CLASSIFICATION AND MONITORING OF SALT MARSH HABITATS WITH MULTIPOLARIMETRIC AND MULTI-FREQUENCY SAR

摘要

Within GMES there is much interest in the ability of remote sensing technology to deliver operational solutions to many areas of life including environmental management. This paper describes research focused on the application for Earth Observation for Integrated Coastal Zone Management. The main topic of this research is to explore to which extent salt marsh habitats from can be identified from SAR remotely sensed data. Multi-frequency, multi-polarimetric SAR images from airborne (S- and X-Band quad-polarimetric from the Astrium airborne SAR Demonstrator) is used to examine salt marsh habitat classification potential in the Llanrhidian salt marshes in South Wales, UK. This is achieved by characterizing their botanical and structural composition, flooding regimes as well as fluctuations in soil moisture. Different SAR features as backscatter coefficient, band ratios and polarimetric decomposition are extracted.