一种基于点集自适应分组构建Voronoi 图的并行算法

论文提出一种基于点集自适应分组构建Voronoi 图的并行算法,其基本思 路是采用二叉树分裂的方法将平面点集进行自适应分组,将各分组内的点集独立生成 Voronoi 图,称为Voronoi 子图;提取所有分组内位于四边的边界点,对边界点集构建Voronoi 图,称为边界点Voronoi 图;最后,针对每个边界点,提取其位于Voronoi 子图和边界点Voronoi 图内所对应的两个多边形,进行Voronoi 多边形的合并,最终实现子网的合并。考虑到算法 耗时主要在分组点集的Voronoi 图生成,而各分组的算法实现不受其他分组影响,采用并行 计算技术加速分组点集的Voronoi 图生成。理论分析和测试表明,该算法是一个效率较高的 Voronoi 图生成并行算法。     

Predicting forest successional stages using multitemporal Landsat imagery with forest inventory and analysis data

Forest succession is an important ecological process that has profound biophysical, biological and biogeochemical implications in terrestrial ecosystems. Therefore, information on forest successional stages over an extensive forested landscape is crucial for us to understand ecosystem processes, such as carbon assimilation and energy interception. This study explored the potential of using Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot data to extract forest successional stage information from remotely sensed imagery with three widely used predictive models, linear regression (LR), decision trees (DTs) and neural networks (NNs). The predictive results in this study agree with previous findings that multitemporal Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery can improve the accuracy of forest successional stage prediction compared to models using a single image. Because of the overlap of spectral signatures of forests in different successional stages, it is difficult to accurately separate forest successional stages into more than three broad age classes (young, mature and old) with reasonable accuracy based on the age information of FIA plots and the spectral data of the plots from Landsat TM imagery. Given the mixed spectral response of forest age classes, new approaches need to be explored to improve the prediction of forest successional stages using FIA data.     

Evaluating the potential of multispectral imagery to map multiple stages of tree mortality

Insect outbreaks are major forest disturbances, causing tree mortality across millions of ha in North America. Resultant spatial and temporal patterns of tree mortality can profoundly affect ecosystem structure and function. In this study, we evaluated the classification accuracy of multispectral imagery at different spatial resolutions. We used four-band digital aerial imagery (30-cm spatial resolution and aggregated to coarser resolutions) acquired over lodgepole pine-dominated stands in central Colorado recently attacked by mountain pine beetle. Classes of interest included green trees and multiple stages of post-insect attack tree mortality, including dead trees with red needles (“red-attack”), dead trees without needles (“gray-attack”), and non-forest. The 30-cm resolution image facilitated delineation of trees located in the field, which were used in image classification. We employed a maximum likelihood classifier using the green band, Red-Green Index (RGI), and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Pixel-level classification accuracies using this imagery were good (overall accuracy of 87%, kappa = 0.84), although misclassification occurred between a) sunlit crowns of live (green) trees and herbaceous vegetation, and b) sunlit crowns of gray- and red-attack trees and bare soil. We explored the capability of coarser resolution imagery, aggregated from the 30-cm resolution to 1.2, 2.4, and 4.2 m, to improve classification accuracy. We found the highest accuracy at the 2.4-m resolution, where reduction in omission and commission errors and increases in overall accuracy (90%) and kappa (0.88) were achieved, and visual inspection indicated improved mapping. Pixels at this resolution included more shadow in forested regions than pixels in finer resolution imagery, thereby reducing forest canopy reflectance and allowing improved separation between forest and non-forest classes, yet were fine enough to resolve individual tree crowns better than the 4.2-m imagery. Our results illustrate that a classification of an image with a spatial resolution similar to the area of a tree crown outperforms that of finer and coarser resolution imagery for mapping tree mortality and non-forest classes. We also demonstrate that multispectral imagery can be used to separate multiple postoutbreak attack stages (i.e., red-attack and gray-attack) from other classes in the image.     

