Abstract
The degradation of the permanent semi-natural vegetation and the resulting acceleration of soil degradation and erosion constitute important elements of land degradation processes in the Mediterranean basin. Under the European Commission’s DGXII “Research and Development Programme in the Field of the Environment“, the need for identifying, mapping and controlling such desertification phenomena is expressed, and the Joint Research Centre has initiated the development remote sensing-based of methods for detection and repeated monitoring of soil and vegetation characteristics.
In this paper we present an approach for mapping soil conditions and erosion features from hyperspectral images. It requires radiometric rectification of the multi-spectral data and the availability of spectral libraries, before linear spectral mixture modelling is used to decompose image spectra into spectrally distinct mixing components. The resulting abundance estimates (fractions) then permit to identify soil conditions and erosion features, and to obtain an improved measure of vegetation cover. Our results suggest that this approach holds some potential for operational applications, including monitoring of erosion processes and changes in vegetation cover which are important elements for desertification monitoring.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
10. References
Adams, J.B., M.O. Smith and A.R. Gillespie (1989) ‘Simple models for complex natural surfaces: a strategy for the hyperspectral era of remote sensing’, Proc. of the IGARSS ‘89 Symposium, July 10–14, Vancouver, Canada, 16–21.
Adams, J.B., M.O. Smith and P.E. Johnson (1986) ‘Spectral mixture modeling: a new analysis of rock and soil types at the Viking Lander I site’, J. Geophysical Research, vol. 91, 8098–8112.
Altherr, M., J. Hill, W. Mehl and P. Pollicini (1991) NASA multi-sensor airborne campaihn: reflectance spectroscopy Ardèche June–July 1991, Technical Note No. 1.91.120: JRC, Ispra Establishment.
Anderberg, (1973) Cluster analysis for applications, Academic Press, New York.
Baumgardner, M.F., E.R. Stoner, L.F. Silva and L.L. Biehl (1985) ‘Reflective properties of soils’, in N. Brady (ed.) Advances in Agronomy, 38, Academic Press, New York, 1–44.
Birkeland, P.W. (1990) ‘Soil-geomorphic research — a selective overview’, Geomorphology, 3, 207–224.
Boardman, J. (1989) ‘Inversion of imaging spectrometry data using singular value decomposition’, Proc. of the 1GARSS ‘89 Symposium, July 10–14, Vancouver, Canada, 2096–2072.
Bornand, M., J.P. Legros and J. Moinereau (1977) Carte Pédologique de France a Moyenne Echelle, PrivasN-19, 1:100000, CNRA, Versailles.
Commission of the European Communities (1985) Soil map of the European Communities, scale 1:1,000,000, Directorate General for Agriculture, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg.
Clevers, J.P.G.W. (1989) ‘The application of a weighted infra-red vegetation index for estimating leaf area index by correcting for soil moisture’, Remote Sensing of Environment, 29, 25–37.
Conel, J.E., R.O. Green, RE. Alley, C.J. Bruegge, V. Carrere, J.S. Margoslis, G. Vane, T.G. Chrien, P.N. Slater, S.F. Biggar, P.M. Teillet, R.D. Jackson and M.S. Moran (1988) ‘In-flight radiometric calibration of the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometr (AVIRIS)’, in P.N. Slater (ed.) Recent advantages in sensors, radiometry, and data processing for remote sensing, Proc. SPIE, vol. 924, 179–195.
Escadafal, R. (1994) ‘Soil spectral properties and their relationships with environmental parameters-examples from arid regions’, in J. Hill and J. Mégier (eds.) Imaging spectrometry-a tool for environmental observations, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, (this volume).
Fischer, A.W. (1991) ‘Mapping and correlating desert soils and surfaces with imaging spectroscopy’, Proc. of the Third Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) Workshop, JPL Publication 91-28, 23–32.
Goetz, A.H.F. (1992) ‘Imaging spectromerty for earth remote sensing’, in F. Toselli and J. Bodechtel (eds.) Imaging spectrometry: fundamentals and prospective applications, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1–19.
Graetz, R.D. (1990) ‘Remote sensing of terrestrial ecosystem structure: an ecologist’s pragmatic view’, in R.J. Hobbs and H.A. Mooney (eds.) Remote sensing of biosphere functioning, Springer, New York, 5–30.
