Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Specular Reflection Detection and Inpainting in Transparent Object through MSPLFI

Multispectral polarimetric light field imagery (MSPLFI) contains significant information about a transparent object’s distribution over spectra, the inherent properties of its surface and its directional movement, as well as intensity, which all together can distinguish its specular reflection. Due to multispectral polarimetric signatures being limited to an object’s properties, specular pixel detection of a transparent object is a difficult task because the object lacks its own texture. In this work, we propose a two-fold approach for determining the specular reflection detection (SRD) and the specular reflection inpainting (SRI) in a transparent object. Firstly, we capture and decode 18 different transparent objects with specularity signatures obtained using a light field (LF) camera. In addition to our image acquisition system, we place different multispectral filters from visible bands and polarimetric filters at different orientations to capture images from multisensory cues containing MSPLFI features. Then, we propose a change detection algorithm for detecting specular reflected pixels from different spectra. A Mahalanobis distance is calculated based on the mean and the covariance of both polarized and unpolarized images of an object in this connection. Secondly, an inpainting algorithm that captures pixel movements among sub-aperture images of the LF is proposed. In this regard, a distance matrix for all the four connected neighboring pixels is computed from the common pixel intensities of each color channel of both the polarized and the unpolarized images. The most correlated pixel pattern is selected for the task of inpainting for each sub-aperture image. This process is repeated for all the sub-aperture images to calculate the final SRI task. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed two-fold approach significantly improves the accuracy of detection and the quality of inpainting. Furthermore, the proposed approach also improves the SRD metrics (with mean F1-score, G-mean, and accuracy as 0.643, 0.656, and 0.981, respectively) and SRI metrics (with mean structural similarity index (SSIM), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), mean squared error (IMMSE), and mean absolute deviation (MAD) as 0.966, 0.735, 0.073, and 0.226, respectively) for all the sub-apertures of the 18 transparent objects in MSPLFI dataset as compared with those obtained from the methods in the literature considered in this paper. Future work will exploit the integration of machine learning for better SRD accuracy and SRI quality.
Predicting Future Urban Flood Risk Using Land Change and Hydraulic Modeling in a River Watershed in the Central Province of Vietnam

Flood risk is a significant challenge for sustainable spatial planning, particularly concerning climate change and urbanization. Phrasing suitable land planning strategies requires assessing future flood risk and predicting the impact of urban sprawl. This study aims to develop an innovative approach combining land use change and hydraulic models to explore future urban flood risk, aiming to reduce it under different vulnerability and exposure scenarios. SPOT-3 and Sentinel-2 images were processed and classified to create land cover maps for 1995 and 2019, and these were used to predict the 2040 land cover using the Land Change Modeler Module of Terrset. Flood risk was computed by combining hazard, exposure, and vulnerability using hydrodynamic modeling and the Analytic Hierarchy Process method. We have compared flood risk in 1995, 2019, and 2040. Although flood risk increases with urbanization, population density, and the number of hospitals in the flood plain, especially in the coastal region, the area exposed to high and very high risks decreases due to a reduction in poverty rate. This study can provide a theoretical framework supporting climate change related to risk assessment in other metropolitan regions. Methodologically, it underlines the importance of using satellite imagery and the continuity of data in the planning-related decision-making process.
Spatio-Temporal Variations and Driving Forces of Harmful Algal Blooms in Chaohu Lake: A Multi-Source Remote Sensing Approach

