Towards high-resolution land-cover classification of greenland: A case study covering Kobbefjord, Disko and Zackenberg

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Mapping of the Arctic region is increasingly important in light of global warming as land cover maps can provide the foundation for upscaling of ecosystem properties and processes. To this end, satellite images provide an invaluable source of Earth observations to monitor land cover in areas that are otherwise difficult to access. With the continuous development of new satellites, it is important to optimize the existing maps for further monitoring of Arctic ecosystems. This study presents a scalable classification framework, producing novel 10 m resolution land cover maps for Kobbefjord, Disko, and Zackenberg in Greenland. Based on Sentinel-2, a digital elevation model, and Google Earth Engine (GEE), this framework classifies the areas into nine classes. A vegetation land cover classification for 2019 is achieved through a multi-temporal analysis based on 41 layers comprising phenology, spectral indices, and topographical features. Reference data (1164 field observations) were used to train a random forest classifier, achieving a cross-validation accuracy of 91.8%. The red-edge bands of Sentinel-2 data proved to be particularly well suited for mapping the fen vegetation class. The study presents land cover mapping in the three study areas with an unprecedented spatial resolution and can be extended via GEE for further ecological monitoring in Greenland.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3559
JournalRemote Sensing
Volume13
Issue number18
ISSN2072-4292
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sep 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding: R.F. acknowledge support by the Villum Foundation through the project ‘Deep Learning and Remote Sensing for Unlocking Global Ecosystem Resource Dynamics’ (DeReEco).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

    Research areas

  • Google earth engine, Random forest, Red-edge, Sentinel-2, Vegetation phenology

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