<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> This research aims to discover the potential of hyperspectral remote sensing data for mapping mountain vegetation ecosystems. First, the importance of mountain ecosystems to the global system should be stressed due to mountainous ecosystems forming a very sensitive indicator of global climate change. Furthermore, a variety of biotic and abiotic factors influence the spatial distribution of vegetation in the mountains, producing a diverse mosaic leading to high biodiversity. The research area covers the Szrenica Mount region on the border between Poland and the Czech Republic - the most important part of the Western Karkonosze and one of the main areas in the Karkonosze National Park (M&amp;B Reserve of the UNESCO). The APEX hyperspectral data that was classified in this study was acquired on 10th September 2012 by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in the framework of the EUFAR HyMountEcos project. This airborne scanner is a 288-channel imaging spectrometer operating in the wavelength range 0.4-2.5 μm. For reference patterns of forest and non-forest vegetation, maps (provided by the Polish Karkonosze National Park) were chosen. Terrain recognition was based on field walks with a Trimble GeoXT GPS receiver. It allowed test and validation dominant polygons of 15 classes of vegetation communities to be selected, which were used in the Support Vector Machines (SVM) classification. The SVM classifier is a type of machine used for pattern recognition. The result is a post classification map with statistics (total, user, producer accuracies, kappa coefficient and error matrix). Assessment of the statistics shows that almost all the classes were properly recognised, excluding the fern community. The overall classification accuracy is 79.13% and the kappa coefficient is 0.77. This shows that hyperspectral images and remote sensing methods can be support tools for the identification of the dominant plant communities of mountain areas.</abstract>

This research aims to discover the potential of hyperspectral remote sensing data for mapping mountain vegetation ecosystems. First, the importance of mountain ecosystems to the global system should be stressed due to mountainous ecosystems forming a very sensitive indicator of global climate change. Furthermore, a variety of biotic and abiotic factors influence the spatial distribution of vegetation in the mountains, producing a diverse mosaic leading to high biodiversity. The research area covers the Szrenica Mount region on the border between Poland and the Czech Republic - the most important part of the Western Karkonosze and one of the main areas in the Karkonosze National Park (M&B Reserve of the UNESCO). The APEX hyperspectral data that was classified in this study was acquired on 10th September 2012 by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in the framework of the EUFAR HyMountEcos project. This airborne scanner is a 288-channel imaging spectrometer operating in the wavelength range 0.4-2.5 μm. For reference patterns of forest and non-forest vegetation, maps (provided by the Polish Karkonosze National Park) were chosen. Terrain recognition was based on field walks with a Trimble GeoXT GPS receiver. It allowed test and validation dominant polygons of 15 classes of vegetation communities to be selected, which were used in the Support Vector Machines (SVM) classification. The SVM classifier is a type of machine used for pattern recognition. The result is a post classification map with statistics (total, user, producer accuracies, kappa coefficient and error matrix). Assessment of the statistics shows that almost all the classes were properly recognised, excluding the fern community. The overall classification accuracy is 79.13% and the kappa coefficient is 0.77. This shows that hyperspectral images and remote sensing methods can be support tools for the identification of the dominant plant communities of mountain areas.

Mapping vegetation communities of the Karkonosze National Park using APEX hyperspectral data and Support Vector Machines

Department of Geoinformatics and Remote Sensing Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Warsaw

College of Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences University of Warsaw Department of Geoinformatics and Remote Sensing Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Warsaw

Department of Applied Geoinformatics and Cartography Faculty of Science Charles University in Prague

VITO - Centre for Remote Sensing and Earth Observation Processes

Miscellanea Geographica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

This research aims to discover the potential of hyperspectral remote sensing data for mapping mountain vegetation ecosystems. First, the importance of mountain...

Mapping vegetation communities of the Karkonosze National Park using APEX hyperspectral data and Support Vector Machines

Published Online: Jun 17, 2014

Page range: 23 - 29

Received: Sep 03, 2013

Accepted: Dec 30, 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/mgrsd-2014-0007

Keywords
Hyperspectral data, APEX, Karkonosze National Park, mapping/ classification, vegetation communities

© by Adriana Marcinkowska

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Mapping vegetation communities of the Karkonosze National Park using APEX hyperspectral data and Support Vector Machines

Published Online: Jun 17, 2014

Page range: 23 - 29

Received: Sep 03, 2013

Accepted: Dec 30, 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/mgrsd-2014-0007

KeywordsHyperspectral data, APEX, Karkonosze National Park, mapping/ classification, vegetation communities

© by Adriana Marcinkowska

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Hyperspectral data, APEX, Karkonosze National Park, mapping/ classification, vegetation communities