Article

Detecting Water Hyacinth Infestation in Kuttanad, India, Using Dual-Pol Sentinel-1 SAR Imagery

Details

Citation

Simpson MD, Akbari V, Marino A, Prabhu GN, Bhowmik D, Rupavatharam S, Datta A, Kleczkowski A, Sujeetha JARP, Gunjotikar Anantrao G, Kampurath Poduvattil V, Kumar S, Maharaj S & Hunter PD (2022) Detecting Water Hyacinth Infestation in Kuttanad, India, Using Dual-Pol Sentinel-1 SAR Imagery. Remote Sensing, 14 (12), Art. No.: 2845. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14122845

Abstract
Water hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes, also known as Eichhornia crassipes) is a highly invasive aquatic macrophyte species, indigenous to Amazonia, Brazil and tropical South America. It was introduced to India in 1896 and has now become an environmental and social challenge throughout the country in community ponds, freshwater lakes, irrigation channels, rivers and most other surface waterbodies. Considering its large speed of propagation on the water surface under conducive conditions and the adverse impact the infesting weed has, constant monitoring is needed to aid civic bodies, governments and policy makers involved in remedial measures. The synoptic coverage provided by satellite imaging and other remote sensing practices make it convenient to find a solution using this type of data. While there is an established background for the practice of remote sensing in the detection of aquatic plants, the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has yet to be fully exploited in the detection of water hyacinth. This research focusses on detecting water hyacinth within Vembanad Lake, Kuttanad, India. Here, results show that the monitoring of water hyacinth has proven to be possible using Sentinel-1 SAR data. A quantitative analysis of detection performance is presented using traditional and state-of-the-art change detectors. Analysis of these more powerful detectors showed true positive detection ratings of ~95% with 0.1% false alarm, showing significantly greater positive detection ratings when compared to the more traditional detectors. We are therefore confident that water hyacinth can be monitored using SAR data provided the extent of the infestation is significantly larger than the resolution cell (bigger than a quarter of a hectare).

Keywords
water hyacinth; Sentinel-1; SAR; change detection

Journal
Remote Sensing: Volume 14, Issue 12

StatusPublished
FundersRoyal Academy of Engineering and European Space Agency
Publication date30/06/2022
Publication date online14/06/2022
Date accepted by journal13/06/2022
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/34419
eISSN2072-4292

People (5)

Dr Vahid Akbari

Dr Vahid Akbari

Lect in Artificial Intelligence/Data Sci, Computing Science and Mathematics - Division

Professor Peter Hunter

Professor Peter Hunter

Professor, Scotland's International Environment Centre

Dr Savi Maharaj

Dr Savi Maharaj

Senior Lecturer, Computing Science

Dr Armando Marino

Dr Armando Marino

Associate Professor, Biological and Environmental Sciences

Mr Morgan Simpson

Mr Morgan Simpson

Radar Remote Sensing Scientist, Biological and Environmental Sciences

Projects (1)