Remote Sensing of Invasive Leafy Spurge Using Reflectance and Imaging Spectroscopy
This paper was presented at the Art, Science and Applications of Reflectance Spectroscopy Symposium sponsored by ASD Inc. and IEEE GRSS, February 23-25, 2010 in Boulder, Colorado.
Author: E. Raymond Hunt
Affiliation: USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD USA
Abstract
SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula L.) is a noxious invasive weed that infests over 1.2 million hectares of land in North America. One of the fundamental needs in leafy spurge management is cost-effective, large-scale, and long-term monitoring of plant populations. Leafy spurge has distinctive yellow-green flower bracts which are spectrally unique when compared to co-occurring green vegetation; the spectral signature is caused by a reduction of chlorophyll allowing various carotenoids to influence the reflectance spectrum. During 1999, Airborne Visible-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) imagery were acquired over Devils Tower National Monument in Northeastern Wyoming. Classification accuracy for leafy spurge was very high using mixture tuned matched filtering for single AVIRIS scenes; however, accuracy decreased with the number of scenes added to the analysis. For multiple scenes, Spectral Angle Mapper had the highest classification accuracy. Using reflectance spectroscopy, the minimum cover of leafy spurge flower bracts is about 10%, which is ideal for biological control with Aphthona flea beetles.
Remote Sensing of Invasive Leafy Spurge using Reflectance and Imaging Spectroscopy
