• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.6_1
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• pp.1719-1729
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• 2021

Leaf area index (LAI) provides valuable information necessary for sustainable and effective management of forests. Although global high resolution LAI data are provided by European Space Agency using Sentinel-2 satellite images, they have not considered forest characteristics in model development and have not been evaluated for various forest ecosystems in South Korea. In this study, we proposed a LAI estimation model combining machine learning and the PROSAIL radiative transfer model using Sentinel-2 satellite data over a local forest area in South Korea. LAI-2200C was used to measure in situ LAI data. The proposed LAI estimation model was compared to the existing Sentinel-2 LAI product. The results showed that the proposed model outperformed the existing Sentinel-2 LAI product, yielding a difference of bias ~ 0.97 and a difference of root-mean-square-error ~ 0.81 on average, respectively, which improved the underestimation of the existing product. The proposed LAI estimation model provided promising results, implying its use for effective LAI estimation over forests in South Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.581-588
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• 2018

The aim of this study is to propose a fine co-registration approach for multi-temporal satellite images acquired from RapidEye, which has an advantage of availability for time-series analysis. To this end, we generate multitemporal ortho-rectified images using RPCs (Rational Polynomial Coefficients) provided with RapidEye images and then perform fine co-registration between the ortho-rectified images. A DEM (Digital Elevation Model) extracted from the digital map was used to generate the ortho-rectified images, and the RNCC (Registration Noise Cross Correlation) was applied to conduct the fine co-registration. Experiments were carried out using 4 RapidEye 1B images obtained from May 2015 to November 2016 over the Yeonggwang area. All 5 bands (blue, green, red, red edge, and near-infrared) that RapidEye provided were used to carry out the fine co-registration to show their possibility of being applicable for the co-registration. Experimental results showed that all the bands of RapidEye images could be co-registered with each other and the geometric alignment between images was qualitatively/quantitatively improved. Especially, it was confirmed that stable registration results were obtained by using the red and red edge bands, irrespective of the seasonal differences in the image acquisition.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.126-137
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• 2021

Recently, the number of damages on social infrastructure has increased due to natural disasters and the frequency of earthquake events that are higher than magnitude 3 has increased in South Korea. Liquefaction was found near the epicenter of a 5.4 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Pohang, South Korea, in 2017. To explore increases in soil moisture index due to soil liquefaction, changes in the remote exploration index by the land cover before and post-earthquake occurrence were analyzed using liquefaction feasibility index and multi-cyclical Landsat-8 satellite images. We found that the soil moisture index(SMI) in the liquefaction region immediately after the earthquake event increased significantly using the Normal Vegetation Index(NDVI) and Surface Temperature(LST).

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.113-126
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• 2021

This study was conducted to analyze the forest status and deforestation area changes of the DMZ region in North Korea based on satellite images. Using growing and non-growing season's RapidEye satellite images, land cover of the North Korean DMZ was classified into stocking land(conifer, deciduous, mixed), deforested land(unstocked mountain, cultivated mountain, bare mountain), and non-forest areas. Deforestation rates in the Yeonan-baecheon, Beopdong-Pyeonggang, Heoyang-Geumgang and Tongcheon-Goseong district were calculated as 14.24%, 16.75%, 5.98%, and 16.63% respectively. Forest fire and land use change of forest were considered as the main causes of deforestation of DMZ. Changes in deforestation area were analyzed through Google Earth images. As a results, it was shown that the area of deforestation was on a decreasing trend. This study can be used as basic data for establishing inter-Korean border region's forest cooperation strategies by providing forest spatial information on the North Korea's DMZ.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.218-227
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• 2022

This study attempted classification through deep learning-based image training for land cover classification in river spaces which is one of the important data for efficient river management. For this purpose, land cover classification analysis with the RGB image of the target section based on the category classification index of major land cover map was conducted by using the learning outcomes from the result of labeling. In addition, land cover classification of the river spaces was performed by unsupervised and supervised classification from Sentinel-2 satellite images provided in an open format, and this was compared with the results of deep learning-based image classification. As a result of the analysis, it showed more accurate prediction results compared to unsupervised classification results, and it presented significantly improved classification results in the case of high-resolution images. The result of this study showed the possibility of classifying water areas and wetlands in the river spaces, and if additional research is performed in the future, the deep learning based image train method for the land cover classification could be used for river management.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.223-232
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• 2023

A widely used method for monitoring land cover using high-resolution satellite images is to classify the images based on the colors of the objects of interest. In urban areas, not only major objects such as buildings and roads but also vegetation such as trees frequently appear in high-resolution satellite images. However, the colors of vegetation objects often resemble those of other objects such as buildings, roads, and shadows, making it difficult to accurately classify objects based solely on color information. In this study, we propose a method that can accurately classify not only objects with various colors such as buildings but also vegetation objects. The proposed method uses the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) image, which is useful for detecting vegetation objects, along with the RGB image and classifies objects into subclasses. The subclass classification results are fused, and the final classification result is generated by combining them with the image segmentation results. In experiments using Compact Advanced Satellite 500-1 imagery, the proposed method, which applies the NDVI and subclass classification together, showed an overall accuracy of 87.42%, while the overall accuracy of the subchannel classification technique without using the NDVI and the subclass classification technique alone were 73.18% and 81.79%, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.88 no.3
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• pp.352-363
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• 1999

