A novel method for detecting and delineating coppice trees in UAV images to monitor tree decline

Please always quote using this URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-297258
  • Monitoring tree decline in arid and semi-arid zones requires methods that can provide up-to-date and accurate information on the health status of the trees at single-tree and sample plot levels. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are considered as cost-effective and efficient tools to study tree structure and health at small scale, on which detecting and delineating tree crowns is the first step to extracting varied subsequent information. However, one of the major challenges in broadleaved tree cover is still detecting and delineating tree crownsMonitoring tree decline in arid and semi-arid zones requires methods that can provide up-to-date and accurate information on the health status of the trees at single-tree and sample plot levels. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are considered as cost-effective and efficient tools to study tree structure and health at small scale, on which detecting and delineating tree crowns is the first step to extracting varied subsequent information. However, one of the major challenges in broadleaved tree cover is still detecting and delineating tree crowns in images. The frequent dominance of coppice structure in degraded semi-arid vegetation exacerbates this problem. Here, we present a new method based on edge detection for delineating tree crowns based on the features of oak trees in semi-arid coppice structures. The decline severity in individual stands can be analyzed by extracting relevant information such as texture from the crown area. Although the method presented in this study is not fully automated, it returned high performances including an F-score = 0.91. Associating the texture indices calculated in the canopy area with the phenotypic decline index suggested higher correlations of the GLCM texture indices with tree decline at the tree level and hence a high potential to be used for subsequent remote-sensing-assisted tree decline studies.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author: Marziye Ghasemi, Hooman Latifi, Mehdi Pourhashemi
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-297258
Document Type:Journal article
Faculties:Philosophische Fakultät (Histor., philolog., Kultur- und geograph. Wissensch.) / Institut für Geographie und Geologie
Language:English
Parent Title (English):Remote Sensing
ISSN:2072-4292
Year of Completion:2022
Volume:14
Issue:23
Article Number:5910
Source:Remote Sensing (2022) 14:23, 5910. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14235910
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14235910
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 52 Astronomie / 526 Mathematische Geografie
5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 58 Pflanzen (Botanik) / 580 Pflanzen (Botanik)
Tag:UAV; Zagros oak forests; coppice; crown delineation; decline; edge detection; texture analysis
Release Date:2023/11/20
Date of first Publication:2022/11/22
Licence (German):License LogoCC BY: Creative-Commons-Lizenz: Namensnennung 4.0 International