardorff, most of previous researches were conducted on low-resolution or high-resolution images, but only few researches on Landsat that are in medium-resolution images. Therefore, this study aims to investigate a way of calculating the vegetation cover fraction by using NDVI of Landsat images, which were hardly handled previously. For accurate vegetation cover fraction, we compared the evaluated parameters from this study with past vegetation cover fraction parameters that have been calculated for using NDVI of Landsat OLI images. The result of research was shown that NDVI is quite correlated with the vegetation fraction cover in the previous researches. In fact, RMSE of vegetation cover fraction values that obtained through the suggested parameters on this study showed the highest accuracy of 7.3% among all the cases.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.537-547
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• 2010

The importance of vegetation in studies of global climate and biogeochemical cycles is well recognized. Especially. the FPAR (fraction of photosynthetically active radiation) is one of the important parameters in ecosystem productivity and carbon budget models. Therefore, accurate estimates of vegetation parameters are increasingly important in environmental impact assessment studies. In this study, optical FPAR using the Terra MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), SPOT VEGETATION and ECOCLIMAP data reproduced on the Korean peninsula. We applied the empirical method which is usually estimated as a linear or nonlinear function of vegetation indices. As results, we estimated the accurate expression which is 0.9039 of $R^2$ in cropland and 0.7901 of $R^2$ in forest. Finally, this study could be demonstrated to calibrate that produced FPAR while the overall pattern and random noise through the comparative analysis of FPAR on the reference data. Optimal use of input parameter on the Korean peninsula should be helping the accuracy of output as well as the improved quality of research.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.496-507
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• 2006

A hybrid approach integrating both high-resolution and hyperspectral data sets was used to map vegetation cover of a coastal lowland area in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Three common grass species (broomsedge, natal redtop, and pili) and other non-grass species, primarily shrubs, were focused in the study. A 3-step, hybrid approach, combining an unsupervised and a supervised classification schemes, was applied to the vegetation mapping. First, the IKONOS 1-m high-resolution data were classified to create a binary image (vegetated vs. non--vegetated) and converted to 20-meter resolution percent cover vegetation data to match AVIRIS data pixels. Second, the minimum noise fraction (MNF) transformation was used to extract a coherent dimensionality from the original AVIRIS data. Since the grasses and shubs were sparsely distributed and most image pixels were intermingled with lava surfaces, the reflectance component of lava was filtered out with a binary fractional cover analysis assuming that tile total reflectance of a pixel was a linear combination of the reflectance spectra of vegetation and the lava surface. Finally, a supervised approach was used to classify the plant species based on tile maximum likelihood algorithm.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.553-563
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• 2006

This study aims to produce land-cover maps of Korean peninsula using multi-temporal MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) imagery. To solve the low spatial resolution of MODIS data and enhance classification accuracy, Linear Spectral Mixture Analysis (LSMA) was employed. LSMA allowed to determine the fraction of each surface type in a pixel and develop vegetation, soil and water fraction images. To eliminate clouds, MVC (Maximum Value Composite) was utilized for vegetation fraction and MinVC (Minimum Value Composite) for soil fraction image respectively. With these images, using ISODATA unsupervised classifier, southern part of Korean peninsula was classified to low and mid level land-cover classes. The results showed that vegetation and soil fraction images reflected phenological characteristics of Korean peninsula. Paddy fields and forest could be easily detected in spring and summer data of the entire peninsula and arable land in North Korea. Secondly, in low level land-cover classification, overall accuracy was 79.94% and Kappa value was 0.70. Classification accuracy of forest (88.12%) and paddy field (85.45%) was higher than that of barren land (60.71%) and grassland (57.14%). In midlevel classification, forest class was sub-divided into deciduous and conifers and field class was sub-divided into paddy and field classes. In mid level, overall accuracy was 82.02% and Kappa value was 0.6986. Classification accuracy of deciduous (86.96%) and paddy (85.38%) were higher than that of conifers (62.50%) and field (77.08%).