Harmful algal blooms (hereafter HABs) pose significant threats to aquatic health and environmental safety. Although satellite remote sensing can monitor HABs at a large-scale, it is always a challenge to achieve both high spatial and high temporal resolution simultaneously with a single earth observation system (EOS) sensor, which is much needed for aquatic environment monitoring of inland lakes. This study proposes a multi-source remote sensing-based approach for HAB monitoring in Chaohu Lake, China, which integrates Terra/Aqua MODIS, Landsat 8 OLI, and Sentinel-2A/B MSI to attain high temporal and spatial resolution observations. According to the absorption characteristics and fluorescence peaks of HABs on remote sensing reflectance, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) algorithm for MODIS, the floating algae index (FAI) and NDVI combined algorithm for Landsat 8, and the NDVI and chlorophyll reflection peak intensity index (ρchl) algorithm for Sentinel-2A/B MSI are used to extract HAB. The accuracies of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), floating algae index (FAI), and chlorophyll reflection peak intensity index (ρchl) are 96.1%, 95.6%, and 93.8% with the RMSE values of 4.52, 2.43, 2.58 km2, respectively. The combination of NDVI and ρchl can effectively avoid misidentification of water and algae mixed pixels. Results revealed that the HAB in Chaohu Lake breaks out from May to November; peaks in June, July, and August; and more frequently occurs in the western region. Analysis of the HAB’s potential driving forces, including environmental and meteorological factors of temperature, rainfall, sunshine hours, and wind, indicated that higher temperatures and light rain favored this HAB. Wind is the primary factor in boosting the HAB’s growth, and the variation of a HAB’s surface in two days can reach up to 24.61%. Multi-source remote sensing provides higher observation frequency and more detailed spatial information on a HAB, particularly the HAB’s long-short term changes in their area.
From the Semantic Point Cloud to Heritage-Building Information Modeling: A Semiautomatic Approach Exploiting Machine Learning

This work presents a semi-automatic approach to the 3D reconstruction of HeritageBuilding Information Models from point clouds based on machine learning techniques. The use of digital information systems leveraging on three-dimensional (3D) representations in architectural heritage documentation and analysis is ever increasing. For the creation of such repositories, realitybased surveying techniques, such as photogrammetry and laser scanning, allow the fast collection of reliable digital replicas of the study objects in the form of point clouds. Besides, their output is raw and unstructured, and the transition to intelligible and semantic 3D representations is still a scarcely automated and time-consuming process requiring considerable human intervention. More refined methods for 3D data interpretation of heritage point clouds are therefore sought after. In tackling these issues, the proposed approach relies on (i) the application of machine learning techniques to semantically label 3D heritage data by identification of relevant geometric, radiometric and intensity features, and (ii) the use of the annotated data to streamline the construction of Heritage-Building Information Modeling (H-BIM) systems, where purely geometric information derived from surveying is associated with semantic descriptors on heritage documentation and management. The “GrandDucal Cloister” dataset, related to the emblematic case study of the Pisa Charterhouse, is discussed.
The Utilization of Lipid Waste for Biosurfactant Production and Its Application in Enhancing Oil Recovery

Abstract In this article, biosurfactant production from low-cost and renewable substrate and its application in petroleum industry were studied. Pseudomonas aeruginosa DG30 grew on used vegetable oil and accumulated 15.56 g/L of biosurfactant at 72 hr. The biosurfactant exhibited excellent surface activity and stability. Sand package tests showed an approximately 20% increase of oil recovery by the treatment of bacterial culture broth. Single-well stimulation tests were conducted in a heavy oil reservoir in Dagang Oilfield, Tianjin, China. The blockages in the wellbore areas were removed effectively and more than 616 tons of crude oil was enhanced.
Complex Principal Component Analysis of Antarctic Ice Sheet Mass Balance

