arXiv Machine Learning

How Environment and Urbanization Shape Bird Diversity in Sri Lanka

arXiv:2607. 00582v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: This study presents a comprehensive analysis of bird diversity across Sri Lanka by integrating spatial, temporal, and environmental data.

arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 7

Environmental Drivers of Respiratory Disease: A District Level Analysis

arXiv:2607. 04416v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Sri Lanka has experienced a decade of progressive forest degradation and rising atmospheric pollution, yet district-level respiratory admissions have paradoxically declined, pointing to the confounding role of healthcare access.

By Rahim Iqbal, Asfi Ahamed, Izzath Nisfer, Shazan Shaheed, Muhammadu Ilham, Nathali Athukorala, Madara Mendis, Nisansa de Silva, Sandareka Wickramanayake
arXiv AI
Aug 13

Remote Sensing and Machine Learning-Based Analysis of Land Use and Vegetation Change in Dhaka District, Bangladesh

arXiv:2608. 12001v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Rapid urbanization in Dhaka District, Bangladesh has triggered substantial alterations in land use and environmental conditions, necessitating systematic monitoring for informed urban planning and ecological sustainability.

By Muhammad Masud Tarek, Md. Alamgir Hossain, Md. Samiul Islam, Muntasir Hasan Kanchan
arXiv AI
Sep 17

A Systematic Evaluation of the COTQ Provincial Land Cover Product: Structural Consistency, Spectral Separability, and Relative Positioning Against ESA, ESRI, and Google Products

The paper evaluates the Quebec-specific 10‑m land‑cover product COTQ against three global 10‑m datasets (ESA WorldCover, ESRI LandCover, and Google DynamicWorld). Using structural indicators, spectral separability metrics, and photo‑interpretation, the study finds that COTQ most closely resembles ESA WorldCover but shows systematic differences in urban, wetland, and rocky classes. The analysis clarifies COTQ’s relative strengths and weaknesses for operational land monitoring in Quebec.

By \'Etienne Clabaut, Samuel Foucher, Yacine Bouroubi
arXiv Statistics ML
6d ago

SAGE: A sampling-aware global evaluation benchmark for species distribution modeling

The paper introduces SAGE, a Sampling‑Aware Global Evaluation benchmark for species distribution modeling that uses GBIF records for training and sPlotOpen vegetation plots for presence‑absence evaluation across 5,771 plant species. It groups species by sampling effort and relative prevalence to assess how well single‑species and multi‑species deep‑learning SDMs perform under different data conditions. The study finds that Random Forests and DeepSDMs perform best overall, with DeepSDMs excelling for infrequently recorded species only when bias‑correction techniques are applied.

By Emilia Arens, Nina van Tiel, Robin Zbinden, Damien Robert, Lukas Drees, Chiara Vanalli, Benjamin Kellenberger, Niklaus E. Zimmermann, Lo\"ic Pellissier, Devis Tuia, Jan Dirk Wegner
arXiv Computer Vision
6d ago

AlphaEarth distinguishes cities but compresses urban variation

AlphaEarth, a satellite foundation model, maps Earth’s surface into numerical embeddings that allow comparison across places and time. An audit of its representations for 1,000 urban areas in 162 countries shows that cities occupy a distinct but overlapping region on the hypersphere, with continent, climate, and degrees of urbanisation explaining a portion of the variation. The study finds that cities in developing countries exhibit less contrast in vegetation and texture, and that annual changes in a city’s representation are largely driven by model updates rather than pixel changes.

By Andrew Renninger
arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 31

Foundation-Model Earth Representations Enable Regional-Scale Forest Aboveground Biomass Monitoring Across the Northeastern United States

arXiv:2607. 27217v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Forest aboveground biomass (AGB) is a critical indicator of ecosystem productivity and terrestrial carbon storage, yet regional carbon monitoring remains constrained by the sparse spatial and temporal availability of field inventories and airborne structural measurements.

By Shashika Lamahewage, Chandi Witharana
arXiv AI
Sep 15

Transfer Learning for Socioeconomic Estimation in Forced-Displacement Settings

The paper presents a transfer‑learning approach that adapts a multimodal spatiotemporal vision transformer, originally trained on Demographic and Health Survey data, to estimate socioeconomic conditions in forced‑displacement settings. Using satellite‑derived geospatial covariates, the adapted model explains up to 66% of variation in socioeconomic outcomes in camp‑intersecting grids and 41% in non‑camp areas, achieving mean absolute errors of 4.37 and 5.41 index points respectively. This framework supplements periodic household surveys by providing regularly updated, spatially granular socioeconomic estimates that bridge data gaps between survey rounds.

By Steven Ndung'u, Adel Daoud, Ismael Yacoubou Djima, Hai-Anh H. Dang, Patrick Michael Brock