• A review of 119 papers on ship detection and classification from optical satellite. • From 1978 to March 2017, showing an exponential growth in the number of papers. • Most published methods have very limited validation. • While big steps have been made, automatic algorithms are still far from perfect. • Increase in new observation and processing capabilities promises rapid advances.

The paper describes two different methods for extraction of two types of urban objects from lidar digital surface model (DSM) and digital aerial images. Within the preprocessing digital terrain model (DTM) and orthoimages for three test areas were generated from aerial images using automatic photogrammetric methods. Automatic building extraction was done using DSM and multispectral orthoimages. First, initial building mask was created from the normalized digital surface model (nDSM), then vegetation was eliminated from the building mask using multispectral orthoimages. The final building mask was produced employing several morphological operations and buildings were vectorised using Hough transform. Automatic extraction of other green urban features (trees and natural ground) started from orthoimages using iterative object-based classification. This method required careful selection of segmentation parameters; in addition to basic spectral bands also information from nDSM was included. After the segmentation of images the segments were classified based on their attributes (spatial, spectral, geometrical, texture) using rule set classificator. First iteration focused on visible (i.e. unshaded) urban features, and second iteration on objects in deep shade. Results from both iterations were merged into appropriate classes. Evaluation of the final results (completeness, correctness and quality) was carried out on a per-area level and on a per-object level by ISPRS Commission III, WG III/4.

The European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post-2020 timeframe reform will reshape the agriculture land use control procedures from a selected risk fields-based approach into an all-inclusive one. The reform fosters the use of Sentinel data with the objective of enabling greater transparency and comparability of CAP results in different Member States. In this paper, we investigate the analysis of a time series approach using Sentinel-2 images and the suitability of the BFAST (Breaks for Additive Season and Trend) Monitor method to detect changes that correspond to land use anomaly observations in the assessment of agricultural parcel management activities. We focus on identifying certain signs of ineligible (inconsistent) use in permanent meadows and crop fields in one growing season, and in particular those that can be associated with time-defined greenness (vegetation vigor). Depending on the requirements of the BFAST Monitor method and currently time-limited Sentinel-2 dataset for the reliable anomaly study, we introduce customized procedures to support and verify the BFAST Monitor anomaly detection results using the analysis of NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) object-based temporal profiles and time-series standard deviation output, where geographical objects of interest are parcels of particular land use. The validation of land use candidate anomalies in view of land use ineligibilities was performed with the information on declared land annual use and field controls, as obtained in the framework of subsidy granting in Slovenia. The results confirm that the proposed combined approach proves efficient to deal with short time series and yields high accuracy rates in monitoring agricultural parcel greenness. As such it can already be introduced to help the process of agricultural land use control within certain CAP activities in the preparation and adaptation phase.

Open access peer-reviewed chapter

Accurate vegetation behavior forecasting is essential for understanding the dynamics of plant life in the context of climate change and other natural or human-induced disturbances. RNN deep learning models represent a modern approach to predict vegetation behavior with a high level of precision. In this paper, we explore the potential of different deep learning and more traditional methods to forecast the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which is directly related to the state of vegetation and its dynamics. A time-series dataset consisting of 70 NDVI images calculated from PlanetScope data from April 2017 to January 2023 were used. Initially, all selected methods were evaluated and compared. From the six tested methods, Simple RNN (SRNN) proved to be the most accurate method for predicting vegetation dynamics. The SRNN model results achieved a mean RMSE of 0.051 when compared to the actual 2022 NDVI values. The high accuracy was reflected in all five studied vegetation classes characterizing the selected Mediterranean test area. The SRNN method performs very well in most months, except in autumn where it underestimates NDVI values. To get thorough insight into the results, we also compared them to the Sentinel-2 NDVI data and climate data consisting of temperature and precipitation values. It was found that most of the prediction differences were due to the irregular variations in meteorological conditions during the year analyzed. The predictive capabilities of RNNs are an effective tool for forecasting vegetation dynamics, but can be further improved by incorporating climate data into the prediction process.