Within the Copernicus programme there is much interest in the ability of remote sensing technology to deliver operational solutions to many areas of life including environmental management. This paper describes research focused on the application of Earth Observation for Integrated Coastal Zone Management. The main topic of this research is to explore to which extent salt marsh vegetation habitats can be identified from polarimetric SAR remotely sensed data. Multi-frequency, multi-polarimetric SAR images from airborne (S- and X-Band quad-polarimetric from the Astrium airborne SAR Demonstrator) is used to examine salt marsh habitat classification potential in the Llanrhidian salt marshes in South Wales, UK. This is achieved by (1) using both supervised and unsupervised classification routines, using several polarimetric SAR data layers as backscatter intensity, band ratios and polarimetric decomposition products, and by (2) statistical analysis by regression of these different SAR data layers and botanical parameters acquired from recent ecological fieldwork.

Date Published: 21 October 2014
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 9243, SAR Image Analysis, Modeling, and Techniques XIV, 92430N (21 October 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2066487

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9243:
SAR Image Analysis, Modeling, and Techniques XIV
Claudia Notarnicola; Simonetta Paloscia; Nazzareno Pierdicca, Editor(s)