ee.Algorithms.TemporalSegmentation.VCT

  • Vegetation Change Tracker (VCT) is an automated method for reconstructing recent forest disturbance history using dense Landsat time series.

  • VCT outputs a 2D array per pixel for multiple years, providing information on input years, landcover mask, and the magnitude of disturbance in different indices (UD composite, B4, NDVI, dNBR).

  • The ee.Algorithms.TemporalSegmentation.VCT algorithm is used to apply VCT, requiring a time series collection with specific bands and a land cover collection.

  • The VCT algorithm includes parameters to control the detection of forest and the number of years analyzed.

Vegetation Change Tracker, an automated approach for reconstructing recent forest disturbance history using dense Landsat time series stacks.

The output is a 2D array per pixel containing 6 rows x N years. The output rows contain: input years, VCT landcover mask, magnitude in term of the UD composite, magnitude of distubance in B4, magnitude of distubance in NDVI, magnitude of distubance in dNBR.

See: Huang, C., Goward, S.N., Masek, J.G., Thomas, N., Zhu, Z. and Vogelmann, J.E., 2010. An automated approach for reconstructing recent forest disturbance history using dense Landsat time series stacks. Remote Sensing of Environment, 114(1), pp.183-198.

UsageReturns
ee.Algorithms.TemporalSegmentation.VCT(timeSeries, landCover, maxUd, minNdvi, forThrMax, nYears)Image
ArgumentTypeDetails
timeSeriesImageCollectionCollection from which to extract VCT disturbances, containing the bands: B3, B4, B5, B7, thermal, NDVI, DNBR, and COMP. This collection is expected to contain 1 image for each year, sorted by time.
landCoverImageCollectionCollection from which to extract VCT masks. This collection is expected to contain 1 image for each image in the timeSeries, sorted by time.
maxUdFloat, default: 4Maximum Z-score composite value for detecting forest.
minNdviFloat, default: 0.45Minimum NDVI value for forest.
forThrMaxFloat, default: 3Maximum threshold for forest.
nYearsInteger, default: 30Maximum number of years.