Ice sheet changes of the Antarctic are the result of interactions among the ocean, atmosphere, and ice sheet. Studying the ice sheet mass variations helps us to understand the possible reasons for these changes. We used 164 months of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite time-varying solutions to study the principal components (PCs) of the Antarctic ice sheet mass change and their time-frequency variation. This assessment was based on complex principal component analysis (CPCA) and the wavelet amplitude-period spectrum (WAPS) method to study the PCs and their time-frequency information. The CPCA results revealed the PCs that affect the ice sheet balance, and the wavelet analysis exposed the time-frequency variation of the quasi-periodic signal in each component. The results show that the first PC, which has a linear term and low-frequency signals with periods greater than five years, dominates the variation trend of ice sheet in the Antarctic. The ratio of its variance to the total variance shows that the first PC explains 83.73% of the mass change in the ice sheet. Similar low-frequency signals are also found in the meridional wind at 700 hPa in the South Pacific and the sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) in the equatorial Pacific, with the correlation between the low-frequency periodic signal of SSTA in the equatorial Pacific and the first PC of the ice sheet mass change in Antarctica found to be 0.73. The phase signals in the mass change of West Antarctica indicate the upstream propagation of mass loss information over time from the ocean–ice interface to the southward upslope, which mainly reflects ocean-driven factors such as enhanced ice–ocean interaction and the intrusion of warm saline water into the cavities under ice shelves associated with ice sheets which sit on retrograde slopes. Meanwhile, the phase signals in the mass change of East Antarctica indicate the downstream propagation of mass increase information from the South Pole toward Dronning Maud Land, which mainly reflects atmospheric factors such as precipitation accumulation.
Estimating Daily Actual Evapotranspiration at a Landsat-Like Scale Utilizing Simulated and Remote Sensing Surface Temperature

Actual evapotranspiration (ET) with high spatiotemporal resolution is very important for the research on agricultural water resource management and the water cycle processes, and it is helpful to realize precision agriculture and smart agriculture, and provides critical references for agricultural layout planning. Due to the impact of the clouds, weather environment, and the orbital period of optical satellite, there are difficulties in providing daily remote sensing data that are not contaminated by clouds for estimating daily ET with high spatial-temporal resolution. By improving the enhanced spatial and temporal adaptive reflectance fusion model (ESTARFM), this manuscript proposes the method to fuse high temporal and low spatial resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model surface skin temperature (TSK) with the low temporal and high spatial resolution remote sensing surface temperature for obtaining high spatiotemporal resolution daily surface temperature to be used in the estimation of the high spatial resolution daily ET (ET_WRFHR). The distinction of this study from the previous literatures can be summarized as the novel application of the fusion of WRF-simulated TSK and remote sensing surface temperature, giving full play to the availability of model surface skin temperature data at any time and region, making up for the shortcomings of the remote sensing data, and combining the high spatial resolution of remote sensing data to obtain ET with high spatial (Landsat-like scale) and temporal (daily) resolution. The ET_WRFHR were cross-validated and quantitatively verified with MODIS ET products (MOD16) and observations (ET_Obs) from eddy covariance system. Results showed that ET_WRFHR not only better reflects the difference and dynamic evolution process of ET for different land types but also better identifies the details of various fine geographical objects. It also represented a high correlation with the ET_Obs by the R2 amount reaching 0.9186. Besides, the RMSE and BIAS between ET_WRFHR and the ET_Obs are obtained as 0.77 mm/d and −0.08 mm/d respectively. High R2, as well as the small RMSE and BIAS amounts, indicate that ET_WRFHR has achieved a very good performance.
Intra-Annual Sentinel-2 Time-Series Supporting Grassland Habitat Discrimination

The present study aims to discriminate four semi-arid grassland habitats in a Mediterranean Natura 2000 site, Southern Italy, involving 6210/E1.263, 62A0/E1.55, 6220/E1.434 and X/E1.61-E1.C2-E1.C4 (according to Annex I of the European Habitat Directive/EUropean Nature Information System (EUNIS) taxonomies). For this purpose, an intra-annual time-series of 30 Sentinel-2 images, embedding phenology information, were investigated for 2018. The methodology adopted was based on a two-stage workflow employing a Support Vector Machine classifier. In the first stage only four Sentinel-2 multi-season images were analyzed, to provide an updated land cover map from where the grassland layer was extracted. The layer obtained was then used for masking the input features to the second stage. The latter stage discriminated the four grassland habitats by analyzing several input features configurations. These included multiple spectral indices selected from the time-series and the Digital Terrain Model. The results obtained from the different input configurations selected were compared to evaluate if the phenology information from time-series could improve grassland habitats discrimination. The highest F1 values (95.25% and 80.27%) were achieved for 6210/E1.263 and 6220/E1.434, respectively, whereas the results remained stable (97,33%) for 62A0/E1.55 and quite low (75,97%) for X/E1.61-E1.C2-E1.C4. However, since for all the four habitats analyzed no single configuration resulted effective, a Majority Vote algorithm was applied to achieve a reduction in classification uncertainty.
Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Freeze-Thawing Erosion in the Source Regions of the Chin-Sha, Ya-Lung and Lantsang Rivers on the Basis of GIS

