Estimation of Structural Diversity in Urban Forests Based on Spectral and Textural Properties Derived from Digital Aerial Images

ÖZKAN U. Y. , DEMİREL T., Ozdemir I. , Arekhi M.

JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN SOCIETY OF REMOTE SENSING, vol.47, no.12, pp.2061-2071, 2019 (Journal Indexed in SCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 47 Issue: 12
  • Publication Date: 2019
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/s12524-019-01052-z
  • Title of Journal : JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN SOCIETY OF REMOTE SENSING
  • Page Numbers: pp.2061-2071

Abstract

Urban forests generally have a heterogeneous structure consisting of small vegetation patches. High spatial resolution digital aerial images are still a primary data source for urban forest inventories. In the present study, the estimation possibilities of the structural diversity of urban forests were evaluated using image properties extracted from digital aerial images. Firstly, relationships between structural diversity indices and image properties were determined using the correlation analysis. It was found out that structural diversity indices were significantly correlated with spectral and textural properties. The strongest relationship was calculated between the normalized difference vegetation index and species-based Shannon-Wiener diversity index Hs ' (r=0.599, p<0.01). The relationship between textural properties and structural diversity indices was slightly lower compared to spectral properties. The strongest relationship between textural properties and structural diversity indices was calculated between the Entropy values derived from DVI and Hs (r=0.478, p<0.01). Afterward, each used diversity index was modeled as a function of the textural and spectral properties of digital aerial images. Univariate and multivariate linear regression models were used for this purpose. While the adjusted coefficient of determination Radj2 of univariate regression models varies between 0.07 and 0.37, the Radj2 values of a multivariate model vary between 0.13 and 0.57. Among the developed models, only the estimation models of tree size diversity Hh ' and tree species diversity Hs ' provided an estimation accuracy that could be used in practice.