The rapid advancement of global urbanization has rendered Impervious Surface Area (ISA) a critical indicator for monitoring urban ecological and thermal environments. However, traditional sub-pixel ISA estimation methods, such as Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA) and machine learning regression, are significantly constrained by spectral variability and a scarcity of high-quality training samples. To address these limitations, this study proposes a novel sub-pixel Impervious Surface Fraction (ISF) retrieval framework leveraging high-resolution airborne hyperspectral data. By simulating physically consistent multispectral reflectance and generating high-accuracy reference ISF via spatial aggregation, we construct a robust and noise-resistant training dataset. Experimental results on Landsat data demonstrate that this simulation-based approach effectively mitigates sample uncertainty, significantly enhances retrieval accuracy, and accurately preserves spatial details and boundary structures. Theoretically, the framework exhibits strong cross-sensor adaptability, as it allows for the generation of sensor-consistent training datasets for various medium-resolution satellite platforms by simply substituting the target sensor’s spectral response functions. Combined with this inherent scalability and the potential for cross-sensor model migration, this method provides a reliable and systematic paradigm for long-term, high-precision ISF mapping across multiple satellite constellations.
Wang et al. (2026) studied this question.