Hadoop下面元加权Voronoi图并行算法及应用

面元加权Voronoi图是生成元为面元的加权Voronoi图。针对大规模数据情况下面元加权Voronoi图存在的计算效率不高问题,结合面元边界点提取方法,提出一种基于Hadoop云平台的面元加权Voronoi图的并行生成算法,进行了单机和集群实验。实验结果表明,算法能有效处理大规模栅格数据,明显提高面元加权Voronoi图的生成速度。还可应用于城市绿地设计规划,为绿地设计提供决策依据。     

Detection and assessment of trees with Phellinus weirii (laminated root rot) using high resolution multi-spectral imagery

The forests of western North America are affected by root diseases caused by several endemic fungi. These have both important economical and ecological impacts. Phellinus weirii (laminated root rot) is particularly important in coastal Douglas fir forests. Forest managers would like to know the location of pockets of Phellinus weirii infected trees for the purpose of salvage, remedial activities and inventory. Airborne multi-spectral imagers, coupled with automated detection of damaged trees have potential to provide a cost-effective survey method.

Two sets of Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI) airborne multi-spectral imagery were acquired at 60?cm resolution over the same Douglas fir dominated site in coastal British Columbia, Canada. They were acquired in successive years and radiometric corrections for the effects of illumination and view angle applied. Trees of varying levels of root rot symptoms were assessed in the field and manually delineated on the imagery. Spectral properties of these trees were related to levels of damage symptoms. There was considerable overlap of the spectral signatures of the different damage levels, especially healthy through moderate. The range of reflectances for healthy trees was large. The near-infrared and red bands and band ratio involving those two bands proved most related to root rot damage. A blue band was also useful, as were ratios of the near-infrared or red bands to the blue band. Classification of these trees using the best combination of four spectral bands indicated average class accuracies in the order of 55–60% for healthy, light-healthy, light, moderate, severe, 100% needle loss, snag and shadowed snag classes. There was important confusion among the moderate through to healthy class. However, these classes are a finer categorization than is necessary for most applications. Accuracy for broader classes was much better (e.g. average class accuracies were 82% if a tolerance of ±1 class was permitted, ranging from 50–100% for individual classes). An automated tree isolation method was applied to the data. This automated tree isolation was good for the 1995 data but suffered from splitting of large trees into several segments on the 1996 data. All but one of the ground reference trees had associated automatically isolated tree crowns. Classification of the isolations corresponding well to ground reference trees was similar to accuracies for the manually delineated trees, but poorer if ground reference trees without a good matched isolation are considered an error (42% and in the order of 60% with a ±1 class tolerance). The overall distribution of root rot damaged trees as indicated by the automated tree isolation and classification was spot checked throughout the site. There was a generally good correspondence, with concentrations of moderate and severe damage trees being associated with areas of root disease. Concentrations of predominantly light damage trees were not a reliable indication of root disease, and forest regions where the main symptoms of root disease are light will be difficult to survey. Some damage zones occurred that seemed to be related to poor health but not specifically related to root disease. As well, isolated trees with similar characteristics as laminated root rot infected trees do appear on the imagery in scattered locations unrelated to root disease activity. It is felt that these false alarms can be largely mitigated by identifying the characteristic pattern of root damaged trees (i.e. stressed trees around a centre, the centre often being a hole or gap in the canopy). High resolution multi-spectral imagery combined with automated procedures seems viable for detecting laminated root rot centres when severe symptoms are present.     

Dot pattern processing using voronoi neighborhoods

A sound notion of the neighborhood of a point is essential for analyzing dot patterns. The past work in this direction has concentrated on identifying pairs of points that are neighbors. Examples of such methods include those based on a fixed radius, k-nearest neighbors, minimal spanning tree, relative neighborhood graph, and the Gabriel graph. This correspondence considers the use of the region enclosed by a point's Voronoi polygon as its neighborhood. It is argued that the Voronoi polygons possess intuitively appealing characteristics, as would be expected from the neighborhood of a point. Geometrical characteristics of the Voronoi neighborhood are used as features in dot pattern processing. Procedures for segmentation, matching, and perceptual border extraction using the Voronoi neighborhood are outlined. Extensions of the Voronoi definition to other domains are discussed.     

