Multi-Sensor Airborne Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring Seminar

Event details

The use of data from multiple remotely sensed sources is increasingly being seen as necessary for fully describing earth surface and biological/ecological processes. This vision is being realized by the increasing availability of smaller less expensive sensors, and more cost effective platforms, on which to mount the payloads. We, as remote sensing specialists and earth/ecological scientists, therefore now have the opportunity and capacity to generate datasets that describe both the form and functioning of the reflective/emissive surface. In 2005 a programme was established at the University of Victoria that sought to build multisensor remote sensing research and teaching capacity. The foci of this programme were to 1) build an airborne sensing capability that acquired data related to both form and function; 2) build a processing environment that exploited these data in such a fashion as to build on the strengths of each; and 3) develop an application programme directed at our physical geography progamme. The talk will focus on describing the data acquisition and processing environment that has evolved from this programme, and provide examples through applications directed to species identification, vegetation health, and the remote sensing of wetlands environments. I will explore some ideas related to object-oriented (o-o) strategies to optimize modeling output. I will apply the o-o concept to addressing the separation of structurally and biophysically similar vegetation species, and the detection of previsual effects of insect infestation, in this case the mountain pine beetle. The talk will then move on to the characterization of wetland environments, specifically two geomorphologically diverse areas in northeastern British Columbia and northern Alberta where we experience a range of wetland landscapes. The talk will conclude with a discussion of future directions of the research. Chair: Dr Jadu Dash