ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Combining Multi-Indices by Neural Network
Model for Estimating Canopy Chlorophyll
Content: a Case Study of Interspecies Competition
between Spartina alterniflora
and Phragmites australis
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1
School of Surveying and Geo-informatics, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan, 250101, China
2
Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science, Ministry of Education, East China Normal University,
Shanghai, 200241, China
3
Joint Laboratory for Environmental Remote Sensing and Data Assimilation, East China Normal University & Institute
of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200241, China
4
School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, China
Submission date: 2021-02-18
Final revision date: 2021-06-21
Acceptance date: 2021-06-25
Online publication date: 2021-12-16
Publication date: 2021-12-23
Corresponding author
Pingjie Fu
School of Surveying and Geo-Informatics, Shandong Jianzhu University, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2022;31(1):199-217
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The invasive species Spartina alterniflora show a significant coexistence zonation pattern
with local Phragmites australis in different mixture ratio, increasing the difficulty to monitor
their distribution directly by remote sensing. Canopy chlorophyll content (CCC) is an important
indicator to monitor the growth and physiological status. The objective of this study was to estimate
CCC under different mixture ratio. Five spectral indices were selected and combined via back
propagation (BP) neural network model for estimating CCC. Combining multi-indices yielded better
results (R2 = 0.7729, RMSE = 53.01 ug.cm-2) on average than the best single spectral index (R2 = 0.7190,
RMSE = 63.53 ug.cm-2) without distinguishing interspecies competition, with a total increase of 7.5% in
the R2 and a decrease of 16.56% in the RMSE. Meanwhile, when considering interspecies competition,
the estimating results obtained by the BP neural network model achieved a further improvement of the
R2 value, ranging from 3.57% to 20.37%, while the prediction error reduced at varying degrees
(maximum reduction of 23.78%). The results indicate that combining multi-indices by BP neural
network model can alleviate the influence of interspecies competition and achieve higher estimating
accuracy.