Degree
Master of Science
Program
Geography
Supervisor
Jinfei Wang
Abstract
Timely and accurate information of land surfaces is desirable for land change detection and crop condition monitoring. Optical data have been widely used in Land Use and Land Cover (LU/LC) mapping and crop condition monitoring. However, due to unfavorable weather conditions, high quality optical images are not always available. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors, such as RADARSAT-2, are able to transmit microwaves through cloud cover and light rain, and thus offer an alternative data source.
This study investigates the potential of multi-temporal polarimetric RADARSAT-2 data for LU/LC classification and crop monitoring in the urban rural fringe areas of London, Ontario. Nine LU/LC classes were identified with a high overall accuracy of 91.0%. Also, high correlations have been found within the corn and soybean fields between some polarimetric parameters and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The results demonstrate the capability of RADARSAT-2 in LU/LC classification and crop condition monitoring.
Recommended Citation
Ma, Qin, "Application of RADARSAT-2 Polarimetric Data for Land Use and Land Cover Classification and Crop monitoring in Southwestern Ontario" (2013). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1358.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1358