Mapping the distribution of coniferous forests is of great importance to the sustainable management of forests and government decision-making. The development of remote sensing, cloud computing and deep learning has provided the support of data, computing power and algorithms for obtaining large-scale forest parameters. However, few studies have used deep learning algorithms combined with Google Earth Engine (GEE) to extract coniferous forests in large areas and the performance remains unknown. In this study, we thus propose a cloud-enabled deep-learning approach using long-time series Landsat remote sensing images to map the distribution and obtain information on the dynamics of coniferous forests over 35 years (1985–2020) in the northwest of Liaoning, China, through the combination of GEE and U2-Net. Firstly, to assess the reliability of the proposed method, the U2-Net model was compared with three Unet variants (i.e., Resnet50-Unet, Mobile-Unet and U-Net) in coniferous forest extraction. Secondly, we evaluated U2-Net’s temporal transferability of remote sensing images from Landsat-5 TM, Landsat-7 ETM+ and Landsat-8 OLI. Finally, we compared the results obtained by the proposed approach with three publicly available datasets, namely GlobeLand30-2010, GLC_FCS30-2010 and FROM_GLC30-2010. The results show that (1) the cloud-enabled deep-learning approach proposed in this paper that combines GEE and U2-Net achieves a high performance in coniferous forest extraction with an F1 score, overall accuracy (OA), precision, recall and kappa of 95.4%, 94.2%, 96.6%, 95.5% and 94.0%, respectively, outperforming the other three Unet variants; (2) the proposed model trained by the sample blocks collected from a specific time can be applied to predict the coniferous forests in different years with satisfactory precision; (3) Compared with three global land-cover products, the distribution of coniferous forests extracted by U2-Net was most similar to that of actual coniferous forests; (4) The area of coniferous forests in Northwestern Liaoning showed an upward trend in the past 35 years. The area of coniferous forests has grown from 945.64 km2 in 1985 to 6084.55 km2 in 2020 with a growth rate of 543.43%. This study indicates that the proposed approach combining GEE and U2-Net can extract coniferous forests quickly and accurately, which helps obtain dynamic information and assists scientists in developing sustainable strategies for forest management.
This work aims to propose a more accurate assessment method for forest health in natural larch pine forests of the Arxan by integrating remote sensing technology with tree crown feature analysis. Currently, forest health assessment of natural Larch pine forests relies mainly on ground surveys, and there is a gap in the application of remote sensing technology in this field. This work introduces deep learning technology and proposes a spectral-Gabor space discrimination and classification model to analyze multi-spectral remote sensing image features. Additionally, quantitative indicators, such as tree crown features, are incorporated into the forest health assessment system. The health status of natural Larch pine forests is evaluated using forest resource survey data. The results show that the health levels of natural Larch pine forests in different areas vary and are closely related to factors such as canopy density, community structure, age group, and slope. Both quantitative and qualitative indicators are used in the analysis. The introduction of this innovative method enhances the accuracy and efficiency of forest health assessment, providing significant support for forest protection and management. In addition, the classification accuracy of the health assessment model suggested that the maximum statistical values of average classification accuracy, average classification effectiveness, overall classification accuracy, and Kappa were 74.19%, 61.91%, 63.18%, and 57.63%, respectively. This demonstrates that the model can accurately identify the health status of natural larch forests. This work can effectively assess the health status of the natural larch forest in the Arxan and provide relevant suggestions based on the assessment results to offer a reference for the sustainable development of the forest system.
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