Freeze-thawing erosion is mainly distributed in the tundra, which is one of the main factors affecting soil erosion and soil conservation and affects the economic development of relevant countries and regions. The study area was selected to the north of Tanggula Mountain and the south of Bayankera Mountain, to the east of The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, as the headwaters of the Yangtze River and lancang River. The topography and climate were particularly prone to soil freeze-thawing erosion, and the ecological damage would seriously affect the production and life of people in the whole downstream area. Therefore, based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), this paper selects seven evaluation factors to analyze the temporal and spatial characteristics of freeze-thaw erosion in the study area and establishes a comprehensive weight evaluation model for freeze-thaw erosion. The results show that: (1) the evaluation model is effective, and the soil freeze-thawing erosion is strong in the whole research area; (2) the total area of the research area and the freeze-thawing erosion area are 418,843 km2 and 375,514 km2 respectively, the freeze-thawing erosion area accounting for 89.7% of the total research area, and the freeze-thawing erosion intensity ranged from 0.165 to 0.737; (3) the spatial distribution differs significantly, the freeze-thawing erosion intensity is mainly concentrated in high altitude areas, especially in the Tanggula Mountains; (4) slope, poor annual temperature, illumination, altitude and content of sand in soil accelerate soil freeze-thawing erosion, whereas vegetation index does not; wetness index enhanced the influence of vegetation coverage and sand content. (5) this research will provide scientific evidence for protection and restoration of ecological environment in the area.
Hindcast and Near Real-Time Monitoring of Green Macroalgae Blooms in Shallow Coral Reef Lagoons Using Sentinel-2: A New-Caledonia Case Study

Despite the necessary trade-offs between spatial and temporal resolution, remote sensing is an effective approach to monitor macroalgae blooms, understand their origins and anticipate their developments. Monitoring of small tropical lagoons is challenging because they require high resolutions. Since 2017, the Sentinel-2 satellites has provided new perspectives, and the feasibility of monitoring green algae blooms was investigated in this study. In the Poé-Gouaro-Déva lagoon, New Caledonia, recent Ulva blooms are the cause of significant nuisances when beaching. Spectral indices using the blue and green spectral bands were confronted with field observations of algal abundances using images concurrent with fieldwork. Depending on seabed compositions and types of correction applied to reflectance data, the spectral indices explained between 1 and 64.9% of variance. The models providing the best statistical fit were used to revisit the algal dynamics using Sentinel-2 data from January 2017 to December 2019, through two image segmentation approaches: unsupervised and supervised. The latter accurately reproduced the two algal blooms that occurred in the area in 2018. This paper demonstrates that Sentinel-2 data can be an effective source to hindcast and monitor the dynamics of green algae in shallow lagoons.
A Global Climatology of Dust Aerosols Based on Satellite Data: Spatial, Seasonal and Inter-Annual Patterns over the Period 2005-2019

