SAILHFlood: A radiative transfer model for flooded vegetation

Abstract

In this manuscript we present a radiative transfer model for submerged vegetation called SAILHFlood. It simulates reflectance for a partial submerged canopy from vegetation variables, water level, measurement geometry and soil reflectance. It is a version of the proven SAILH model in which, two vegetation layers are included instead of one: the emerged vegetation layer and the submerged vegetation layer, for which the water attenuation is considered. The model validation was performed with a experiment in laboratory conditions varying leaf area index, water level and illumination and observation angles. A least square linear fit of simulated data used to reproduce measured data shows a satisfactory root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.0355, and a spectral angle of 0.2591 radians. The model could be applied to the diversity of vegetation found in flooded situations, both to understand spectral behavior of these environments under different scenarios and to estimate vegetation variables from model inversion.