A satellite-based map compared to a traditional vegetation map of Arctic vegetation in the Ny-Ålesund area, Svalbard

Abstract An area of Arctic vegetation on Brøggerhalvøya in the northwestern part of Spitsbergen, was studied. A classified Landsat-TM image with 57 land-cover classes (LCCs) was compared to an existing vegetation map with a comparison matrix. The 57 LCCs were grouped in seven different groups, where...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar Record
Main Author: Spjelkavik, Sigmund
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1995
Subjects:
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Ecology
Geography, Planning and Development
Arctic
Svalbard
Ny-Ålesund
Brøggerhalvøya
Ny Ålesund
Polar Record
Spitsbergen
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400013760
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400013760
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Summary:Abstract An area of Arctic vegetation on Brøggerhalvøya in the northwestern part of Spitsbergen, was studied. A classified Landsat-TM image with 57 land-cover classes (LCCs) was compared to an existing vegetation map with a comparison matrix. The 57 LCCs were grouped in seven different groups, where the seventh group contained 15 LCCs with vegetation. The other groups were regarded as non-vegetated. The correspondence between the existing vegetation map and the satellite-based vegetation map was not high, but the classes from the satellite-based land-cover map could be interpreted in botanical terms. A vegetation index (VI) was used to discriminate between vegetated and non-vegetated LCCs. The VI was correlated to plant biomass measurements, and the total plant biomass for Brøggerhalvøya was estimated. The estimated biomass coincided with other estimates from the same area.

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