Segment-constrained regression tree estimation of forest stand height from very high spatial resolution panchromatic imagery over a boreal environment

Mean stand height is an important parameter for forest volume and biomass estimation in support of monitoring and management activities. Information on mean stand height is typically obtained through the manual interpretation of aerial photography, often supplemented by the collection of field calibration data. In remote areas where forest management practices may not be spatially exhaustive or where it is difficult to acquire aerial photography, alternate approaches for estimating stand height are required. One approach is to use very high spatial resolution (VHSR) satellite imagery (pixels sided less than 1 m) as a surrogate for air photos. In this research we demonstrate an approach for modelling mean stand height at four sites in the Yukon Territory, Canada, from QuickBird panchromatic imagery. An object-based approach was used to generate homogenous segments from the imagery (analogous to manually delineated forest stands) and an algorithm was used to automatically delineate individual tree crowns within the segments. A regression tree was used to predict mean stand height from stand-level metrics generated from the image grey-levels and within-stand objects relating individual tree crown characteristics. Heights were manually interpreted from the QuickBird imagery and divided into separate sets of calibration and validation data. The effects of calibration data set size and the input metrics used on the regression tree results were also assessed. The approach resulted in a model with a significant R² of 0.53 and an RMSE of 2.84 m. In addition, 84.6% of the stand height estimates were within the acceptable error for photo interpreted heights, as specified by the forest inventory standards of British Columbia. Furthermore, residual errors from the model were smallest for the stands that had larger mean heights (i.e., > 20 m), which aids in reducing error in subsequent estimates of biomass or volume (since stands with larger trees contribute more to overall estimates of volume or biomass). Estimated and manually interpreted heights were reclassified into 5-metre height classes (a schema frequently used for forest analysis and modelling applications) and compared; classes corresponded in 54% of stands assessed, and all stands had an estimated height class that was within ± 1 class of their actual class. This study demonstrates the capacity of VHSR panchromatic imagery (in this case QuickBird) for generating useful estimates of mean stand heights in unmonitored, remote, or inaccessible forest areas.     

Individual tree detection based on variable and fixed window size local maxima filtering applied to IKONOS imagery for even-aged Eucalyptus plantation forests

Detection of individual trees remains a challenge for forest inventory efforts especially in homogeneous, even-aged plantation scenarios. Airborne imagery has mainly been used for detection of individual trees using local maxima filtering, as point spread function and signal-to-noise ratio are smaller than with satellite-borne imagery. This led to the development of a novel approach to local maxima filtering for tree detection in plantation forests in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, using satellite remote sensing imagery. Our approach is based on Gaussian smoothing for noise elimination and image classification, that is, natural break classification to determine the threshold for removing pixels of extremely bright and dark areas in the imagery. These pixels are assumed to belong to the background and hinder the search for tree peaks. A semivariogram technique was applied to determine variable window sizes for local maxima filtering within a plantation stand. A fixed window size for local maxima filtering was also applied using pre-determined tree spacing. Evaluation of the various approaches was based on aggregated assessment methods. The overall accuracy using a variable window size was 85%, root mean square error (RMSE)?=?189 trees, whereas a fixed window size resulted in an accuracy of 80%, RMSE?=?258 trees. The approach worked remarkably well in mature forest stands as compared to young forest stands. These results are encouraging for temperate–warm climate plantation forest companies, who deal with even-aged, broadleaf plantations and forest inventory practices that require assessment 1 year before harvesting.     

The semi-automated classification of acoustic imagery for characterizing coral reef ecosystems

Coral reef habitat maps describe the spatial distribution and abundance of tropical marine resources, making them essential for ecosystem-based approaches to planning and management. Typically, these habitat maps have been created from optical and acoustic remotely sensed imagery using manual, pixel- and object-based classification methods. However, past studies have shown that none of these classification methods alone are optimal for characterizing coral reef habitats for multiple management applications because the maps they produce (1) are not synoptic, (2) are time consuming to develop, (3) have low thematic resolutions (i.e. number of classes), or (4) have low overall thematic accuracies. To address these deficiencies, a novel, semi-automated object- and pixel-based technique was applied to multibeam echo sounder imagery to determine its utility for characterizing coral reef ecosystems. This study is not a direct comparison of these different methods but rather, a first attempt at applying a new classification technique to acoustic imagery. This technique used a combination of principal components analysis, edge-based segmentation, and Quick, Unbiased, and Efficient Statistical Trees (QUEST) to successfully partition the acoustic imagery into 35 distinct combinations of (1) major and (2) detailed geomorphological structure, (3) major and (4) detailed biological cover, and (5) live coral cover types. Thematic accuracies for these classes (corrected for proportional bias) were as follows: (1) 95.7%, (2) 88.7%, (3) 95.0%, (4) 74.0%, and (5) 88.3%, respectively. Approximately half of the habitat polygons were manually edited (hence the name ‘semi-automated’) due to a combination of mis-classifications by QUEST and noise in the acoustic data. While this method did not generate a map that was entirely reproducible, it does show promise for increasing the amount of automation with which thematically accurate benthic habitat maps can be generated from acoustic imagery.     

