Spectral signature, in general, can be defined as characteristics of surface objects of transmission, absorption and reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Spectral signature is expected stable and unique for given surface material. Spectral signature can be graphically represented in two-dimensional space in the form of spectral curves. Spectral signature has been used long time for object detection and classification mostly by spectral matching methods. Spectral matching is time-consuming and requires reference spectra that is not always available in hand. Spectral modulation pattern is a simplified form of spectral curve shapes. We define this pattern by pairwise comparison of reflectance between two spectral bands. The aim of this research is to point out the use of spectral modulation patterns for land cover mapping. The experiment has been carried out with Landsat 8 OLI image data, which has six reflective bands of 30 m spatial resolution. The Landsat 8 OLI is an excellent data source for land cover mapping in both local and global scale. Due to very huge data volume, automated analysis is crucial when we need accomplish land cover maps in a short time. In this paper, the authors introduce the concept to use spectral modulation patterns of spectral signatures for automated interpretation of land cover. The first step in this concept is to understand correctly meaning of each modulation pattern of spectral signatures and their relation to land cover classes. In this study, we use three Landsat 8 OLI images of Vietnam in 2013 and 2014. Ground GPS field photos were collected to support interpretation of land cover.

It is of utmost importance to understand and monitor the impact of urban heat islands on ecosystems and overall human health in the context of climate change and global warming. This research was conducted in a tropical city, Hanoi, with a major objective of assessing the quantitative relationships between the composition of the main land-cover types and surface urban heat island phenomenon. In this research, we analyzed the correlation between land-cover composition, percentage coverage of the land cover types, and land surface temperature for different moving window sizes or urban land management units. Landsat 8 OLI (Operational Land Imager) satellite data was utilized for preparing land-cover composition datasets in inner Hanoi by employing the unsupervised image clustering method. High-resolution (30m) land surface temperature maps were generated for different days of the years 2016 and 2017 using Landsat 8 TIRS (Thermal Infrared Sensor) images. High correlations were observed between percentage coverage of the land-cover types and land surface temperature considering different window sizes. A new model for estimating the intensity of surface urban heat islands from Landsat 8 imagery is developed, through recursively analyzing the correlation between land-cover composition and land surface temperature at different moving window sizes. This land-cover composition-driven model could predict land surface temperature efficiently not only in the case of different window sizes but also on different days. The newly developed model in this research provides a wonderful opportunity for urban planners and designers to take measures for adjusting land surface temperature and the associated effects of surface urban heat islands by managing the land cover composition and percentage coverage of the individual land-cover types.

Water level predictions in the river, lake and delta play an important role in flood management. Every year Mekong River delta of Vietnam is experiencing flood due to heavy monsoon rains and high tides. Land subsidence may also aggravate flooding problems in this area. Therefore, accurate predictions of water levels in this region are very important to forewarn the people and authorities for taking timely adequate remedial measures to prevent losses of life and property. There are so many methods available to predict the water levels based on historical data but nowadays Machine Learning (ML) methods are considered the best tool for accurate prediction. In this study, we have used surface water level data of 18 water level measurement stations of the Mekong River delta from 2000 to 2018 to build novel time-series Bagging based hybrid ML models namely: Bagging (RF), Bagging (SOM) and Bagging (M5P) to predict historical water levels in the study area. Performances of the Bagging-based hybrid models were compared with Reduced Error Pruning Trees (REPT), which is a benchmark ML model. The data of 19 years period was divided into 70:30 ratio for the modeling. The data of the period 1/2000 to 5/2013 (which is about 70% of total data) was used for the training and for the period 5/2013 to 12/2018 (which is about 30% of total data) was used for testing (validating) the models. Performance of the models was evaluated using standard statistical measures: Coefficient of Determination (R2), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE). Results show that the performance of all the developed models is good (R2 > 0.9) for the prediction of water levels in the study area. However, the Bagging-based hybrid models are slightly better than another model such as REPT. Thus, these Bagging-based hybrid time series models can be used for predicting water levels at Mekong data.