Exploring the capability of Gaofen-5 hyperspectral data for assessing soil salinity risks

Soil salinization has hampered the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in many countries worldwide. Several countries have recently launched hyperspectral remote sensing satellites, opening new avenues for accurate soil-salinity monitoring. Among them, Gaofen-5 (GF-5) from China has a high comprehensive performance, including a spectral resolution of 5 nm, 330 bands, and signal-to-noise ratio of 700. However, the potential of GF-5 for estimating soil salinity is not well understood. In this study, we proposed a strategy that includes bootstrap methods, fractional order derivative (FOD) techniques and decision-level fusion models to exploit the soil salinity diagnostic information and reduce estimation uncertainty in the Ebinur Lake oasis in northwestern China. The results showed that the GF-5 data were suitable for assessing soil salinity. The FOD technique enhanced the correlation between soil salinity and spectra, identified more diagnostic bands, improved the accuracy of soil salinity estimation, and reduced model uncertainty. The low-order FOD outperformed the high-order FOD. The spectra processed by the 0.9 order derivative were the most correlated with soil salinity (r = −0.76). The model driven by the 0.8 order derivative produced the optimal estimated model (R2 = 0.95, root mean square error (RMSE) = 3.20 dS m−1 and a ratio of performance to interquartile distance (RPIQ) = 5.96). The model driven by the 0.8 order derivative had less uncertainty than the models based on the original and integer-order derivative (first- and second- derivatives) spectra. This study provides a reference for estimating soil salinity from GF-5 data using the proposed framework with low uncertainty and high accuracy. GF-5 data have great potential for assessing environmental problems and facilitating further SDGs.