Image segmentation for humid tropical forest classification in Landsat TM data

Humid tropical forest types have low spectral separability in Landsat TM data due to highly textured reflectance patterns at the 30m spatial resolution. Two methods of reducing local spectral variation, low-pass spatial filtering and image segmentation, were examined for supervised classification of 10 forest types in TM data of Peruvian Amazonia. The number of forest classes identified at over 90% accuracy increased from one in raw imagery to three in filtered imagery, and six in segmented imagery. The ability to derive less generalised tropical forest classes may allow greater use of classified imagery in ecology and conservation planning.     

Automated extraction of street-scene objects from mobile lidar point clouds

Mobile laser scanning or lidar is a new and rapid system to capture high-density three-dimensional (3-D) point clouds. Automatic data segmentation and feature extraction are the key steps for accurate identification and 3-D reconstruction of street-scene objects (e.g. buildings and trees). This article presents a novel method for automated extraction of street-scene objects from mobile lidar point clouds. The proposed method first uses planar division to sort points into different grids, then calculates the weights of points in each grid according to the spatial distribution of mobile lidar points and generates the geo-referenced feature image of the point clouds using the inverse-distance-weighted interpolation method. Finally, the proposed method transforms the extraction of street-scene objects from 3-D mobile lidar point clouds into the extraction of geometric features from two-dimensional (2-D) imagery space, thus simplifying the automated object extraction process. Experimental results show that the proposed method provides a promising solution for automatically extracting street-scene objects from mobile lidar point clouds.     

利用Kolmogorov-Smirnov统计的区域化图像分割

目的 为了在未知或无法建立图像模型的情况下,实现统计图像分割,提出一种结合Voronoi几何划分、K-S(Kolmogorov-Smirnov)统计以及M-H(Metropolis-Hastings)算法的图像分割方法.方法 首先利用Voronoi划分将图像域划分成不同的子区域,而每个子区域为待分割同质区域的一个组成部分,并利用K-S统计定义类属异质性势能函数,然后应用非约束吉布斯表达式构建概率分布函数,最后采用M-H算法进行采样,从而实现图像分割.结果 采用本文算法,分别对模拟图像、合成图像、真实光学和SAR图像进行分割实验,针对模拟图像和合成图像,分割结果精度均达到98%以上,取得较好的分割结果.结论 提出基于区域的图像分割算法,由于该算法中图像分割模型的建立无需原先假设同质区域内像素光谱测度的概率分布,因此提出算法具有广泛的适用性.为未知或无法建立图像模型的统计图像分割提供了一种新思路.     

Sorting helps for voronoi diagrams

It is well known that, using standard models of computation, Ω(n logn) time is required to build a Voronoi diagram forn point sites. This follows from the fact that a Voronoi diagram algorithm can be used to sort. However, if the sites are sorted before we start, can the Voronoi diagram be built any faster? We show that for certain interesting, although nonstandard, types of Voronoi diagrams, sorting helps. These nonstandard types of Voronoi diagrams use a convex distance function instead of the standard Euclidean distance. A convex distance function exists for any convex shape, but the distance functions based on polygons (especially triangles) lead to particularly efficient Voronoi diagram algorithms. Specifically, a Voronoi diagram using a convex distance function based on a triangle can be built inO (n log logn) time after initially sorting then sites twice. Convex distance functions based on other polygons require more initial sorting.     

