QuickBird and Hyperion data analysis of an invasive plant species in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador: Implications for control and land use management

In the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, one of the greatest threats to the terrestrial ecosystem is the increasing number and areal extent of invasive species. Increased human presence on the islands has hastened the introduction of plant and animal species that threaten the native and endemic flora and fauna. Considerable research on invasive species in the Galapagos Islands has been conducted by the Charles Darwin Foundation. We complement that work through a spatially- and spectrally-explicit satellite assessment of an important invasive plant species (Psidium guajava — guava) on Isabela Island that integrates diverse remote sensing systems, data types, spatial and spectral resolutions, and analytical and image processing approaches. QuickBird and Hyperion satellite data are processed to characterize the areal extent and spatial structure of guava through the following approaches: (1) QuickBird data are classified through a traditional pixel-based approach (i.e., an unsupervised classification approach using the ISODATA algorithm), as well as an Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) approach; (2) multiple approaches for spectral “unmixing” of the Hyperion hyper-spectral data are assessed to construct spectral end-members from QuickBird data using linear and non-linear mixture modeling approaches; and (3) landscape pattern metrics are calculated and compared for the pixel-based, object-based, and spectral unmixing approaches. The spectral–spatial characteristics of guava are interpreted relative to management strategies for the control of guava and the restoration of natural ecosystems in the Galapagos National Park.