Mapping and estimating harvest potential of seaweed culture using Worldview-2 Satellite images: a case study in Nusa Lembongan, Bali − Indonesia

Abstract

Unreliable information on harvest potential is a persistent challenge for the Indonesian government and industry alike to manage an efficient supply chain of seaweed raw material. The use of remote sensing technology to assess seaweed harvest potential has been scarcely available in the literature. This current research aimed at estimating the harvest potential of seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii through remote sensing using supervised classification with maximum likelihood (MLC) and contextual editing (CE) methods. This research evaluated the capabilities of different band combinations along with depth invariant index (DII) to enhance the remote sensing accuracy in estimating seaweed harvest potential. The seaweed classification using Worldview-2 imagery was compared with the in-situ references (ground-truthing). The potential data bias resulted from different imagery acquisition timestamps with the in-situ measurement was kept minimal as both data time stamps were ten days apart and within the same seaweed culture cycle. The average dry weight of all seaweed samples collected during the research was 924 ± 278.91 g/m2 with culture ages between 1 and 40 days. The classification results based on MLC+CE with a 5-band combination method without DII showed a better correlation and closer fit with the in-situ references compared to the other methods, with an overall accuracy of 79.05% and Tau coefficient value of 0.75. The estimated total harvest potential based on the combined seaweed classes was 531.26 ± 250.29 tons dry weight.