Representation of segment Voronoi diagram by Bezier curves

A new method for representing the Voronoi diagram of a set of line segments in a plane in the form of a flat straight-line graph is proposed. The graph is composed of control polygons of linear and quadratic Bezier curves. The radial function of the Voronoi diagram, which defines distance from the Voronoi edges to the generator sites, is described similarly with the help of the Bezier curves. The method allows one to construct an explicit medial representation of polygonal figures for the image shape analysis and transformation.

     

The Monte-Carlo generation of random polygons

Random surface-covering aggregates of polygons are of interest as a stochastic model for several geological applications. The approach and algorithms for the generation of random polygons are presented along with a FORTRAN program designed to generate the random Voronoi polygons. To demonstrate the use of the program, the results of the generation of 57,000 Voronoi are tabulated in histogram form, for use in hypothesis testing. The computer program can be adapted easily to other random polygon generations.     

Automated tree recognition in old growth conifer stands with high resolution digital imagery

Automated individual tree isolation and species determination with high resolution multispectral imagery is becoming a viable forest survey tool. Application to old growth conifer forests offer unique technical issues including high variability in tree size and dominance, strong tree shading and obscuration, and varying ages and states of health. The capabilities of individual tree analysis are examined with two acquisitions of 70-cm resolution CASI imagery over a hemlock, amabilis fir, and cedar dominated old growth site on the west coast of Canada. Trees were delineated using the valley following approach of the Individual Tree Crown (ITC) software suite, classified according to species (hemlock, amabilis fir, and cedar) using object-based spectral classification and tested on a tree-for-tree basis against data derived from ground plots.Tree-for-tree isolation and species classification accuracy assessment, although often sobering, is important for portraying the overall effectiveness of species composition mapping using single tree approaches. This accuracy considers not only how well each tree is classified, but how well each automated isolation represents a true tree and its species. Omissions and commissions need to be included in overall species accuracy assessment. A structure of rules for defining isolation accuracy is developed and used. An example is given of a new approach to accuracy analysis incorporating both isolation and classification results (automated tree recognition) and the issues this presents.The automated tree isolation performed well on those trees that could be visually identified on the imagery using ground measured stem maps (approximately 50-60% of trees had a good match between manual and automated delineations). There were few omissions. Commission errors, i.e., automated isolations not associated with a delineated ground reference tree, were a problem (25%) usually associated with spurious higher intensity areas within shaded regions, which get confused in the process of trying to isolate shaded trees. Difficulty in classifying species was caused by: variability of the spectral signatures of the old growth trees within the same species, tree health, and trees partly or fully shaded by other trees. To accommodate this variability, several signatures were used to represent each species including shaded trees. Species could not be determined for the shaded cases or for the unhealthy trees and therefore two combined classes, a shaded class and unhealthy class with all species included, were used for further analysis. Species classification accuracy of the trees for which there was a good automated isolation match was 72%, 60%, and 40% for the non-shaded healthy hemlock, balsam, and cedar trees for the 1996 data. Equivalent accuracy for the 1998 imagery was 59% for hemlock, 80% for balsam, with only a few cedar trees being well isolated. If all other matches were considered an error in classification, species classification was poor (approximately 45% for balsam and hemlock, 25% for cedar). However, species classification accuracies incorporating the good isolation matches and trees for which there was a match of an isolations and reference tree but the match was not considered good were moderate (60%, 57%, and 38% for hemlock, balsam, and cedar from the 1996 data; 62%, 61%, and 89%, respectively, for the 1998 imagery).Automated tree isolation and species classification of old growth forests is difficult, but nevertheless in this example useful results were obtained.     

Classifying successional forests using Landsat spectral properties and ecological characteristics in eastern Amazônia

