Mapping mangrove forests using multi-tidal remotely-sensed data and a decision-tree-based procedure

Mangrove forests grow in intertidal zones in tropical and subtropical regions and have suffered a dramatic decline globally over the past few decades. Remote sensing data, collected at various spatial resolutions, provide an effective way to map the spatial distribution of mangrove forests over time. However, the spectral signatures of mangrove forests are significantly affected by tide levels. Therefore, mangrove forests may not be accurately mapped with remote sensing data collected during a single-tidal event, especially if not acquired at low tide. This research reports how a decision-tree based procedure was developed to map mangrove forests using multi tidal Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data and a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Three indices, including the Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and NEVILNDMIH (the multiplication of NDVIL by NDMIH, L: low tide level, H: high tide level) were used in this algorithm to differentiate mangrove forests from other land-cover and land-use types in Fangchenggang City, China. Additionally, the recent Landsat 8 OLI (Operational Land Imager) data were selected to validate the results and compare if the methodology is reliable. The results demonstrate that short-term multi-tidal remotely sensed data better represent the unique nearshore coastal wetland habitats of mangrove forests than single-tidal data. Furthermore, multi-tidal remotely-sensed data has led to improved accuracies using two classification approaches: i.e. decision trees and the maximum likelihood classification (MLC). Since mangrove forests are typically found at low elevations, the inclusion of elevation data in the two classification procedures was tested. Given the decision-tree method does not assume strict data distribution parameters, it was able to optimize the application of multi-tidal and elevation data, resulting in higher classification accuracies of mangrove forests. When using multi-source data of differing types and distributions to map mangrove forests, a decision-tree method appears to be superior to traditional statistical classifiers.