Products
Users in the field of nature protection have a wide range of requirements. Member States are at different stages of implementing European Directives and applying national monitoring systems for a diverse range of purposes. The diverse range of habitat conditions within a single country, and between countries in different parts of Europe, together with site specificities, make a single catalogue of products not flexible enough to support Users in their mapping and monitoring activities. Another important factor is that cloud cover problems and satellite availability mean that a mix of instruments must be used, combined with ongoing airborne campaigns.
Following the different user requirements, ONP work has therefore developed a concept for a data service, an advisory service, and a product service (see Objectives).
ONP’s product services have focused on possible solutions, with various types of sensor for specific examples of habitat mapping. Our work can be conveniently considered in terms of:
- Habitat geographic extent and area. Land cover classification of ecologically pertinent classes, within the constraints of the sensor (both spectral and spatial resolution versus the achievable MMU), with cross links identified where possible to both regional, European, and Geoland CSL classification nomenclatures.
- Habitat condition within class (or any Area-Of-Interest) boundaries. In a simple sense, the temporal evolution of NDVI provides an example of this concept. In ONP we moveed towards a more sophisticated ‘biophysical parameter’ approach, including LAI, Green Fraction, Brown Fraction, Water Fraction indices. Within Natura 2000 boundaries condition of habitats can be assessed by the spatial distribution and alteration of habitats through time, as expressed through biophysical observations.
- Modeling the fuzziness of class boundaries (for specific selected class transitions), to understand patterns and changes in gradational class boundaries or ‘ecological transition zones’, rather than assuming that class boundaries are always sharp.
This provides a framework for data selection and methodological approaches for the creation of map products. These principles are illustrated through 5 ecosystem themes with corresponding test sites, with the aim of covering a range of user needs. The themes are:
- alpine monitoring
- protection forest monitoring
- generic habitats and biotopes
- mountain environments, and
- ecotone characterisation mapping.
Besides these product services, further efforts have been put on advisory services, concerning data and methodology strategies, guidelines and tools. These comprise
- Development of a Habitat Interpretation Guideline Database (HABID)
- Remote sensing feasibility Guidelines for Monitoring of SACs habitats
- German and Austrian Guidelines for the Inventory and Assessment of habitats
- Review of Core service Specifications and mapping feasibility of Annex I habitats with image 2006 specifications
- Review of CSL specifications
- Feasibility of mapping selected Annex-1 habitats with (Fast Tack) Image 2006 specifications.
HABID
Some users’ current interest is in learning what can be done, to have guidelines for data and analysis concepts, to support developing strategies and where the operational balance between field work, airborne and satellite methods may not yet be clear. The service emphasis therefore becomes advisory and focused on the provision of guidelines for ‘best practice’, supported by an ongoing R&D agenda.
One main focus in the second phase of the project has been the design and development of a habitat interpretation guideline database. The database contains nomenclature cross-link tables from EUNIS and Annex classifications, to regional keys as well as CLC. Furthermore, it gives detailed information on the interpretability of single classes with different EO data sets, on their phenotype, on ancillary data required and on the sensors themselves. Thus it will help the user to check whether EO data is suitable for his question and to select the most appropriate EO data set.
Figure shows the main menue of HABID.
Figure shows an HABID data search example. This form allows the visual comparison of iamge examples from different sensors and seasons.
Alpine Monitoring
The Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention, which was established in 2003, is currently developing a new programme entitled the System for Observation and Information on the Alps (SOIA). The programme shall provide information and interpretation on the main developments in the Alps as a basis for political decision making and to inform the general public.
The development of a comprehensive view of the entire Alpine Region is an important and challenging task, as national data has, until now, not always been comparable. SOIA requires information at a scale of 1:100,000 across the Alps and detailed information on “hot spots” at higher scales from 1:25, 000 to 1. 10,000. Furthermore, Alpine National Parks and other Alpine protected areas require very detailed information at scales up to 1:2,500. ONP provides SOIA and regional users with various land cover and land use classification results (in extracts) at a range of scales.
Land cover information for the entire Alpine Region is developed by the Geoland CSL and refined within ONP – Alpine Monitoring. For the “hot spot” National Park Hohe Tauern QickBird data is interpreted using a very detailed harmonised nomenclature (HIK0) established by some partners of the Alpine Network of Protected Areas. The results are compared to conventional aerial photo interpretation highlighting advantages and disadvantages of both data sets and methodologies. Furthermore, the potential of IKONOS data fir habuitat Alpine mapping is tested in the Kalkalpen National Park, following the regional nomenclature.