Secondary forests may become increasingly important as temporary reservoirs of genetic diversity, stocks of carbon and nutrients, and moderators of hydrologic cycles in the Amazon Basin as agricultural lands are abandoned and often later cleared again for agriculture. We studied a municipality in northeastern Pará, Brazil, that has been settled for over a century and where numerous cycles of slash and burn agriculture have occurred. The forests were grouped into young (3-6 years), intermediate (10-20 years), advanced (40-70 years), and mature successional stages using 1999 Landsat 7 ETM imagery. Supervised classification of the imagery showed that these forest classes occupied 22%, 13%, 9%, and 6% of the area, respectively. Although this area underwent widespread deforestation many decades ago, forest of some type covers about 50% of the area. Row crops, tree crops, and pastures cover 8%, 20%, and 22%, respectively. The best separation among land covers appeared in a plot of NDVI versus band 5 reflectance. The same groupings of successional forests were derived independently from indices of similarity among tree species composition. Measured distributions of tree height and diameter also covaried with these successional classes, with the young forests having nearly uniform distributions, whereas multiple height and diameter classes were present in the advanced successional forests. Biomass accumulated more slowly in this secondary forest chronosequence than has been reported for other areas, which explains why the 70-year-old forests here were still distinguishable from mature forests using spectral properties. Rates of forest regrowth may vary across regions due to differences in edaphic, climatic, and historical land-use factors, thus rendering most relationships among spectral properties and forest age site-specific. Successional status, as characterized by species composition, biomass, and distributions of heights and diameters, may be superior to stand age as a means of stratifying these forests for characterization of spectral properties.     

Assessment of forest cover in Russia by combining a wall-to-wall coarse-resolution land-cover map with a sample of 30 m resolution forest maps

The process of gathering land-cover information has evolved significantly over the last decade (2000–2010). In addition to this, current technical infrastructure allows for more rapid and efficient processing of large multi-temporal image databases at continental scale. But whereas the data availability and processing capabilities have increased, the production of dedicated land-cover products with adequate accuracy is still a prerequisite for most users. Indeed, spatially explicit land-cover information is important and does not exist for many regions. Our study focuses on the boreal Eurasia region for which limited land-cover information is available at regional level.

The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate that a coarse-resolution land-cover map of the Russian Federation, the ‘TerraNorte’ map at 230 m × 230 m resolution for the year 2010, can be used in combination with a sample of reference forest maps at 30 m resolution to correctly assess forest cover in the Russian federation.

First, an accuracy assessment of the TerraNorte map is carried out through the use of reference forest maps derived from finer-resolution satellite imagery (Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor). A sample of 32 sites was selected for the detailed identification of forest cover from Landsat TM imagery. A methodological approach is developed to process and analyse the Landsat imagery based on unsupervised classification and cluster-based visual labelling. The resulting forest maps over the 32 sites are then used to evaluate the accuracy of the forest classes of the TerraNorte land-cover map. A regression analysis shows that the TerraNorte map produces satisfactory results for areas south of 65° N, whereas several forest classes in more northern areas have lower accuracy. This might be explained by the strong reflectance of background (i.e. non-tree) cover.

A forest area estimate is then derived by calibration of the TerraNorte Russian map using a sample of Landsat-derived reference maps (using a regression estimator approach). This estimate compares very well with the FAO FRA exercise for 2010 (1% difference for total forested area). We conclude that the TerraNorte map combined with finer-resolution reference maps can be used as a reliable spatial information layer for forest resources assessment over the Russian Federation at national scale.     

Voronoi diagrams with barriers and on polyhedra for minimal path planning

Two generalizations of the Voronoi diagram in two dimensions (E²) are presented in this paper. The first allows impenetrable barriers that the shortest path must go around. The barriers are straight line segments that may be combined into polygons and even mazes. Each region of the diagram delimits a set of points that have not only the same closest existing point, but have the same topology of shortest path. The edges of this diagram, which has linear complexity in the number of input points and barrier lines, may be hyperbolic sections as well as straight lines. The second construction considers the Voronoi diagram on the surface of a convex polyhedron, given a set of fixed source points on it. Each face is partitioned into regions, such that the shortest path to any goal point in a given region from the closest fixed source point travels over the same sequence of faces to the same closest point.     

Delineating tree crowns from airborne laser scanning point cloud data using Delaunay triangulation

Most algorithms for delineating trees from laser scanning data are pixel‐based region growing methods. The algorithm presented in this letter makes use of the original laser points to avoid errors introduced by interpolation. Three different scales are used to identify the seed points or the local maxima at that scale. The seed points are considered to be the estimated tree tops, and are used for growing regions or tree crowns around the seed points. For a test dataset from a Finnish mixed forest and point density of approximately 2 points m^?2, up to 75% of the reference trees could be identified. At the coarser scales, fewer trees were identified, but the crowns were less fragmented. Further work is required to determine how far the method is applicable in other forest conditions and data with other point densities.