Identifying optimal spectral bands from in situ measurements of Great Lakes coastal wetlands using second-derivative analysis

This research identified 8 optimal bands in the visible-NIR wavelength region (in order of decreasing importance: 685.5, 731.5, 939.9, 514.9, 812.3, 835.5, 823.9 and 560.1 nm) that appear to contain the majority of the coastal wetland information content of the full spectral resolution, 48-band, hyperspectral signatures. A reduction of band number without significant information loss is important because it makes it practical to utilize small pixels without fear of sacrificing the ability to differentiate the botanical communities.