Field Experiences Remote Sensing GPS/GIS Applications in ...

Geospatial Science and the
College of Natural Resources,
Utah State University
THE USE OF REMOTE SENSING AND GEOGRAPHIC
INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR NATURAL RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
Technology, Life and Careers Summer Agricultural Institute
July 27th & 28th

The unique perspective of
remotely sensed data
provides whole landscape
interpretation and
analysis possibilities
This allows us to evaluate
the context of field data
and possibly extrapolate
these data to other
locations

Early Remote Sensing
Platforms

B-17 Flying Fortress
•• US US 8th 8th Air Air Force Force
B-17 B-17 Flying Flying
Fortress Fortress over over
Berlin, Berlin, Germany Germany in in
World World War War II. II.
Aerial Aerial photographs photographs
capture capture bombs bombs
from from the the unseen unseen B- B-
17 17 crash crash through through
the the port port horizontal horizontal
stabilizer. stabilizer.
Jensen,
Jensen,
2000
2000

U-2
Famous as a spy plane, the U-2 is now used as a research
platform

SR-71 Blackbird

Terra
The Terra Platform is the newest in a series of highquality
Earth viewing remote sensing platforms designed
to monitor Earths natural resources.

Global Hawk
The Global Hawk UAV belongs to a new series of
advanced and autonomous remote sensing platforms
able to fly across the globe with little or no supervision.

Pathfinder
Able to fly at 80,000 feet ASL, these new UAV’s are
lightweight, autonomous, and can carry significant payloads
for it’s size and weight.

Helios
With a 247 foot wingspan, Helios can fly above 93,000 feet ASL. Future models
will be designed to stay aloft for more than 6 months. The Helios weighs
approximately 1,600lbs which translates to about .81lbs/sq. ft. of wing. The top
speed is 27mph with a take-off speed of ~15 mph. The aircraft is solar powered
with a polymer-electrolyte (oxygen/hydrogen) fuel cell for night time activity.

What Can We See??

April 28 th , 2004
Fires in China and Russia caused
mostly by agricultural burning.
captured by the Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectrometer
(MODIS).

April 28th, 2004
Dust storm in Nevada captured
by the Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS)

Flooding along the Mississippi River,
Arkansas
April 17 th , 2004 April 27 th , 2004

1 meter digital black and
white imagery
4 meter digital color
imagery

QuickBird
Little Cottonwood Canyon (Snowbird and Alta, Utah) 280mi ASL, 2.3ft resolution

What Can We Do With It?

Between Year Change Detection – Urban Environment
1972
1982
1993
1997

History and
Resource Monitoring
Before: Alta, Utah
July 3, 1885
(Courtesy Utah State
Historical Society)
After 115 years:
Alta, Utah
July 3, 2002
(Courtesy Dr. Chris
Cline Westminster
College)

Seasonal Changes in Vegetation
July-Aug
Sept-Oct
ETM Bands 5, 4, 3 ETM Bands 5, 4, 3

Land Cover Mapping
Satellite imagery allows us the ability to identify and map land
cover features over large or small landscapes

Mapping land cover using remote sensing requires a
significant amount of field work covering all possible land
cover types in the area to be mapped

Field Data Collection for the
Southwest Regional GAP
Land Cover Map

Global Land Cover Classification Systems
Materials for this lecture were extracted from the Global Land Cover Characterization Web page
(http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/glcc/glcc.html)

AGRICULTURE
IKONOS Satellite Images of Wheat Fields
IKONOS
False
Color
May 22, 2000 (Jointing) June 6, 2000 (Boot) June 28, 2000 (Flowering)
IKONOS
NDVI
May 22, 2000 (Jointing) June 6, 2000 (Boot) June 28, 2000 (Flowering)

Identification of Potential Field Problems
June 23, 1999
July 9, 1999
•August 9, 1999
Unsupervised
Supervised

Estimated Fertilizer
Application Map from June 6,
2000
Yield Prediction Map from
June 6, 2000
Legend
Red 53 gallons USA/acre, Yellow 32.8 gallons USA/acre, Cyan
adequate, Royal Blue luxurious
Legend
0-80 bu/acre Blue, 80-90 bu/acre Turquoise , 90-100 bu/acre Aqua,
100-110 bu/acre Green, 110-120 bu/acre Yellow, 120-130 bu/acre Gold,
130-140 bu acre Orange, 140-150 bu/acre Red, 150+ bu/acre Maroon

Field Validation and
Model Training
•Pictures of the Transects
•Visual Observations
‣Color Differences
‣Number of Tillers Per Plant
‣Height of Plants
‣Vegetation Thickness
Always Necessary!!!

Chlorophyll Meter Method
• SPAD 502 chlorophyll meter made by
Minolta
• The meter was clamped on a leaf and
pressed to give a reading of the amount
of chlorophyll in the leaf on a 1-100
scale
• Samples from the middle of the top leaf
• Thirty samples were taken and averaged
for each data point.

Natural Resource Management
Wetland Delineation

Critical Habitat Modeling

Net Primary Productivity and
Climate Change Monitoring
January July October
Feb. Mar. Apr. May. Jun. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
A time series of 1-km Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)
data spanning April 1992 through March 1993 was used to model land cover
using phenological characteristics modeled using a Normalized Difference
Vegetation Index (NDVI) of each date.
In addition to monthly AVHRR NDVI, other key geographic data included
digital elevation data, ecoregion interpretations, and country or regional-level
vegetation and land cover maps.

MONITORING PHENOLOGICAL
FLUX

Geographic Information Systems
High Resolution Imagery
Medium Resolution Imagery
Land Use / Land Cover
Geology
Slope Categories
Slope Aspect
Elevation
Data layers are geographically
registered within a database
structure to allow queries between
layers to generate a better
understanding of landscape dynamics
and relationships.

Location X
Basic GIS Database
Outbreaks
Municipal Boundaries
School Districts
Census Blocks
Regions
Property Boundaries
Streets
Hydrology
County Boundaries
HazMat Sites
GIS Facilitates
Data Integration
Location can be used as the
central organizing and integrating
principle for data in multiple
databases
85% of government data is
‘geospatial’. It relates directly to
features that have a location, or, to
individuals / entities that have an
address location.
Population Density
Aerial Imagery