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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Boise, Idaho » Northwest Watershed Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #413622
Research Project: Disturbance Mitigation and Adaptive Restoration of Sagebrush-Steppe Ecosystems

Location: Northwest Watershed Research Center

Title: Quantifying rangeland fractional cover in the Northern Great Basin sagebrush steppe communities using high-resolution unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) imagery

Author
item HUANG, TAO - Boise State University
item Olsoy, Peter
item GLENN, NANCY - Boise State University
item CATTAU, MEGAN - Boise State University
item ROSER, ANNA - Idaho Department Of Water Resources
item Boehm, Alex
item Clark, Patrick

Submitted to: Landscape Ecology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/22/2024
Publication Date: 11/14/2024
Citation: Huang, T., Olsoy, P.J., Glenn, N., Cattau, M., Roser, A., Boehm, A.R., Clark, P. 2024. Quantifying rangeland fractional cover in the Northern Great Basin sagebrush steppe communities using high-resolution unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) imagery. Landscape Ecology. 39. Article 196. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-024-01983-0.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-024-01983-0

Interpretive Summary: Rangeland fractional cover is an important indicator of ecosystem health. The objectives of this research were to map vegetation cover fraction and validate remotely sensed products with uncrewed aerial systems (UAS). We collected UAS multispectral imagery at four sites in the sagebrush steppe of southwestern Idaho. We established regression functions for factional cover of bare ground, litter, and the herbaceous, shrub and tree functional types and found UAS-derived fractional cover differed from satellite-derived estimates provided by Range Condition Monitoring, Assessment, and Project (RCMAP) and Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP). Imagery from UAS can provide more accurate rangeland fractional cover estimates than satellites at the local scale thus having great utility for natural resource managers, range livestock producers, and other users.

Technical Abstract: Rangeland fractional cover is an important indicator of ecosystem health. The objectives of this research were to map vegetation cover fraction and validate remotely sensed products with uncrewed aerial systems (UAS). We collected UAS multispectral imagery at four sites in the sagebrush steppe of southwestern Idaho and classified the imagery to Shrub, Bare ground, Herbaceous, Litter, Tree, Shadow, and Bare/Herb Mix. We established regression functions with field-measured herbaceous cover and the spectral indices to quantify herbaceous fraction in Bare/Herb Mix polygons. Finally, we compared the rangeland fractional covers from the UAS with the satellite-derived products (RCMAP and RAP). The classification accuracies for the UAS orthomosaics were above 90% except for one imagery with 89%. Comparing the UAS-derived fractional cover with RCMAP/RAP revealed discrepancies between the RCMAP/RAP and UAS. Imagery from UAS can provide more accurate rangeland fractional cover estimates than satellites at the local scale.