The Utilization of Supervised Classification Sampling for Environmental Monitoring in Turin (Italy)

Abstract

In a world threatened by climate change, the need to observe the land transformation is crucial to set environmental policies. One of the most prominent issues of environmental monitoring is the availability of updated and reliable land use data. The last land-use release in Piedmont Region (Italy) is in 2010, while the most updated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index is in 2016. To overcome this limit, in this study, a supervised classification sampling has been applied on a Sentinel-2 image produced by the Copernicus Program on 29 September 2020, using Esri ArcGIS (ver.10.8 Redlands, California, US) by accessing via ONDA-DIAS services to L2A products. After land classification, three maps were generated—the Habitat Quality, the Habitat Decay, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. This study aimed at classifying the environmental status in five classes ranging from “critical” to “health” with a double perspective—(i) to make a comparative metropolitan assessment between municipalities and (ii) to evaluate the quality of urban public green areas in the city of Turin while defining a different kind of intervention. Results indicate that products derived from supervised classification sampling can be applied in a wide range of applications while reaching seasonal monitoring of the environmental status and delivering just-in-time solutions.

Integrating Ecosystem Vulnerability in the Environmental Regulation Plan of Izmir (Turkey)—What Are the Limits and Potentialities?

“…Nonetheless, the Decay value demonstrates how this environmental mosaic is threatened by anthropic structures that generate a slowburning pressure on the ecosystem. Even the NDVI seems to be different from previous researchers [53]. Nevertheless, it should be considered that NDVI is a typical seasonal indicator, thus revealing the foliage status, and the two images are taken in different periods (March and September).…”

“…We developed an ad hoc methodology that employed the most advanced Ecosystem Service modelling by Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs-InVEST (Habitat Quality and Decay) [45][46][47], and we integrated the results with the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) produced for the same catchment [48][49][50]. GIS modelling and ecosystem mapping rely on an autoproduced Land Use Land Cover (LULC) [51,52] of the western Izmir area employing a supervised classification sampling method to a Sentinel Copernicus image using ArcGIS (ver.10.8.1) [53]. We created, for the first time, a new Ecosystem Vulnerability index for the western Izmir area to support the existing planning framework and evaluate its primary purposes to define the conservation zone and indicate the new expansion areas for settlements.…”

“…At the same time, the Decay adds important information concerning the threat to which the specific habitat is affected (see Figure 7). Finally, the NDVI can be considered as supporting data that reveals the healthy or coping capacity of the ecosystem to host and quickly recover biodiversity [53,70]. Averagely, in the observed catchment, the Habitat Quality index is 0.67 with a standard deviation of 0.27, while the average Decay is 0.10 with a standard deviation of 0.14.…”

Contribution of Earth Observation and Geospatial Information for Urban Planning of Historic Cities’ Centres: The Case Study of Nicosia, Cyprus

“…At the same time, a number of studies have been conducted regarding the use of space-based solutions for landscape pattern and vegetation fragmentation studies [37]. Additional applications on Nicosia could foresee the investigation of environmental "health" of the city and evaluation of quality of urban public green areas [38].…”

Research Progress of Urban Floods under Climate Change and Urbanization: A Scientometric Analysis

“…On the other hand, with the development of social productivity, the progress of science and technology, and the adjustment of industrial structure in a country or region, society has gradually transformed from a traditional rural one dominated by agriculture to a modern urban one dominated by non-agriculture such as industry (secondary) and service industry (tertiary). This caused the ongoing migration of people from rural areas to cities and the continuous increase of urban areas, and the urban phenomenon in the 21st century is much more extensive [11][12][13]. For example, China's urbanization rate increased from 10.64% in 1949 to 63.89% in 2020 (see National Bureau of Statistics of China http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/#, accessed on 8 March 2021).…”