Satellite-derived Habitat Mapping in Abu Dhabi Emirate: Considerations for Current and Future Studies

摘要

The opportunity to perform an update to the existing habitat map across the whole of Abu Dhabi Emirate provides a unique assessment of the benefits and challenges associated with using satellite imagery for the purposes of establishing a higher accuracy habitat map. The first habitat study of Abu Dhabi using Very-High-Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery, undertaken in 2014, provided a baseline for assessing changes in habitats. The approach for the current update combines the relative computational ease and consistency of processing Landsat-8 data to extract broad habitats with the ability to identify and extract high levels of detail in WorldView imagery accurately, over a compressed project timescale. Variations in habitats over time can be attributed to environmental change and/or human development and provide a basis for investigation of biodiversity stressors and an understanding of the environmental and economic implications of activities within Abu Dhabi and the wider Gulf region. Understanding the direction of change is a valuable precursor to informed decision making and the formation of appropriately targeted mitigation strategies. The new map uses reduced minimum mapping units (MMU), meaning a greater level of detail is present, and also identifies habitats where none were previously mapped. The balance between detail and consistency between map products should be considered carefully for each new map iteration so that map products display pertinent information but also remain comparable.