Retrieval of Substrate Bearing Strength from Hyperspectral Imagery during the Virginia Coast Reserve (VCR’07) Multi-Sensor Campaign

Talisman-Saber 2009 Remote Sensing Experiment

“…The first of these experiments, held at the Virginia Coast Reserve Long Term Ecological Research (VCR LTER) site in 2007, provided the first demonstrations of the trafficability and shallow water bathymetry products (Bachmann, Nichols, et al, 2008;Bachmann, Montes, et al, 2008;Bachmann, Montes et al, 2010;Bachmann, Nichols et al, in press) and formed the basis of the analysis and products developed in the present study undertaken in Queensland, Australia.…”

“…Numerous authors (Bachmann, Montes et al, 2008, Bachmann, Nichols, et al, 2008Bachmann, Montes et al, 2010;Bachmann, Nichols, et al, in press;Mobley 1994;and Mobley et al, 2005) have discussed the use of HSI for the classification of coastal types and the estimation of shallow water depths. NRL's approach to coastal classification is an adaptation of Francis Shepard's work (see Nichols and Williams, 2008), where coastal subdivisions occur according to which specific agent, terrestrial or marine, has the greatest influence on coastal development.…”

“…Goals and planning for TS'09 were defined in a science plan (see Bachmann Montes, et al, 2008, Bachmann, Nichols, et al, 2008Bachmann, Montes, et al, 2010;Bachmann, Nichols, et al, in press). In summary, the Remote Sensing Division of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) participated in TS'09 to investigate the feasibility of supporting military planners by extracting shallow water bathymetry and characterizing bearing strength and shear of the foreshore from HSI.…”

NRL Hyperspectral Imagery Trafficability Tool (HITT): Software andSpectral-Geotechnical Look-up Tables for Estimation and Mapping of Soil Bearing Strength from Hyperspectral Imagery

“…The NRL HITT software tool described in this report is one of several such thrusts being undertaken by NRL to develop and validate products for coastal characterization. In addition, to the trafficability maps made possible by retrieved bearing strength estimates (Bachmann, Nichols, et al, 2010f) from NRL HITT, we have also been involved for a number of years in efforts to develop other coastal products from hyperspectral imagery such as shallow water bathymetry Bachmann, Ainsworth et al, 2009), detailed land-cover mapping (Bachmann, Bettenhausen et al, 2003;Bachmann, Nichols, et al, 2010g), vegetation density (Bachmann, Ramsey, et al, 2007), as well as waterlines . We have also worked on the development of methods for detecting scene hazards and anomalies (Bachmann, Ainsworth, Fusina, 2010;Bachmann, Fry, et al, 2012a).…”

“…The spectralgeotechnical libraries that support retrieval of these products were collected during these four remote sensing and cal/val campaigns. Although specific relationships exist between hyperspectral remote sensing and primary physical variables such as surface moisture, and grain size, there are some limits to our existing models, for example, for retrieval of grain size, which do not apply under all conditions (Bachmann, Nichols et al, 2010f). Further improvement to models for grain size retrieval to accommodate a wider variety of conditions is still needed, and therefore the LUT method, which involves building a table of known reflectance and geotechnical data measured at the same location, serves as an acceptable alternative (Figure 1), for now, to obtain a usable estimate of bearing strength (dynamic deflection modulus) from hyperspectral remote sensing.…”