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.401-410
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• 2017

Estimation of snow depth using optical image is conducted by using correlation with Snow Cover Fraction (SCF). Various algorithms have been proposed for the estimation of snow cover fraction based on Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI). In this study we tested linear, quadratic, and exponential equations for the generation of snow cover fraction maps using data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aqua satellite in order to evaluate their applicability to the complex terrain of South Korea and to search for improvements to the estimation of snow depth on this landscape. The results were validated by comparison with in-situ snowfall data from weather stations, with Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) calculated as 3.43, 2.37, and 3.99 cm for the linear, quadratic, and exponential approaches, respectively. Although quadratic results showed the best RMSE, this was due to the limitations of the data used in the study; there are few number of in-situ data recorded on the station at the time of image acquisition and even the data is mostly recorded on low snowfall. So, we conclude that linear-based algorithms are better suited for use in South Korea. However, in the case of using the linear equation, the SCF with a negative value can be calculated, so it should be corrected. Since the coefficients of the equation are not optimized for this area, further regression analysis is needed. In addition, if more variables such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), land cover, etc. are considered, it could be possible that estimation of national-scale snow depth with higher accuracy.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.126-137
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• 2016

Purpose: The overall objective of this study was to evaluate the vegetation fraction of soybeans, grown under different cropping conditions using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with a red, green, and blue (RGB) camera. Methods: Test plots were prepared based on different cropping treatments, i.e., soybean single-cropping, with and without herbicide application and soybean and barley-cover cropping, with and without herbicide application. The UAV flights were manually controlled using a remote flight controller on the ground, with 2.4 GHz radio frequency communication. For image pre-processing, the acquired images were pre-treated and georeferenced using a fisheye distortion removal function, and ground control points were collected using Google Maps. Tarpaulin panels of different colors were used to calibrate the multi-temporal images by converting the RGB digital number values into the RGB reflectance spectrum, utilizing a linear regression method. Excess Green (ExG) vegetation indices for each of the test plots were compared with the M-statistic method in order to quantitatively evaluate the greenness of soybean fields under different cropping systems. Results: The reflectance calibration methods used in the study showed high coefficients of determination, ranging from 0.8 to 0.9, indicating the feasibility of a linear regression fitting method for monitoring multi-temporal RGB images of soybean fields. As expected, the ExG vegetation indices changed according to different soybean growth stages, showing clear differences among the test plots with different cropping treatments in the early season of < 60 days after sowing (DAS). With the M-statistic method, the test plots under different treatments could be discriminated in the early seasons of <41 DAS, showing a value of M > 1. Conclusion: Therefore, multi-temporal images obtained with an UAV and a RGB camera could be applied for quantifying overall vegetation fractions and crop growth status, and this information could contribute to determine proper treatments for the vegetation fraction.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.153-153
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• 2019

Evapotranspiration (ET) is an important component of hydrological processes. Accurate estimates of ET variation are of vital importance for natural hazard adaptation and water resource management. This study first developed a soil water index (SWI)-based Priestley-Taylor algorithm (SWI-PT) based on the enhanced vegetation index (EVI), SWI, net radiation, and temperature. The algorithm was then compared with a modified satellite-based Priestley-Taylor ET model (MS-PT). After examining the performance of the two models at 10 flux tower sites in different land cover types over East Asia and Australia, the daily estimates from the SWI-PT model were closer to observations than those of the MS-PT model in each land cover type. The average correlation coefficient of the SWI-PT model was 0.81, compared with 0.66 in the original MS-PT model. The average value of the root mean square error decreased from $36.46W/m^2$ to $23.37W/m^2$ in the SWI-PT model, which used different variables of soil moisture and vegetation indices to capture soil evaporation and vegetative transpiration, respectively. By using the EVI and SWI, uncertainties involved in optimizing vegetation and water constraints were reduced. The estimated ET from the MS-PT model was most sensitive (to the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in forests) to net radiation ($R_n$) in grassland and cropland. The estimated ET from the SWI-PT model was most sensitive to $R_n$, followed by SWI, air temperature ($T_a$), and the EVI in each land cover type. Overall, the results showed that the MS-PT model estimates of ET in forest and cropland were weak. By replacing the fraction of soil moisture ($f_{sm}$) with the SWI and the NDVI with the EVI, the newly developed SWI-PT model captured soil evaporation and vegetation transpiration more accurately than the MS-PT model.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.175-182
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• 2006

