Study Reveals SDGSAT-1’s Superiority in Urban Wetland Monitoring
February 04, 2024
Wetlands are vital ecosystems, and urban wetlands play a crucial role in regulating regional thermal environments by providing cooling effects through evaporation, shading, and thermal regulation, contributing to a more sustainable and resilient urban climate.
In a recent study published in the International Journal of Digital Earth on Jan. 30, researchers from the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR) with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have leveraged the data from the Sustainable Development Goals Scientific Satellite 1 (SDGSAT-1) to sharpen the observation of urban wetland environments, particularly focusing on Beijing.
Equipped with state-of-the-art sensors, SDGSAT-1 boasts one of the highest spatial resolutions among satellites housing thermal infrared sensors. The study focused on evaluating the efficacy of SDGSAT-1 in wetland classification and Land Surface Temperature (LST) retrieval, comparing its performance with data from Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 TIRS.
SDGSAT-1 demonstrated expressive wetland classification accuracy, outperforming that of Sentinel-2. With an overall 86.76% accuracy, 0.84 Kappa coefficient, and 0.87 Macro-F1. The results suggest that the inclusion of a specific deep blue band, sensitive to chlorophyll in water, may be the key contributing factor to this success.
In contrast to Landsat 8's thermal infrared band, SDGSAT-1's finer spatial resolution of 30 meters allowed for a more detailed exploration of the spatial variation of LST. This finer resolution lays the foundation for a comprehensive dataset, enabling nuanced investigations into the thermal environment of urban wetlands.
The study underscores the comprehensive advantages of SDGSAT-1 data in monitoring urban wetlands and their thermal environments. The satellite's capabilities offer a theoretical basis for future research in related fields, paving the way for enhanced conservation and management strategies to ensure the resilience of these crucial ecosystems in the face of ongoing environmental challenges.
Research News
Study Reveals SDGSAT-1’s Superiority in Urban Wetland Monitoring