The effects of vegetation on the ability to map soils using imaging spectrometer data

Remote sensing applied to tasks of mapping soil and rock surfaces must address the problem of vegetation cover in all but the most arid terrain. Masking out pixels with a high proportion of vegetation using a threshold on the near-infrared/red ratio is a popular strategy for live vegetation. The important effects of dead vegetation on the SWIR reflectance is usually ignored. Data gathered by the GER-II imaging spectrometer over a semi-arid area near Almaden, south central Spain were used to test the sensitivity of thematic soil mapping to variable cover of live and dead vegetation. After calibration to reflectance a least-squares unmixing analysis was performed using image end-members and proportions maps of vegetation and soil/rock components generated. Despite a low signal-to-noise ratio, three soil/rock and four vegetation endmembers were successfully mapped and validated from field estimates. A quantitative assessment was made of the effects of live and dead vegetation on the ability of the unmixing analysis to distinguish between granite and shale soils using synthetically mixed spectra gathered using field spectroradiometry and statistical analysis of the imaging spectrometer data. Dead vegetation was shown to have a greater impact on soil spectra than live vegetation. The ability to distinguish between the soils was lost at 50-60 per cent vegetation cover.