Search results for "vegetation mapping"
showing 5 items of 15 documents
L-Band radiative properties of vine vegetation at the MELBEX III SMOS Cal/Val Site
2012
Radiative properties at 1.4 GHz of vine vegetation are investigated by measuring brightness temperatures with the ETH L-band Radiometer II (ELBARA II) operated on a tower at the Mediterranean Ecosystem L-band Characterisation Experiment III (MELBEX III) field site in Spain. To this aim, experiments with and without a reflecting foil placed under the vines were performed for the vegetation winter and summer states, respectively, to provide prevailingly information on vegetation transmissivities. The resulting parameters, which can be considered as "ground truth" for the MELBEX III vineyard, were retrieved from brightness temperature at horizontal and vertical polarization measured at observa…
Spatial representation of vegetation and floristic diversity at landscape scale: the Italian experience
2016
The application of phytosociology to the analysis of vegetation and landscape diversity has greatly developed in Italy during the past 60 years. The analysis of the scientific production of this period is therefore fundamental for a reflection on vegetation mapping and may be useful to forecast future scenarios of this discipline (Bruno et al., 2003). Many different documents related to the plant species distribution and diversity became available over time from different land units of Italy. In particular, interesting examples of mixed floristic and vegetation maps have been produced in a pilot project for the province of Palermo (Sicily) and used in the diagnosis of environmental heteroge…
The FLuorescence EXplorer Mission Concept-ESA's Earth Explorer 8
2017
In November 2015, the FLuorescence EXplorer (FLEX) was selected as the eighth Earth Explorer mission of the European Space Agency. The tandem mission concept will provide measurements at a spectral and spatial resolution enabling the retrieval and interpretation of the full chlorophyll fluorescence spectrum emitted by the terrestrial vegetation. This paper provides a mission concept overview of the scientific goals, the key objectives related to fluorescence, and the requirements guaranteeing the fitness for purpose of the resulting scientific data set. We present the mission design at the time of selection, i.e., at the end of project phase Phase A/B1, as developed by two independent indus…
First Retrievals of ASCAT-IB VOD (Vegetation Optical Depth) at Global Scale
2021
Global and long-term vegetation optical depth (VOD) dataset are very useful to monitor the dynamics of the vegetation features, climate and environmental changes. In this study, the radar-based global ASCAT (Advanced SCATterometer) IB (INRAE-BORDEAUX) VOD was retrieved using a model which was recently calibrated over Africa. In order to assess the performance of IB VOD, the Saatchi biomass and three other VOD datasets (ASCAT V16, AMSR2 LPRM V5 and VODCA LPRM V6) derived from C-band observations were used in the comparison. The preliminary results show that IB VOD has a promising ability to predict biomass $(\mathrm{R}=0.74,\ \text{RMSE} =44.82\ \text{Mg}\ \text{ha}^{-1})$ , which is better …
Vegetation series as a marker of interactions between rural settlements and landscape: new insights from the archaeological record in Western Sicily
2020
[EN] Plant communities are complex and dynamic elements of the landscape, intertwined with both natural factors and human activities. Vegetation series reflect the environmental characteristics of the landscape, but also the anthropic impact, one of the exogenous forces that most profoundly affects the landscape formation process. This paper aims to investigate the interactions between long-term human settlement catchment areas and vegetation series. The case study area of the Sicani Mountains (Central-Western Sicily) proved to be an ideal place to perform GIS-based spatial analysis in order to compare a data set of rural archaeological sites and land units created through the mapping of ve…