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Open AccessArticle
VAWIlog: A Log-Transformed LSWI–EVI Index for Improved Surface Water Mapping in Agricultural Environments
by
Alexis Declaro
Alexis Declaro 1,*
,
Zachary Brown
Zachary Brown 2 and
Shinjiro Kanae
Shinjiro Kanae 1
1
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Environment and Society, Institute of Science Tokyo, Ookayama, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan
2
Creattura Co., Ltd., 4-15-1 Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo 107-0052, Japan
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Remote Sens. 2025, 17(16), 2771; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17162771 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 20 June 2025
/
Revised: 28 July 2025
/
Accepted: 7 August 2025
/
Published: 9 August 2025
Abstract
Detecting surface water beneath vegetation canopies remains a major challenge for widely used water indices, which often underestimate water obscured by vegetation. This limitation is further compounded by the scarcity of reliable in situ data needed for robust index development and validation. To address this, we introduce a Vegetation-Adjusted Water Index using a logarithmic transformation of the ratio between the Land Surface Water Index (LSWI) and the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), referred to as VAWIlog. This transformation compresses high vegetation values while expanding the range typical of water surfaces, enhancing contrast in mixed land cover areas and improving class separability. The index was developed and validated using in situ water level measurements, providing a strong empirical basis for detecting surface water under variable vegetation conditions. VAWIlog consistently outperformed established indices in detecting surface water beneath vegetation, demonstrating superior detection accuracy and overall performance, with a balanced accuracy (BA) of 0.69 and a producer’s accuracy (PA) of 0.80. This reflects an average improvement of 25% over conventional methods. Benchmarking against the Dynamic World V1 dataset further confirmed the improved capability of the proposed index to detect surface water in vegetated areas, which are often missed by the dataset. This enhanced performance can be attributed to the fact that the proposed index was developed using on-the-ground observations, rather than relying solely on expert-labeled imagery as in the case of Dynamic World. Overall, VAWIlog provides a simple yet effective solution for improved surface water mapping in vegetated landscapes. Its compatibility with open-source optical satellite data enables broader applications, including irrigation monitoring and greenhouse gas assessments.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Declaro, A.; Brown, Z.; Kanae, S.
VAWIlog: A Log-Transformed LSWI–EVI Index for Improved Surface Water Mapping in Agricultural Environments. Remote Sens. 2025, 17, 2771.
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17162771
AMA Style
Declaro A, Brown Z, Kanae S.
VAWIlog: A Log-Transformed LSWI–EVI Index for Improved Surface Water Mapping in Agricultural Environments. Remote Sensing. 2025; 17(16):2771.
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17162771
Chicago/Turabian Style
Declaro, Alexis, Zachary Brown, and Shinjiro Kanae.
2025. "VAWIlog: A Log-Transformed LSWI–EVI Index for Improved Surface Water Mapping in Agricultural Environments" Remote Sensing 17, no. 16: 2771.
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17162771
APA Style
Declaro, A., Brown, Z., & Kanae, S.
(2025). VAWIlog: A Log-Transformed LSWI–EVI Index for Improved Surface Water Mapping in Agricultural Environments. Remote Sensing, 17(16), 2771.
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17162771
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