A New Sar Classification Scheme for Sediments on Intertidal Flats Based on Multi-Frequency Polarimetric Sar Imagery

Abstract

ABSTRACT:We present a new classification scheme for muddy and sandy sediments on exposed intertidal flats, which is based on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, and use ALOS-2 (L-band), Radarsat-2 (C-band) and TerraSAR-X (X-band) fully polarimetric SAR imagery to demonstrate its effectiveness. Four test sites on the German North Sea coast were chosen, which represent typical surface compositions of different sediments, vegetation, and habitats, and of which a large amount of SAR is used for our analyses. Both Freeman-Durden and Cloude-Pottier polarimetric decomposition are utilized, and an additional descriptor called Double-Bounce Eigenvalue Relative Difference (DERD) is introduced into the feature sets instead of the original polarimetric intensity channels. The classification is conducted following Random Forest theory, and the results are verified using ground truth data from field campaigns and an existing classification based on optical imagery. In addition, the use of Kennaugh elements for classification purposes is demonstrated using both fully and dual-polarization multi-frequency and multi-temporal SAR data. Our results show that the proposed classification scheme can be applied for the discrimination of muddy and sandy sediments using L-, C-, and X-band SAR images, while SAR imagery acquired at short wavelengths (C-and X-band) can also be used to detect more detailed features such as bivalve beds on intertidal flats.

Remote Sensing Intertidal Flats with TerraSAR-X. A SAR Perspective of the Structural Elements of a Tidal Basin for Monitoring the Wadden Sea

“…Wang et al [22] discriminated bivalve beds from the surrounding bare sediments through polarimetric decomposition based on dual-copolarized SAR data. Further research is needed to investigate to what extent polarimetric information can be used for the detection of other surface types in the tidal area.…”

Seasonal and Intra-Annual Patterns of Sedimentary Evolution in Tidal Flats Impacted by Laver Cultivation along the Central Jiangsu Coast, China

“…To explore the effect of laver aquaculture on the sedimentary evolution of tidal flats, it is necessary to analyze the surface of tidal flats. At present, the surface evolution detection method of tidal flats mainly uses SAR and LIDAR data, which are used in the classification [32][33][34], extraction [35,36], monitoring [37,38], and spectral analysis [39,40] of surface features of tidal flats. Optical remote sensing data has the characteristics of multi-temporal, short cycle and wide coverage and has already been used in the sediments extraction of tidal flats [41,42].…”