Estimation of Fractional Vegetation Cover Based on Digital Camera Survey Data and a Remote Sensing Model

Abstract The objective of this paper is to improve the monitoring speed and precision of fractional vegetation cover (fc). It mainly focuses on fc estimation when fcmax and fcmin are not approximately equal to 100% and 0%, respectively due to using remote sensing image with medium or low spatial resolution. Meanwhile, we present a new method of fc estimation based on a random set of fc maximum and minimum values from digital camera (DC) survey data and a dimidiate pixel model. The results show that this is a convenient, efficient and accurate method for fc monitoring, with the maximum error −0.172 and correlation coefficient of 0.974 between DC survey data and the estimated value of the remote sensing model. The remaining DC survey data can be used as verification data for the precision of the fc estimation. In general, the estimation of fc based on DC survey data and a remote sensing model is a brand-new development trend and deserves further extensive utilization.

[1]  Z. Li,et al.  Vegetation Cover Degree Monitoring in Helanshan Mountain Project Area of Sino-Germany Cooperation Ningxia Shelter-forest Project , 2000 .

[2]  Zhou Wei-feng,et al.  Estimation of Vegetation Fraction in the Upper Basin of Miyun Reservoir by Remote Sensing , 2004 .

[3]  Qiming Zhou,et al.  On the ground estimation of vegetation cover in Australian rangelands , 1998 .

[4]  Zeng Zhi-yuan.  Overview of Researches on Vegetation Coverage in Remote Sensing , 2005 .

[5]  Cao,et al.  Identification of Contamination Information of Vegetation in Coal Mines Based on Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data , 2005 .

[6]  Li Xiaobing Chen Yunhao Zhang YunXia.  OVERVIEW OF FIELD AND MULTI-SCALE REMOTE SENSING MEASUREMENT APPROACHES TO GRASSLAND VEGETATION COVERAGE , 2003 .

[7]  T. Carlson,et al.  On the relation between NDVI, fractional vegetation cover, and leaf area index , 1997 .

[8]  Shi Pei-jun.  Sub-pixel Model for Vegetation Fraction Estimation based on Land Cover Classification , 2001 .

[9]  Chen Yun,et al.  ESTIMATING VEGETATION COVERAGE CHANGE USING REMOTE SENSING DATA IN HAIDIAN DISTRICT, BEIJING , 2001 .

[10]  Zhao,et al.  Vegetation/Soil Synthesis Water Index Using MODIS Data , 2005 .

[11]  Niu Baoru.  Remote Sensing Information Extraction Based on Vegetation Fraction in Drought and Half-Drought Area , 2005 .

[12]  Bradley C. Rundquist,et al.  The influence of canopy green vegetation fraction on spectral measurements over native tallgrass prairie , 2002 .

[13]  S. Running,et al.  Measuring Fractional Cover and Leaf Area Index in Arid Ecosystems: Digital Camera, Radiation Transmittance, and Laser Altimetry Methods , 2000 .