A satellite-based algorithm is developed and used to determine the presence of dust aerosols on a global scale. The algorithm uses as input aerosol optical properties from the MOderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-Aqua Collection 6.1 and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI)-Aura version v003 (OMAER-UV) datasets and identifies the existence of dust aerosols in the atmosphere by applying specific thresholds, which ensure the coarse size and the absorptivity of dust aerosols, on the input optical properties. The utilized aerosol optical properties are the multiwavelength aerosol optical depth (AOD), the Aerosol Absorption Index (AI) and the Ångström Exponent (a). The algorithm operates on a daily basis and at 1° × 1° latitude-longitude spatial resolution for the period 2005–2019 and computes the absolute and relative frequency of the occurrence of dust. The monthly and annual mean frequencies are calculated on a pixel level for each year of the study period, enabling the study of the seasonal as well as the inter-annual variation of dust aerosols’ occurrence all over the globe. Temporal averaging is also applied to the annual values in order to estimate the 15-year climatological mean values. Apart from temporal, a spatial averaging is also applied for the entire globe as well as for specific regions of interest, namely great global deserts and areas of desert dust export. According to the algorithm results, the highest frequencies of dust occurrence (up to 160 days/year) are primarily observed over the western part of North Africa (Sahara), and over the broader area of Bodélé, and secondarily over the Asian Taklamakan desert (140 days/year). For most of the study regions, the maximum frequencies appear in boreal spring and/or summer and the minimum ones in winter or autumn. A clear seasonality of global dust is revealed, with the lowest frequencies in November–December and the highest ones in June. Finally, an increasing trend of global dust frequency of occurrence from 2005 to 2019, equal to 56.2%, is also found. Such an increasing trend is observed over all study regions except for North Middle East, where a slight decreasing trend (−2.4%) is found.
MorphEst: An Automated Toolbox for Measuring Estuarine Planform Geometry from Remotely Sensed Imagery and Its Application to the South Korean Coast

The rapid advance of remote sensing technology during the last few decades provides a new opportunity for measuring detectable estuarine spatial change. Although estuarine surface area and convergence are important hydraulic parameters often used to predict long-term estuarine evolution, the majority of automated analyses of channel plan view dynamics have been specifically written for riverine systems and have limited applicability to most of the estuaries in the world. This study presents MorphEst, a MATLAB-based collection of analysis tools that automatically measure estuarine planform geometry. MorphEst uses channel masks to extract estuarine length, convergence length, estuarine shape, and areal gain and loss of estuarine surface area due to natural or human factors. Comparisons indicated that MorphEst estimates closely matched with independent measurements of estuarine surface area (r = 0.99) and channel width (r = 0.92) of 39 estuaries along the South Korean coast. Overall, this toolbox will help to improve the ability to solve research questions commonly associated with estuarine evolution as it introduces a tool to automatically measure planform geometric features from remotely sensed imagery.
Climate Dynamics of the Spatiotemporal Changes of Vegetation NDVI in Northern China from 1982 to 2015

As an important part of a terrestrial ecosystem, vegetation plays an important role in the global carbon-water cycle and energy flow. Based on the Global Inventory Monitoring and Modeling System (GIMMS) third generation of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI3g), meteorological station data, climate reanalysis data, and land cover data, this study analyzed the climate dynamics of the spatiotemporal variations of vegetation NDVI in northern China from 1982 to 2015. The results showed that growth season NDVI (NDVIgs) increased significantly at 0.006/10a (p < 0.01) in 1982–2015 on the regional scale. The period from 1982 to 2015 was divided into three periods: the NDVIgs increased by 0.026/10a (p < 0.01) in 1982–1990, decreased by −0.002/10a (p > 0.1) in 1990–2006, and then increased by 0.021/10a (p < 0.01) during 2006–2015. On the pixel scale, the increases in NDVIgs during 1982–2015, 1982–1990, 1990–2006, and 2006–2015 accounted for 74.64%, 85.34%, 48.14%, and 68.78% of the total area, respectively. In general, the dominant climate drivers of vegetation growth had gradually switched from solar radiation, temperature, and precipitation (1982–1990) to precipitation and temperature (1990–2015). For woodland, high coverage grassland, medium coverage grassland, low coverage grassland, the dominant climate drivers had changed from temperature and solar radiation, solar radiation and precipitation, precipitation and solar radiation, solar radiation to precipitation and solar radiation, precipitation, precipitation and temperature, temperature and precipitation. The areas controlled by precipitation increased significantly, mainly distributed in arid, sub-arid, and sub-humid areas. The dominant climate drivers for vegetation growth in the plateau climate zone or high-altitude area changed from solar radiation to temperature and precipitation, and then to temperature, while in cold temperate zone, changed from temperature to solar radiation. These results are helpful to understand the climate dynamics of vegetation growth, and have important guiding significance for vegetation protection and restoration in the context of global climate change.