Spatial Analysis of Intra-Annual Reed Ecosystem Dynamics at Lake Neusiedl Using RGB Drone Imagery and Deep Learning

Author(s)
Claudia Buchsteiner, Pamela Alessandra Baur, Stephan Glatzel
Abstract

The reed belt of Lake Neusiedl, covering half the size of the lake, is subject to massive changes due to the strong decline of the water level over the last several years, especially in 2021. In this study, we investigated the spatial and temporal variations within a long-term ecosystem research (LTER) site in a reed ecosystem at Lake Neusiedl in Austria under intense drought conditions. Spatio-temporal data sets from May to November 2021 were produced to analyze and detect changes in the wetland ecosystem over a single vegetation period. High-resolution orthomosaics processed from RGB imagery taken with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) served as the basis for land cover classification and phenological analysis. An image annotation workflow was developed, and deep learning techniques using semantic image segmentation were applied to map land cover changes. The trained models delivered highly favorable results in terms of the assessed performance metrics. When considering the region between their minima and maxima, the water surface area decreased by 26.9%, the sediment area increased by 23.1%, and the vegetation area increased successively by 10.1% over the investigation period. Phenocam data for lateral phenological monitoring of the vegetation development of Phragmites australis was directly compared with phenological analysis from aerial imagery. This study reveals the enormous dynamics of the reed ecosystem of Lake Neusiedl, and additionally confirms the importance of remote sensing via drone and the strengths of deep learning for wetland classification.

Organisation(s)
Department of Geography and Regional Research
External organisation(s)
University of Vienna
Journal
Remote Sensing
Volume
15
ISSN
2072-4292
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15163961
Publication date
08-2023
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
106026 Ecosystem research, 105906 Environmental geosciences, 105405 Geoecology, 207402 Remote sensing
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 15 - Life on Land
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/8a137e19-2bac-457b-9c5b-cacb1acf3e86