Vegetation Mapping of Kushiro Wetland in Northeast Hokkaido, Japan: Application of SPOT images, Aerial Balloon Photographs and airborne color near infrared ( CNIR ) Images for classification Michiru Miyamoto Ph.D cand., Biological Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo, 113-8657 Tel: +81-3-5841-5345 Fax: +81-3-5841-8169 E-mail: aa07102@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp michiru521@hotmail.com Kunihiko Yoshino Associate Prof., Institute of Policy and Planning Science, University of Tsukuba 1-1-1 Tennou-dai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8573 Tel: +81-298-53-5005 Fax: +81-298-55-3849 E-mail:sky@shako.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp Keiji Kushida Research Associate., Institute of Low Temp. Sci. Hokkaido University Sapporo, 060-0819 Tel: +81-011-706-5490 Fax: +81-011-706-7142 E-mail:kkushida@pop.lowtem.hokudai.ac.jp Yohei Sato Prof., Biological Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo 1-1-2 Yayoi, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo, 113-8657 Tel: +81-3-5841-5370 Fax: +81-3-5841-8169 Introduction Kushiro wetland located in the northeast Japan is designated as Ramsar Convention, wetlands of international importance. Plant ecologists have urged the importance of preservation of the vegetation characterized by high biodiversity and high spatial heterogeneity, as well as the necessity of intensive monitoring of distribution according to the environmental changes and the disturbance dynamics. Recent advances of remote sensing technologies have provided various information of community types in wide range, in spite of the inaccessibility in the field. The satellite and airborne are available platforms for acquiring the various information of wetland such as land cover and vegetation types [1]. Aerial photographs have been widely used as the remotely sensed data source for wetland information acquisition historically [2]. The textural features and superior spatial resolution of aerial photography make a very useful data source for detailed wetland mapping [3]. However the lack of spatial resolution, derived from the complicated structures in wetland, resulted in extracting relatively coarse vegetation unit. It was not feasible for identifying similar or specific vegetation types. Hence, without close observation it is difficult to identify analogous vegetation types dominated typically in this wetland. Since wetlands are often spatially characterized by steep ecological gradients with vegetation units narrower than the pixel size of current sensors [4]. Thus, wetland delineation up to species level usually needs more intensive tasks in the field trips [5] and the platforms restricts the utility of remotely sensed imagery with different spatial resolution for mapping wetlands. Therefore, more proximate platforms to the earth such as a balloon is necessary for detail monitoring to obtain finer resolution data, since the units of wetland vegetation are often smaller than resolutions of satellite sensors. The advantages of utilization of balloons cost low and ease of use. Nevertheless, to our surprise, very few studies of wetland observation have been conducted by using balloon photographs as a tool to extract the training data of vegetation, especially in wetland. The paucity of such studies probably causes the uncertainty for extracting unreliable training data of vegetation. In this study, we tested two tethered helium filled balloons as platforms for monitoring of wetland vegetation in Kushiro wetland. The aim of our study was to evaluate the potential of the utility for aerial balloon photographs to classify wetland vegetation. Site specification ur study site is located in Akanuma marsh in Kushiro wetland (N 43°6' 19", E 144°21' 23"). It is legally appointed as the specially preserved area and is characterized by high biodiversity and high spatial heterogeneity of vegetation. Kushiro wetland is the largest in Japan, spreading over 18,290 ha.( Figure 1). Low moor is spread around lake Akanuma, and transitional and high moors are spread away from the lake. Alunus japonica and Phragmites communis dominated mainly in low-moor, Myrica gale var. tomentosa and Carex spp. dominated in transitional moor, Sphagnum bog, alpine plants and dwarf shrubs dominated in high moor as broad categories, respectively.  Figure 1. Study site. Kushiro Wetlnd, northeast Hokkaido in Japan
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