Mapping cropland distribution over large areas has attracted great attention in recent years, however, traditional pixel-based classification approaches produce high uncertainty in cropland area statistics. This study proposes a new approach to map fractional cropland distribution in Mato Grosso, Brazil using time series MODIS enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data. The major steps include: (1) remove noise and clouds/shadows contamination using the Savizky-Gloay filter and temporal resampling algorithm based on the time series MODIS EVI data; (2) identify the best periods to extract croplands through crop phenology analysis; (3) develop a seasonal dynamic index (SDI) from the time series MODIS EVI data based on three key stages: sowing, growing, and harvest; and (4) develop a regression model to estimate cropland fraction based on the relationship between SDI and Landsat-derived fractional cropland data. The root mean squared error of 0.14 was obtained based on the analysis of randomly selected 500 sample plots. This research shows that the proposed approach is promising for rapidly mapping fractional cropland distribution in Mato Grosso, Brazil.

As the home to national nature reserves and a Ramsar wetland, the tidal flats of the Yangtze River Delta are of great significance for ecological security, at both the local and global scales. However, a comprehensive understanding of the spatiotemporal conditions of the tidal flats in the Yangtze River Delta remains lacking. Here, we propose using remote sensing to obtain a detailed spatiotemporal profile of the tidal flats, using all available Landsat images from 1974 to 2018 with the help of the Google Earth Engine cloud platform. In addition, reclamation data were manually extracted from time series Landsat images for the same period. We found that approximately 40.0% (34.9–43.1%) of the tidal flats in the study area have been lost since 1980, the year in which the tidal flat area was maximal. The change in the tidal flat areas was consistent with the change in the riverine sediment supply. We also found that the cumulative reclamation areas totaled 816.6 km2 and 431.9 km2 in the Yangtze estuary zone and along the Jiangsu coast, respectively, between 1974 and 2018. Because of reclamation, some areas (e.g., the Hengsha eastern shoal and Pudong bank), which used to be quite rich, have lost most of their tidal flats. Currently, almost 70% of the remaining tidal flats are located in the shrinking branch (North Branch) and the two National Nature Reserves (Chongming Dongtan and Jiuduansha) in the Yangtze estuary zone. Consequently, the large-scale loss of tidal flats observed was primarily associated with reduced sediment supply and land reclamation at the time scale of the study. Because increasing demand for land and rising sea levels are expected in the future, immediate steps should be taken to prevent the further deterioration of this valuable ecosystem.

Yellow River Delta wetlands are essential for the migration of endangered birds and breeding. The wetlands, however, have been severely damaged during recent decades, partly due to the lack of wetland ecosystem protection by authorities. To have a better historical understanding of the spatio-temporal dynamics of the wetlands, this study aims to map and characterize patterns of the loss and degradation of wetlands in the Yellow River Delta using a time series of remotely sensed images (at nine points in time) based on object-based image analysis and knowledge transfer learning technology. Spatio-temporal analysis was conducted to document the long-term changes taking place in different wetlands over the four decades. The results showed that the Yellow River Delta wetlands have experienced significant changes between 1973 and 2013. The total area of wetlands has been reduced by 683.12 km 2 during the overall period and the trend of loss continues. However, the rates and trends of change for the different types of wetlands were not the same. The natural wetlands showed a statistically significant decrease in area during the overall period (36.04 km 2 ·year −1 ). Meanwhile, the artificial wetlands had the opposite trend and showed a statistically significant increase in area during the past four decades (18.96 km 2 ·year −1 ). According to the change characteristics revealed by the time series wetland classification maps, the evolution process of the Yellow River Delta wetlands could be divided into three stages: (1) From 1973From -1984, basically stable, but with little increase; (2) from 1984-1995, rapid loss; and (3) from 1995-2013, slow loss. The area of the wetlands reached a low point around 1995, and then with a little improvement, the regional wetlands entered a slow loss stage. It is believed that interference by human activities (e.g., urban construction, cropland creation, and oil exploitation) was the main reason for wetland degradation in the Yellow River Delta over the past four decades. Climate change also has long-term impacts on regional wetlands. In addition, due to the special geographical environment, the hydrological and sediment conditions and the location of the Yellow River mouth also have a significant influence on the evolution process of the wetlands.

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Accurate forecasting of rainfall has been one of the most important issues in hydrological research such as river training works and design of flood warning systems. Support vector regression (SVR) is a popular regression method in rainfall forecasting. Type of kernel function and kernel parameter setting in the SVR traing procedure, along with the input feature subset selection, significantly influence regression accuracy. In this paper, an effective hybrid optimization strategy by combining the strengths of genetic algorithm (GA) and simulated annealing (SA), is employed to simultaneously optimize the input feature subset selection, the type of kernel function and the kernel parameter setting of SVR, namely GASA–SVR. The developed GASA–SVR model is being applied for monthly rainfall forecasting in Guilin of Guangxi. The GA is carried out as a main frame of this hybrid algorithm while SA is used as a local search strategy to help GA jump out of local optima and avoid sinking into the local optimal solution early. Compared with SVR, pure GA–SVR and HGA–SVR, results show that the hybrid GASA–SVR model can correctly select the discriminating input features subset, successfully identify the optimal type of kernel function and all the optimal values of the parameters of SVR with the lowest prediction error values in rainfall forecasting, can also significantly improve the rainfall forecasting accuracy. Experimental results reveal that the predictions using the proposed approach are consistently better than those obtained using the other methods presented in this study in terms of the same measurements. Those results show that the proposed GASA–SVR model provides a promising alternative to monthly rainfall prediction.