Grenon, M. and M. Batisse (eds.) (1989) Futures for the Mediterranean basin, the Blue Plan, Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Hill, J. (1991) ‘Analysis of GER imaging spectrometer data acquired during the European Imaging Spectrometry Aircraft Campaign (EISAC)’ 89. Quality assessments and first results’, EARSeL Advances in Remote Sensing, vol. 1, 64–77.
Hill, J. and J. Mégier (1991) ‘The use of imaging spectrometry in mediterranean land degradation and soil erosion hazard assessments’, Proc. 5th Int. Colloquium on “Physical Measurements and Signatures in Remote Sensing“, Courchevel, France, 14–18 January, ESA SP-319, 185–188.
Huete, A.R. (1988) ‘A soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI)’, Remote Sensing of Environment, 25, 409–421.
Huntington, J., A.A. Green and M.D. Craig (1989) ‘Identification-the goal beyond discrimination. The status of mineral and lithological identification from high resolution spectrometer data: examples and challenges’, Proc. of the IGARSS’ 89 Symposium, July 10–14, Vancouver, Canada, 6–11.
Irons, J.R., Weismiller, R. and G.W. Petersen (1989) ‘Soil reflectance’, in G. Asrar (ed.) Theory and applications of optical remote sensing, Wiley Interscience, New York.
Morgan, R.P.C. (1986) Soil erosion and conservation, Longman Group, Burnt Mill, Harlow, UK.
Nahal, I. (1981) “The mediterranean climate from a biological viewpoint’, in F. Di Castri, D.H. Mooney and R.L. Specht (eds.) Mediterranean-type shrublands, Ecosystems of the World, 11, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam, Oxford, New York, 63–86.
Negendank, J.F.W., H. Baumann, H. Siemann and H.B. Brückner (1990) Geological mapping and mineralogic analysis of surface samples for soil erosion assessment with high resolution spectroscopy data (Ardèche), Final report, study contract no. 3790-89-08 ED ISP D, Dep. of Geology, University of Trier, Germany.
Perry, C.R. and L.F. Lautenschlager (1984) ‘Functional equivalence of spectral vegetation indices’, Remote Sensing of Environment, 14, 169–182.
Pinty, B. and M.M. Verstraete (1992) ‘GEMI: a non-linear index to monitor global vegetation from satellites’, Vegetatio, 101, 15–20.
Riezebos, H.Th., S.M. de Jong, J.C. van Hees, and P.B.M. Haemers (1990) ‘Physiographic and pedological mapping for soil erosion hazard assessment (Ardèche test site)’, Final report study contract no. 3787-89-08 ED ISP NL, Inst. of Geographical Research, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Smith, M.O., S.L. Ustin, J.B. Adams and A.R. Gillespie (1990) ‘Vegetation in deserts: I. A regional measure of abundance from multispectral images’, Remote Sensing of Environment, vol. 31, 1–26.
Sobolev, V.V. (1963) A treatise on radiative transfer, Van Nostrand, Princeton.
Stoner, E.R. and M.F. Baumgardner (1981) ‘Characteristic variations in reflectance of surface soils’, J. American Soc. Soil Science, vol. 45, 1161–1165.
Tanré, D., C. Deroo, P. Duhaut, M. Herman, J.J. Morcrette, J. Perbos and P.Y. Deschamps (1990) ‘Description of a computer code to simulate the signal in the solar spectrum: the 5S code’, Int. Journal of Remote Sensing, vol. 11,no. 4, 659–668.
Weismiller, R.A., G.E. Van Scoyoc, S.E. Pazar, K. Latz and M.F. Baumgardner (1984) ‘Use of soil spectral properties for monitoring soil erosion’, in S.A. El-Swaify, W.C. Moldenhauer and A. Lo (eds.) Soil erosion and conservations, Soil Cons. Soc. of America, Ankeny, Iowa.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 ECSC, EEC, EAEC, Brussels and Luxembourg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hill, J., Mehl, W., Altherr, M. (1994). Land Degradation and Soil Erosion Mapping in a Mediterranean Ecosystem. In: Hill, J., Mégier, J. (eds) Imaging Spectrometry — a Tool for Environmental Observations. Eurocourses: Remote Sensing, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-33173-7_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-33173-7_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-2965-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-585-33173-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive