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Article: Coarse-Resolution Satellite Images Overestimate Urbanization Effects on Vegetation Spring Phenology

TitleCoarse-Resolution Satellite Images Overestimate Urbanization Effects on Vegetation Spring Phenology
Authors
Keywordsurbanization effects
vegetation spring phenology
spatial resolution
satellite image
time series
Issue Date2020
PublisherMDPI AG. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/
Citation
Remote Sensing, 2020, v. 12 n. 1, p. article no. 117 How to Cite?
AbstractNumerous investigations of urbanization effects on vegetation spring phenology using satellite images have reached a consensus that vegetation spring phenology in urban areas occurs earlier than in surrounding rural areas. Nevertheless, the magnitude of this rural–urban difference is quite different among these studies, especially for studies over the same areas, which implies large uncertainties. One possible reason is that the satellite images used in these studies have different spatial resolutions from 30 m to 1 km. In this study, we investigated the impact of spatial resolution on the rural–urban difference of vegetation spring phenology using satellite images at different spatial resolutions. To be exact, we first generated a dense 10 m NDVI time series through harmonizing Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 images by data fusion method, and then resampled the 10 m time series to coarser resolutions from 30 m to 8 km to simulate images at different resolutions. Afterwards, to quantify urbanization effects, vegetation spring phenology at each resolution was extracted by a widely used tool, TIMESAT. Last, we calculated the difference between rural and urban areas using an urban extent map derived from NPP VIIRS nighttime light data. Our results reveal: (1) vegetation spring phenology in urban areas happen earlier than rural areas no matter which spatial resolution from 10 m to 8 km is used, (2) the rural–urban difference in vegetation spring phenology is amplified with spatial resolution, i.e., coarse satellite images overestimate the urbanization effects on vegetation spring phenology, and (3) the underlying reason of this overestimation is that the majority of urban pixels in coarser images have higher diversity in terms of spring phenology dates, which leads to spring phenology detected from coarser NDVI time series earlier than the actual dates. This study indicates that spatial resolution is an important factor that affects the accuracy of the assessment of urbanization effects on vegetation spring phenology. For future studies, we suggest that satellite images with a fine spatial resolution are more appropriate to explore urbanization effects on vegetation spring phenology if vegetation species in urban areas is very diverse.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/280395
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 4.2
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 1.091
ISI Accession Number ID

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorTian, J-
dc.contributor.authorZhu, X-
dc.contributor.authorWu, J-
dc.contributor.authorShen, M-
dc.contributor.authorChen, J-
dc.date.accessioned2020-02-07T07:40:24Z-
dc.date.available2020-02-07T07:40:24Z-
dc.date.issued2020-
dc.identifier.citationRemote Sensing, 2020, v. 12 n. 1, p. article no. 117-
dc.identifier.issn2072-4292-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/280395-
dc.description.abstractNumerous investigations of urbanization effects on vegetation spring phenology using satellite images have reached a consensus that vegetation spring phenology in urban areas occurs earlier than in surrounding rural areas. Nevertheless, the magnitude of this rural–urban difference is quite different among these studies, especially for studies over the same areas, which implies large uncertainties. One possible reason is that the satellite images used in these studies have different spatial resolutions from 30 m to 1 km. In this study, we investigated the impact of spatial resolution on the rural–urban difference of vegetation spring phenology using satellite images at different spatial resolutions. To be exact, we first generated a dense 10 m NDVI time series through harmonizing Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 images by data fusion method, and then resampled the 10 m time series to coarser resolutions from 30 m to 8 km to simulate images at different resolutions. Afterwards, to quantify urbanization effects, vegetation spring phenology at each resolution was extracted by a widely used tool, TIMESAT. Last, we calculated the difference between rural and urban areas using an urban extent map derived from NPP VIIRS nighttime light data. Our results reveal: (1) vegetation spring phenology in urban areas happen earlier than rural areas no matter which spatial resolution from 10 m to 8 km is used, (2) the rural–urban difference in vegetation spring phenology is amplified with spatial resolution, i.e., coarse satellite images overestimate the urbanization effects on vegetation spring phenology, and (3) the underlying reason of this overestimation is that the majority of urban pixels in coarser images have higher diversity in terms of spring phenology dates, which leads to spring phenology detected from coarser NDVI time series earlier than the actual dates. This study indicates that spatial resolution is an important factor that affects the accuracy of the assessment of urbanization effects on vegetation spring phenology. For future studies, we suggest that satellite images with a fine spatial resolution are more appropriate to explore urbanization effects on vegetation spring phenology if vegetation species in urban areas is very diverse.-
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherMDPI AG. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/-
dc.relation.ispartofRemote Sensing-
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.-
dc.subjecturbanization effects-
dc.subjectvegetation spring phenology-
dc.subjectspatial resolution-
dc.subjectsatellite image-
dc.subjecttime series-
dc.titleCoarse-Resolution Satellite Images Overestimate Urbanization Effects on Vegetation Spring Phenology-
dc.typeArticle-
dc.identifier.emailWu, J: jinwu@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.authorityWu, J=rp02509-
dc.description.naturepublished_or_final_version-
dc.identifier.doi10.3390/rs12010117-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-85085543124-
dc.identifier.hkuros309068-
dc.identifier.volume12-
dc.identifier.issue1-
dc.identifier.spagearticle no. 117-
dc.identifier.epagearticle no. 117-
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000515391700117-
dc.publisher.placeSwitzerland-
dc.identifier.issnl2072-4292-

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