Spatial distribution and temporal variation of tropical mountaintop vegetation through images obtained by drones

Author(s)

de Medeiros, Thais Pereira ; Morellato, Leonor Patricia Cerdeira ; Silva, Thiago Sanna Freire

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: FRONTIERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE; v. 11, p. 15-pg., 2023-02-10.

Abstract

Modern UAS (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) or just drones have emerged with the primary goal of producing maps and imagery with extremely high spatial resolution. The refined information provides a good opportunity to quantify the distribution of vegetation across heterogeneous landscapes, revealing an important strategy for biodiversity conservation. We investigate whether computer vision and machine learning techniques (Object-Based Image Analysis-OBIA method, associated with Random Forest classifier) are effective to classify heterogeneous vegetation arising from ultrahigh-resolution data generated by UAS images. We focus our fieldwork in a highly diverse, seasonally dry, complex mountaintop vegetation system, the campo rupestre or rupestrian grassland, located at Serra do Cipo, Espinhaco Range, Southeastern Brazil. According to our results, all classifications received general accuracy above 0.95, indicating that the methodological approach enabled the identification of subtle variations in species composition, the capture of detailed vegetation and landscape features, and the recognition of vegetation types' phenophases. Therefore, our study demonstrated that the machine learning approach and combination between OBIA method and Random Forest classifier, generated extremely high accuracy classification, reducing the misclassified pixels, and providing valuable data for the classification of complex vegetation systems such as the campo rupestre mountaintop grassland. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 09/54208-6 - Multi-User Centralized Laboratory at the São Paulo State University Center for Biodiversity Studies
• Grantee: Célio Fernando Baptista Haddad
• Support Opportunities: Multi-user Equipment Program
• FAPESP's process: 19/03269-7 - Mapping of the spatial distribution and temporal variation of rupestrian vegetation in Serra do Cipó (mg) through images obtained by remotely piloted aircraft
• Grantee: Thais Pereira de Medeiros
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation