Classification of Leafy Spurge With Earth Observing-1 Advanced Land Imager

Abstract

Leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula L.) is an invasive exotic plant that can completely displace native plant communities. Automated techniques for monitoring the location and extent of leafy spurge, especially if available on a seasonal basis, could add greatly to the effectiveness of control measures. As part of a larger study including multiple sensors, this study examines the utility of mapping the location and extent of leafy spurge in Theodore Roosevelt National Park using Earth Observing-1 satellite Advanced Land Imager (ALI) scanner data. An unsupervised classification methodology was used producing accuracies in the range of 59% to 66%. Existing field studies, with their associated limitations, were used for identifying class membership and accuracy assessment. This sensor could be useful for broad landscape scale mapping of leafy spurge, from which control measures could be based.