Figure: Operational use of remote sensing derived forest maps (left: SPOT 4 image; middle: forest classification on SPOT 4 image; right: field work).
Figure: Visual interpretation of Quickbird data into alpine biotope types.
Protection Forest Mapping
Protection forests are one of the main habitat types in mountainous ecosystems in Europe and form an important component of nature conservation activities in many European countries. Access to information on species composition, crown coverage and age classes are critical for the management of this important landscape feature.
In order to successfully derive these parameters from remote sensing data, it is essential to use a sensor system that compensates for some of the difficulties arising from extremely steep terrain. Furthermore, users require a large coverage with an acceptable spatial resolution. SPOT 5 imagery has been selected to fulfil these requirements due to its relatively wide coverage of 60km x 60km, high spatial resolution of between 2.5m – 10m and VIS - MIR spectral resolution. Forest maps derived from SPOT 5 data are already produced and used operationally.
An important point of interest highlighted by forestry administrations concerns the area and nature of change within forested areas, which is particularly urgent after storms or biological calamities such as bark beetle infestations. The use of a series of SPOT 5 images obtained over time has been proposed to monitor protection forests and has previously proven to be a very powerful tool for landscape change detection. However, detection of bark beetle affected areas is still a research topic.
 |
Figure: Protection forest mapping (tree types) in Austrian Alps
based on SPOT 5 data. |
Figure: Operational use of remote sensing derived forest maps (left: SPOT 5 image; middle: forest classification on SPOT 5 image; right: field work).
Habitat and Biotope Mapping and Monitoring
NATURA 2000 aims to address the challenging task of protecting and conserving biodiversity in Europe by designating a network of nature protection areas designed to conserve specific flora, fauna and bird habitats. Harmonised monitoring procedures are required to assess the status of these protected habitats in order to fulfil the programme’s reporting requirements.
The monitoring of NATURA 2000 sites is to be conducted on a regional level by the responsible nature protection agencies according to the standards outlined in European and in national reporting guidelines. As a result, ONP mapping and monitoring techniques will need to be tailored to the specific demands of end users at various administrative levels and European regions.
Methodologies, concepts and demonstration products developed address in addition requirements that arise from other European policies and initiatives (e.g. the CAP reform, SEBI 2010), as well as habitat mapping and monitoring activities outside of the NATURA 2000 network. Information products comprise habitat mapping, spatial indicators, change indicators and assessment of conservation status. Partly habitats cannot mapped by EO directly, but vegetation classes that include target classes. For parts of these mapped classes, by integrating existing GIS data, maps of target habitats can be retrieved utilizing GIS functions and models.
The information products developed aim at a utilization in mapping and monitoring concepts that integrate both EO data, airborne data and field data. Test sites are situated in the Thuringian Forest, federal state of Thuringia, Germany, in the Rhine Valley, federal state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Eiderstedt and the Eider-Treene-Sorge lowlands in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein and the North Pennines in the United Kingdom.
Figure: Left: SPOT 5 ms/pan IHS Fusion Image. Right: Forest Map produced by segment-based classification and visual classification enhancement, EO data source: SPOT 5 ms/pan, Rhine valley test site.
Figure: Natural Age Class Forest Map, based on a LIDAR digatial surface model, Rhine valley test site.
Figure: Forest Structure Maps based on LIDAR data, Rhine valley test site. Left: Automatically mapped gaps, background: digital surface model. Right: Automatically mapped standards in forest, background: digital surface model.
Figure: Results of object based classification.
Figure: Landscape changes Eiderstedt 1990 - 2004
Scandinavian Mountain Environment Service
This service portfolio addresses the needs of the Norwegian users with respect to the areas above the timber limit. These areas comprise a considerable part of the Norwegian land areas, and are important for the country in terms of vegetation, landscape, and snow cover. The Mountain service portfolio includes services / products related to both vegetation and snow. :
Vegetation mapping and monitoring
The mountain vegetation sub-service under development addresses the relationship between the vegetation and its utilisation, and how this could be observed by remote sensing. On the one hand the vegetation is a resource, and on the other hand it is influenced by how it is used by the humans. The ideas behind the service is to address how the vegetation could be utilized as a resource, what is the current situation and how has it been changing.
|
 The resource aspect has been demonstrated by a grazing quality map derived from Landsat satellite. Different vegetation classes have different capacity for animal grazing, and this relationship depends on the animal species. The shown grazing quality map shows the grazing quality of Venabygda in Ringebu commune, Oppland county, Norway.
