System and method for assessing rangeland

• US 9,824,276 B2
• Filed: 04/14/2015
• Issued: 11/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Open Range Consulting Inc.
• Original Assignee: Open Range Consulting Inc.
• Inventors: Sant, Eric D., Simonds, Gregg E.
• Primary Examiner(s): AHMED, SAMIR ANWAR
• Application Number:
  US14/686,626
• Publication Number:
  US 20150294155A1
• Time in Patent Office: 952 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10036 Multispectral image; Hyperspectral image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20016 Hierarchical, coarse-to-fine, multiscale or multiresolution image processing; Pyramid transform
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20076 Probabilistic image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20081 Training; Learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20221 Image fusion; Image merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30188 Vegetation; Agriculture
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/00 Image analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/97 Determining parameters from multiple pictures depth or shape recovery from multiple images G06T7/55; stereo camera calibration G06T7/85
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/188 Vegetation

Abstract

A method for monitoring changes in rangeland includes determining a percent coverage of land cover components in the rangeland, and mapping the land cover components using high resolution imagery. The method further includes linking the mapping to coarser imagery having a larger geographic extent, and interpolating land cover measurements spatially and temporally.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring changes in rangeland, comprising:

at a processor;

developing percent coverage data representing percent coverage of each functional group of vegetation in each image of high resolution imagery of the rangeland;

producing detailed ground samples from the percent coverage data;

using mid resolution imagery of the rangeland and the percent coverage data together to model a percent cover of each functional group for each pixel, and developing a landscape level characterization of the rangeland;

using low resolution historical imagery of the rangeland and the percent cover of each functional group for each pixel together to develop a temporal landscape characterization of the rangeland;

combining the detailed ground samples, the landscape level characterization, and the temporal landscape characterization into a digital map of vegetative cover components of the rangeland; and

evaluating the rangeland based on the digital map.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein developing the percent coverage data comprises classifying each pixel of the high resolution imagery into functional groups.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the high resolution imagery has a resolution of less than 10 mm.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the mid resolution imagery has a resolution of 1 m.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the low resolution imagery has a resolution of 30 m.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the low resolution imagery comprises historical imagery taken with regularity and frequency, thus enabling temporal change analysis.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital map is incorporated into a global information system for the rangeland.