Because of the phenological variation of vegetation growth in temperate region, it is often difficult to accurately assess the surface conditions of agricultural croplands, grasslands, and disturbed forests by multi-spectral remote sensor data. In particular, the spectral similarity between soil and dry vegetation has been a primary problem to correctly appraise the surface conditions during the non-growing seasons in temperature region. This study analyzes the spectral characteristics of the mixture of dry vegetation and soil. The reflectance spectra were obtained from laboratory spectroradiometer measurement (GER-2600) and from EO-1 Hyperion image data. The reflectance spectra of several samples having different level of dry vegetation fractions show similar pattern from both lab measurement and hyperspectral image. Red-edge near 700nm and shortwave IR near 2,200nm are more sensitive to the fraction of dry vegetation. The use of hyperspectral data would allow us for better separation between bare soils and other surfaces covered by dry vegetation during the leaf-off season.

• Atmosphere
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.131-147
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• 2019

On the urban scale, Micro-climate analysis models for urban scale have been developed to investigate the atmospheric characteristics in urban surface in detail and to predict the micro-climate change due to the changes in urban structure. BioCAS (Biometeorological Climate Impact Assessment System) is a system that combines such analysis models and has been implemented internally in the Korea Meteorological Administration. One of role in this system is the analysis of the health impact by heat waves in urban area. In this study, the vegetation cooling models A and B were developed and linked with BioCAS and evaluated by the temperature drop at the vegetation areas during ten selected heat-wave days. Smaller prediction errors were found as a result of applying the vegetation cooling models to the heat-wave days. In addition, it was found that the effects of the vegetation cooling models produced different results according to the distribution of vegetation area in land cover near each observation site - the improvement of the model performance on temperature analysis was different according to land use at each location. The model A was better fitted where the surrounding vegetation ratio was 50% or more, whereas the model B was better where the vegetation ratio was less than 50% (higher building and impervious areas). Through this study, it should be possible to select an appropriate vegetation cooling model according to its fraction coverage so that the temperature analysis around built-up areas would be improved.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.625-638
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• 2018

In this paper, we derive i) a function to estimate snow cover fraction (SCF) from a MODIS satellite image that has a wide observational area and short re-visit period and ii) a function to determine snow depth from the estimated SCF map. The SCF equation is important for estimating the snow depth from optical images. The proposed SCF equation is defined using the Gaussian function. We found that the Gaussian function was a better model than the linear equation for explaining the relationship between the normalized difference snow index (NDSI) and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and SCF. An accuracy test was performed using 38 MODIS images, and the achieved root mean square error (RMSE) was improved by approximately 7.7 % compared to that of the linear equation. After the SCF maps were created using the SCF equation from the MODIS images, a relation function between in-situ snow depth and MODIS-derived SCF was defined. The RMSE of the MODIS-derived snow depth was approximately 3.55 cm when compared to the in-situ data. This is a somewhat large error range in the Republic of Korea, which generally has less than 10 cm of snowfall. Therefore, in this study, we corrected the calculated snow depth using the relationship between the measured and calculated values for each single image unit. The corrected snow depth was finally recorded and had an RMSE of approximately 2.98 cm, which was an improvement. In future, the accuracy of the algorithm can be improved by considering more varied variables at the same time.