Abstract
Vegetative inventories, whether they are agronomic, ecologic, range, or forestry, often measure plant cover. Vegetation cover is a fundamental parameter in many studies of plant ecology. It is used to measure the surface of the ground exposed to the direct impact of rain drops, sunlight and it is also used to monitor changes in vegetation structure over time. VegMeasure®, an image processing software, was developed to monitor vegetation cover over a period of time, through utilizing green leaf and brightness algorithms as well as K-means classifications. This study demonstrates that digital image processing of vegetation can be fast and affordable, through creating a permanent digital record that can be revisited over time.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Congalton, R.G.: A review of assessing the accuracy of classification of remotely sensed data. Remote Sens. Environ. 37, 35–46 (1991)
Louhaichi, M., Hassan, S., Clifton, K., Johnson, D.E.: A reliable and non-destructive method for estimating forage shrub cover and biomass in arid environments using digital vegetation charting technique. Agrofor. Syst. (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-017-0079-4
Louhaichi, M., Johnson, M.D., Woerz, A.L., Jasra, A.W., Johnson, D.E.: Digital charting technique for monitoring rangeland vegetation cover at local scale. Int. J. Agric. Biol. 12, 406–410 (2010)
Royan, M., Sepehry, A., Salman Mahiny, A.: Estimating rangeland vegetation frequency & density using low-altitude aerial photographs. Iran. J. Appl. Ecol. 5(17), 1–10 (2016)
Serrano, J., Sales-Baptista, E., Shahidian, S.Marques, da Silva, J., Ferraz de Oliveira, I., Lopes de Castro, J., Pereira, A., Cancela d’Abreu, M., de Carvalho, M.: Proximal sensors for monitoring seasonal changes of feeding sites selected by grazing ewes. Agrofor. Syst. 1, 1–15 (2018)
Tarhouni, M., Ben Salem, F., Tlili, A., Ouled Belgacem, A., Neffati, M., Louhaichi, M.: Measurement of the aboveground biomass of some rangeland species using a digital non-destructive technique. Bot. Lett. 163(3), 281–287 (2016)
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the VegMeasure project and the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock (CRP Livestock).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Louhaichi, M., Hassan, S., Johnson, D.E. (2019). VegMeasure: Image Processing Software for Grassland Vegetation Monitoring. In: El-Askary, H., Lee, S., Heggy, E., Pradhan, B. (eds) Advances in Remote Sensing and Geo Informatics Applications. CAJG 2018. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01440-7_53
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01440-7_53
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-01439-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-01440-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)