It has been rare to obtain reliable information related to the size of forest land in North Korea. Several sources of forest statistics, ranging from the first map of forest distribution in Korean Peninsula produced in 1910 to official data reported by the North Korea Government in 1997, were gathered and analyzed to define the characteristics of forest cover changes over years. In addition, Landsat satellite data obtained from 1973 to 1993 were processed for the two study areas of the provinces of Pyungyang and Heasan, where the topography and land use pattern are significantly different each other. Using three sets of multitemporal Landsat imagery, land cover ma-ps were produced by computer classification. Although forest statistics reported before 1990 are somewhat inconsistent, they mere gradually decreasing over years. The estimates of 1991 satellite data and the recent statistics reported in 1998 shows very steep decline in forest lands as compared to the ones before 1990. The abrupt decrease of forest lands after 1990 was also found on the detailed analysis of Landsat data for the two study areas of Pyungyang and Heasan. The rapid decline of forest lands may have something to do with the poor economic situation of the country and the continuing natural disasters of severe flooding and drought. Unstocked forest, which was not classified into forest land, was a very distinct and pervasive land cover type that can be easily observed on satellite imagery. Since unstocked forest land in North Korea may be a critical factor for degrading environmental quality as well as for the continuing natural disasters, further analysis is necessary to define the exact extent and the physical characteristics of the cover type.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.393-407
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• 2012

This study focuses on the correction of topographic effects caused by a combination of solar elevation and azimuth, and topographic relief in single optical remote sensing imagery, and by a combination of changes in position of the sun and topographic relief in comparative analysis of multi-temporal imageries. For the Jeju Island, Republic of Korea, where Mt. Halla and various cinder cones are located, a Landsat 7 ETM+ imagery and ASTER GDEM data were used to normalize the topographic effects on the imagery, using two topographic normalization methods: cosine correction assuming a Lambertian condition and assuming a non-Lambertian c-correction, with kernel sizes of $3{\times}3$, $5{\times}5$, $7{\times}7$, and $9{\times}9$ pixels. The effects of each correction method and kernel size were then evaluated. The c-correction with a kernel size of $7{\times}7$ produced the best result in the case of a land area with various land-cover types. For a land-cover type of forest extracted from an unsupervised classification result using the ISODATA method, the c-correction with a kernel size of $9{\times}9$ produced the best result, and this topographic normalization for a single land cover type yielded better compensation for topographic effects than in the case of an area with various land-cover types. In applying the relative radiometric normalization to topographically normalized three multi-temporal imageries, more invariant spectral reflectance was obtained for infrared bands and the spectral reflectance patterns were preserved in visible bands, compared with un-normalized imageries. The results show that c-correction considering the remaining reflectance energy from adjacent topography or imperfect atmospheric correction yielded superior normalization results than cosine correction. The normalization results were also improved by increasing the kernel size to compensate for vertical and horizontal errors, and for displacement between satellite imagery and ASTER GDEM.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.80-92
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• 2007

Forest fire is the dominant large-scale disturbance mechanism in the Korean temperate forest, and it strongly influences forest structure and function. Moreover burn severity incorporates both short- and long-term post-fire effects on the local and regional environment. Burn severity is defined by the degree to which an ecosystem has changed owing to the fire. Vegetation rehabilitation may specifically vary according to burn severity after fire. To understand burn severity and process of vegetation rehabilitation at the damaged area after large-fire is required a lot of man powers and budgets. However the analysis of burn severity in the forest area using satellite imagery can acquire rapidly information and more objective results remotely in the large-fire area. Space and airbone sensors have been used to map area burned, assess characteristics of active fires, and characterize post-fire ecological effects. For classifying fire damaged area and analyzing burn severity of Samcheok fire area occurred in 2000, Cheongyang fire in 2002, and Yangyang fire in 2005 we utilized Normalized Burn Ratio(NBR) technique. The NBR is temporally differenced between pre- and post-fire datasets to determine the extent and degree of change detected from burning. In this paper we use pre- and post-fire imagery from the Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery to compute the NBR and evaluate large-scale patterns of burn severity at 30m spatial resolution. 65% in the Samcheok fire area, 91% in the Cheongyang fire area and 65% in the Yangyang fire area were corresponded to burn severity class above 'High'. Therefore the use of a remotely sensed Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio(${\Delta}NBR$) by RS and GIS allows for the burn severity to be quantified spatially by mapping damaged domain and burn severity across large-fire area.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.105-123
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• 2018

Currently, satellite images act as essential and important data in water resources, environment, and ecology as well as information of geographic information system. In this paper, we will investigate basic characteristics of satellite images, especially application examples in water resources. In recent years, researches on spatial and temporal characteristics of large-scale regions utilizing the advantages of satellite imagery have been actively conducted for fundamental hydrological components such as evapotranspiration, soil moisture and natural disasters such as drought, flood, and heavy snow. Furthermore, it is possible to analyze temporal and spatial characteristics such as vegetation characteristics, plant production, net primary production, turbidity of water bodies, chlorophyll concentration, and water quality by using various image information utilizing various sensor information of satellites. Korea is planning to launch a satellite for water resources and environment in the near future, so various researches are expected to be activated on this field.