Spectral signatures of hydrilla from a tank and field setting

Abstract

The invasion of hydrilla in many waterways has caused significant problems resulting in high maintenance costs for eradicating this invasive aquatic weed. Present identification methods employed for detecting hydrilla invasions such as aerial photography and videos are difficult, costly, and time consuming. Remote sensing has been used for assessing wetlands and other aquatic vegetation, but very little information is available for detecting hydrilla invasions in coastal estuaries and other water bodies. The objective of this study is to construct a library of spectral signatures for identifying and classifying hydrilla invasions. Spectral signatures of hydrilla were collected from an experimental tank and field locations in a coastal estuary in the upper Chesapeake Bay. These measurements collected from the experimental tank, resulted in spectral signatures with an average peak surface reflectance in the near-infrared (NIR) region of 16% at a wavelength of 818 nm. However, the spectral measurements, collected in the estuary, resulted in a very different spectral signature with two surface reflectance peaks of 6% at wavelengths of 725 nm and 818 nm. The difference in spectral signatures between sites are a result of the components in the water column in the estuary because of increased turbidity (e.g., nutrients, dissolved matter and suspended matter), and canopy being lower (submerged) in the water column. Spectral signatures of hydrilla observed in the tank and the field had similar characteristics with low reflectance in visible region of the spectrum from 400 to 700 nm, but high in the NIR region from 700 to 900 nm.

Keywords

Chesapeake Bay / hydrilla / spectral library / spectral signatures / near-infrared / NDVI

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Terry Slonecker of USGS for assistance in collecting the spectral signatures and the Anita Leight Center personnel for allowing us to gain access to the sampling sites.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg