Simple and effective monitoring of historic changes in nearshore environments using the free archive of Landsat imagery

dc.creatorKnudby, Anders
dc.creatorNewman, Candace
dc.creatorShaghude, Yohanna W.
dc.creatorMuhando, Christopher A.
dc.date2016-02-16T11:25:19Z
dc.date2016-02-16T11:25:19Z
dc.date2010
dc.date.accessioned2018-04-18T11:12:25Z
dc.date.available2018-04-18T11:12:25Z
dc.descriptionhttp://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0303243409000737
dc.descriptionThe recently released archive of Landsat imagery can be used to detect historic changes in nearshore environments. We used a series of free Landsat images spanning the years from 1984 to 2009 to detect changes in the spatial extent of dominant substrate types, coral, algae, and seagrass, around Bawe and Chumbe islands in Zanzibar, and we compared the use of true-colour composites and supervised classifications. Results indicate temporal changes in the spatial extent of seagrass meadows are easily mapped with Landsat imagery, whereas temporal changes in algae cover and particularly coral cover pose greater challenges because of the similarities in spectral reflectance properties between the relevant substrate types. Supervised classification requires substantially more processing than the simple display of true-colour composites, but does not improve interpretation in our study. We suggest that historic Landsat imagery, obtained at no cost and processedminimally with free software, is the best available data source for studies of historic changes in the nearshore environments of East Africa.
dc.identifierKnudby, A., Newman, C., Shaghude, Y. and Muhando, C., 2010. Simple and effective monitoring of historic changes in nearshore environments using the free archive of Landsat imagery. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 12, pp.S116-S122.
dc.identifier10.1016/j.jag.2009.09.002
dc.identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/407
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/9195
dc.languageen
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.subjectLandsat imagery
dc.subjectNearshore environments
dc.subjectGeoinformation
dc.titleSimple and effective monitoring of historic changes in nearshore environments using the free archive of Landsat imagery
dc.typeJournal Article

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