{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]],"date-time":"2026-01-30T09:03:06Z","timestamp":1769763786034,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":57,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2016,8,24]],"date-time":"2016-08-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1471996800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The expansion of shrub vegetation in Arctic and sub-Arctic environments observed in the past decades can have significant effects on northern ecosystems. There is a need for efficient tools to monitor those changes, not only in terms of the spatial coverage of shrubs, but also their vertical growth. The objective of the current paper is to evaluate the performance of polarimetric C-band SAR datasets for land cover classification in sub-Arctic environments. A series of RADARSAT-2 quad-pol images were acquired between October 2011 and April 2012. The Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification scheme was used on three sets of features: the elements of the polarimetric coherency matrix     [ T ]    , the parameters extracted from a polarimetric decomposition based on the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of     [ T ]     and the parameters extracted from a model-based decomposition. Using a single image, the results show that the best classification accuracies (    \u2248 75 %    ) are obtained using the     [ T ]     matrix with the October images. When adding a second image to the feature set, either from two different dates or two incidence angles, the classification accuracy is improved and reaches     90 . 1 %     with two images from October 2011 and April 2012 at     27 \u2218     incidence. The results show that C-band polarimetric SAR imagery is an adequate tool to map shrub vegetation in sub-Arctic environments.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs8090697","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,8,24]],"date-time":"2016-08-24T09:59:47Z","timestamp":1472032787000},"page":"697","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":19,"title":["Land Cover Classification in SubArctic Regions Using Fully Polarimetric RADARSAT-2 Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Yannick","family":"Duguay","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), 490 de la Couronne, Qu\u00e9bec City , QC G1K 9A9, Canada"},{"name":"Centre d\u2019\u00e9tudes nordiques, Laval University, Pavillon Abitibi-Price 2405, rue de la Terrasse Local 1202, Qu\u00e9bec City, QC G1V 0A6, Canada"}]},{"given":"Monique","family":"Bernier","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), 490 de la Couronne, Qu\u00e9bec City , QC G1K 9A9, Canada"},{"name":"Centre d\u2019\u00e9tudes nordiques, Laval University, Pavillon Abitibi-Price 2405, rue de la Terrasse Local 1202, Qu\u00e9bec City, QC G1V 0A6, Canada"}]},{"given":"Esther","family":"L\u00e9vesque","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre d\u2019\u00e9tudes nordiques, Laval University, Pavillon Abitibi-Price 2405, rue de la Terrasse Local 1202, Qu\u00e9bec City, QC G1V 0A6, Canada"},{"name":"Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Trois-Rivi\u00e8res, 3351, boul. des Forges, Trois-Rivi\u00e8res, QC G9A 5H7, Canada"}]},{"given":"Florent","family":"Domine","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre d\u2019\u00e9tudes nordiques, Laval University, Pavillon Abitibi-Price 2405, rue de la Terrasse Local 1202, Qu\u00e9bec City, QC G1V 0A6, Canada"},{"name":"Takuvik Joint International Laboratory, Laval University (Canada) and CNRS (France), Pavillon Alexandre Vachon, 1045 avenue de la M\u00e9decine, Qu\u00e9bec City , QC G1V 0A6, Canada"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,8,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"336","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0442(2001)014<0336:SSIIAT>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"Snow-Shrub Interactions in Arctic Tundra: A Hypothesis with Climatic Implications","volume":"14","author":"Sturm","year":"2001","journal-title":"J. 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