|
|
 The next map shows the main vegetation classes in the same area. It has been produced by a novel method, which involves Hidden Markov Chain analyses on a set of multi-temporal images. The Markov chain represents (or models) the phenological development during the season. Each observation is linked to a vegetation class and to a phenological stage. All observations of the same location must fit together, showing a probable phenological development path.
|
 One of the most prominent changes in Scandinavian landscapes is the re-growth of woody vegetation and the subsequent closure of open areas. This phenomenon is believed to be caused by changes in the way the landscape is utilised, such as a reduction in the grazing from domestic animals, and often results in a significant reduction in local biodiversity. The changes status vegetation can be identified by observing the long-term spectral changes over a 10-20 year time-scale. A simple approach is to observe the change in NDVI between two different years, but it is important that the images are from the same time of the year, i.e. from the same phenological stage. The figure shows the NDVI change in the Kvitfjell area in Ringebu commune, Oppland county, between 1987 and 2003, as observe from Landsat (red:increasing, blu-green: decreasing).
|
Snow Monitoring
We have developed and made in-house operational two snow-products, which can be delivered near real-time on a daily basis, provided that the sky is cloud free. The daily input is Modis imagery or similar data for both products.
|
 The estimation of the snow distribution pattern is based on a high-resolution empirical snow retreat model, which are used in combination with current Modis data. The model is derived from high-resolution satellite data, like Landsat or Spot. The figure shows the estimated snow distribution pattern in Heimdalen, Jotunheimen, Oppland county, Norway for 24 May 2006.
|
The estimation of the snow distribution pattern is based on a high-resolution empirical snow retreat model, which are used in combination with current Modis data. The model is derived from high-resolution satellite data, like Landsat or Spot. The figure shows the estimated snow distribution pattern in Heimdalen, Jotunheimen, Oppland county, Norway for 24 May 2006. |
Ecotone Characterisation Mapping
| A landscape and its biodiversity is characterised by the types and frequency of occurrence of habitat transition zones (ecotones).
Management and policy are often aimed at and have an impact on ecotones between relatively homogeneous ecological systems. |
Figure: An area of mountain ecotone showing the transitions
from forest to scrub to grass and finally to bare ground with increasing
elevation |
Ecotones provide life with access to a range of environmental conditions and can therefore be rich in biodiversity.
Ecotones are a subtle indicator of change and could show the first impacts of policies and environmental trends. |
The transition with altitude from dense subalpine forest to alpine tundra represents an ecotonal gradient relating to increasingly harsh environmental conditions.
In the Hohe Tauern Mountains, southern Austria, sub-alpine forests degrade to a belt of dwarf-shrubs above the timberline and to closed alpine grassy heathlands on detritus soils with higher altitude.
We demonstrate the use of class probability mapping to produce a soft classification of this alpine treeline ecotone using SPOT 5 HRG imagery.
The class membership probabilities from a Maximum Likelihood algorithm partially reflects the land-cover composition of mixed pixels in the treeline ecotone. |
Figure: A map of ecotone transition in an Austrian alpine treeline,
produced from class probability mapping using a SPOT HRG image. |
By identifying thresholds in the membership probability scores we map the alpine treeline ecotone as a zone of transition and identify its width.
We have compared the results with the Core Service Landcover (CSL) product generated by standard hard classification and shown increased information content. |
Various ‘hindering factors’ influence how well an EO-based service can be rolled out, and what methodologies it should follow. Selected methodologies must acknowledge that these problems exist, seek ways to mitigate the situation and be honest with users when data is inadequate (both in terms of its supply and thematic content).
All ONP requirements thus far have mostly focussed on optical EO methods. SAR has rarely been requested as there have been (so far) no clear operational land cover applications from current C-band technology. However, X and L-band systems will be available from 2007, and there have been limited opportunities within ONP Geoland to demonstrate X-band possibilities with an airborne system. SAR will definitely important and would support the concept of a harmonised approach –
many areas of Europe have severe cloud cover issues which hinder both optical airborne and space borne applications.
User experience is dominated by traditional aerial photography and visual interpretation, and some users have already identified new-generation airborne digital cameras as being of interest to their mapping / monitoring needs. Past user experience with satellite imagery may have been limited and is often associated with mixed results.
For questions or comments, please contact the ONP task manager Alistair
Lamb.
|
