COMPARISON OF AVIRIS AND MULTISPECTRAL IMAGERY FOR DETECTION OF LEAFY SPURGE

Authors: Hunt Jr, Earle; PARKER-WILLIAMS, A. - UNIV. OF WYOMING

Submitted to: Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer Earth Science & Applications
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/4/2004
Publication Date: 3/31/2004
Citation: Hunt, E.R., Parker-Williams, A.E. 2004. Comparison of AVIRIS and multispectral imagery for detection of leafy spurge [abstract]. 2004 AVIRIS Workshop. Available: http://aviris.jpl.nasa.gov/html/wrkshp_033104.html.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Leafy spurge, Euphorbia esula L. is an adventive, perennial weed that infests approximately 1.2 million hectares of land in North America. One of the fundamental needs in leafy spurge management is cost-effective, large-scale, and long-term documentation and monitoring of plant populations. Leafy spurge is a good candidate for detection via remote sensing because the distinctive yellow-green color of its bracts is spectrally unique when compared to co-occurring green vegetation. During 1999, Airborne Visible / Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) imagery were acquired in northeastern Wyoming and ground vegetation data were collected. Mixture Tuned Matched Filtering (MTMF), a specialized type of spectral mixture analysis, was used to estimate leafy spurge canopy cover and classify leafy spurge presence/absence. Overall accuracy of MTMF for detecting the presence of leafy spurge was 95% and estimation of leafy spurge cover for all sites had an r2 of 0.69. Using a green:red reflectance ratio, Landsat and SPOT imagery acquired at the same time had only 66% accuracy and an r2 of 0.16. Hyperspectral techniques with hyperspectral imagery was far superior to multispectral techniques for determining leafy spurge distribution and abundance.