Mangrove extraction from super-resolution images generated by deep learning models

Mangroves are an essential component of coastal ecosystems. Accurate and effective identification and extraction of mangrove areas from remote sensing imagery is crucial for monitoring changes in the nearshore ecological environment. High-resolution remote sensing imagery is often difficult or expen...

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Main Authors: Yu Hong, Xiang Que, Zhe Wang, Xiaogang Ma, Hui Wang, Sanaz Salati, Jinfu Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-02-01
Series:Ecological Indicators
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24001717
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author Yu Hong
Xiang Que
Zhe Wang
Xiaogang Ma
Hui Wang
Sanaz Salati
Jinfu Liu
author_facet Yu Hong
Xiang Que
Zhe Wang
Xiaogang Ma
Hui Wang
Sanaz Salati
Jinfu Liu
author_sort Yu Hong
collection DOAJ
description Mangroves are an essential component of coastal ecosystems. Accurate and effective identification and extraction of mangrove areas from remote sensing imagery is crucial for monitoring changes in the nearshore ecological environment. High-resolution remote sensing imagery is often difficult or expensive to obtain and usually lacks sufficient temporal coverage, so most monitoring of mangrove forests still relies on medium- or low-resolution imagery, resulting in inaccurate distribution of extracted mangrove areas. The super-resolution (SR) images generated by increasingly widely used deep learning (DL) models may be an alternative. To validate this, we evaluated the extraction of mangroves from SR images generated by four DL models (i.e., enhanced super-resolution generative adversarial networks (ESRGAN), Real-ESRGAN, vast-receptive-field pixel attention network (VapSR), and image restoration methods using swin transformer (SwinIR)). The models were trained on paired (high-resolution) Chinese GF-1 satellite images and (low-resolution) Landsat 8 datasets. The performance of model fitting, vegetation indices, and extracted mangrove areas was evaluated using three commonly used classifiers (i.e., support vector machines (SVM), random forest (RF), and gradient-boosted decision tree (GBDT)) in combination with ground-truth sampling points and public mangrove datasets. Results showed that: (1) the SR images generated by DL-based models can facilitate the extraction of mangrove features. (2) The quality evaluation metrics peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index measurements (SSIM) cannot be regarded as absolute criteria for SR images, especially when the SR images were used for mangrove feature extractions. (3) The SR image generated by the VapSR model was best suited for extracting mangrove forests and performed even better than the original high-resolution images. (4) Taking a public dataset as a benchmark, the mangrove areas extracted from the SR image generated by the VapSR model were closer to the benchmark than the original Landsat-8 and GF-1. Overall, the DL-based SR models can enhance mangrove extractions and potentially have widespread applications.
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spelling doaj.art-ac429dd2194e44488a082b6fe147ccc92024-02-25T04:35:18ZengElsevierEcological Indicators1470-160X2024-02-01159111714Mangrove extraction from super-resolution images generated by deep learning modelsYu Hong0Xiang Que1Zhe Wang2Xiaogang Ma3Hui Wang4Sanaz Salati5Jinfu Liu6College of Forestry, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, ChinaDepartment of Computer Science, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA; College of Computer and Information Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China; Corresponding author at: Department of Computer Science, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA.Department of Computer Science, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USADepartment of Computer Science, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USADepartment of Geosciences, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS 39762, USADepartment of Computer Science, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA; Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USACollege of Forestry, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, ChinaMangroves are an essential component of coastal ecosystems. Accurate and effective identification and extraction of mangrove areas from remote sensing imagery is crucial for monitoring changes in the nearshore ecological environment. High-resolution remote sensing imagery is often difficult or expensive to obtain and usually lacks sufficient temporal coverage, so most monitoring of mangrove forests still relies on medium- or low-resolution imagery, resulting in inaccurate distribution of extracted mangrove areas. The super-resolution (SR) images generated by increasingly widely used deep learning (DL) models may be an alternative. To validate this, we evaluated the extraction of mangroves from SR images generated by four DL models (i.e., enhanced super-resolution generative adversarial networks (ESRGAN), Real-ESRGAN, vast-receptive-field pixel attention network (VapSR), and image restoration methods using swin transformer (SwinIR)). The models were trained on paired (high-resolution) Chinese GF-1 satellite images and (low-resolution) Landsat 8 datasets. The performance of model fitting, vegetation indices, and extracted mangrove areas was evaluated using three commonly used classifiers (i.e., support vector machines (SVM), random forest (RF), and gradient-boosted decision tree (GBDT)) in combination with ground-truth sampling points and public mangrove datasets. Results showed that: (1) the SR images generated by DL-based models can facilitate the extraction of mangrove features. (2) The quality evaluation metrics peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index measurements (SSIM) cannot be regarded as absolute criteria for SR images, especially when the SR images were used for mangrove feature extractions. (3) The SR image generated by the VapSR model was best suited for extracting mangrove forests and performed even better than the original high-resolution images. (4) Taking a public dataset as a benchmark, the mangrove areas extracted from the SR image generated by the VapSR model were closer to the benchmark than the original Landsat-8 and GF-1. Overall, the DL-based SR models can enhance mangrove extractions and potentially have widespread applications.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24001717Mangrove extractionSuper-resolution modelsDeep learningRemote sensing
spellingShingle Yu Hong
Xiang Que
Zhe Wang
Xiaogang Ma
Hui Wang
Sanaz Salati
Jinfu Liu
Mangrove extraction from super-resolution images generated by deep learning models
Ecological Indicators
Mangrove extraction
Super-resolution models
Deep learning
Remote sensing
title Mangrove extraction from super-resolution images generated by deep learning models
title_full Mangrove extraction from super-resolution images generated by deep learning models
title_fullStr Mangrove extraction from super-resolution images generated by deep learning models
title_full_unstemmed Mangrove extraction from super-resolution images generated by deep learning models
title_short Mangrove extraction from super-resolution images generated by deep learning models
title_sort mangrove extraction from super resolution images generated by deep learning models
topic Mangrove extraction
Super-resolution models
Deep learning
Remote sensing
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24001717
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AT zhewang mangroveextractionfromsuperresolutionimagesgeneratedbydeeplearningmodels
AT xiaogangma mangroveextractionfromsuperresolutionimagesgeneratedbydeeplearningmodels
AT huiwang mangroveextractionfromsuperresolutionimagesgeneratedbydeeplearningmodels
AT sanazsalati mangroveextractionfromsuperresolutionimagesgeneratedbydeeplearningmodels
AT jinfuliu mangroveextractionfromsuperresolutionimagesgeneratedbydeeplearningmodels