Keynote for the USFWS/USNPS Geospatial Workshop at the National Conservation Training Center

1. All Sensors Point to a
Remote Sensing
Renaissance
Matt Ball
Founder and Editorial Director, V1 Media

2. Remote Sensing
Renaissance
• Enduring legacy of the Digital Earth vision
• Platforms - Earth observation satellites, UAS
• Sensor Innovations - LiDAR, multispectral, thermal
• Making Sense - fusion, analysis, insight
• Natural resource applications
• Maps, Apps, Experiences

3. Renaissance: A revival of intellectual achievement and vigor.
Deep Space Climate Observatory
Launched Feb. 11, 2015

4. The Enduring Vision of a Digital Earth
Speech by Al Gore, Jan. 31, 1998
Landsat 7
1990s-era VR

5. – Al Gore
“The hard part of taking advantage of
this flood of geospatial information
will be making sense of it.”

6. Baseline
What is our knowledge?
Inquiry
What are our questions?
Impacts
Monitoring change
Stewardship
Management practices
Response
Adaptation/Resilience
Sustainability
Holistic Understanding
Staying Curious

7. Monitoring Platforms

8. Satellite Explosion

9. Silicon Valley Startups
Accessible and Useful
Skybox Imaging
Planet Labs
UrtheCast (Canada)
OmniEarth
Hera Systems

10. High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite
Persistant Surveillance
(Wide-Area Motion Imagery)

11. UAS Prove Power of the Possible
Flexible, Automated, Capable

12. Sensor Innovations
Nile River at night, Astronaut Scott Kelly

13. Single Photon LiDAR

14. Smaller/Cheaper
• DARPA program for an ultra-
compact LiDAR system
• RIEGL RiCopter
• Quanergy developed first
solid-state LiDAR for
autonomous vehicles

15. Multispectral
Parrot Sequoia Multispectral Sensor
and Sunshine Sensor

16. Thermal
Search and rescue
Wildlife
Water Flow

17. Making Sense

18. Airborne Sensor Hubs
Onboard Processing

19. Open, Open, Open
Open Data, Open Source, Open Origin

20. Better Baselines
National Science Foundation’s
National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)

21. Increasing
Insights
• Cloud computing capacity
• Pattern recognition and
machine learning
• Online platforms focused
on predictive analytics
• High-frequency change
detection
• Earth Engine

22. Applications
• Forest inventory
• Snowpack assessment
• Watershed management
• Coastal zone management
• Invasive species
• Biodiversity
• Ecosystem services

23. Carnegie Observatory
Greg Asner, Ecology from Air, Ted Talk
“a very high-tech accounting system”

24. Snowpack Assessment
NRCS, National Water and Climate Center
ASO Airborne Snow Observatory operated by JPL

25. Chesapeake Bay
• 1-meter imagery and LiDAR
for the entire Chesapeake Bay
Watershed
• Land cover analysis
• Stormwater management
• Precision conservation

26. Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority
Louisiana’s Disappearing Coast

27. Invasive Species

28. Biodiversity
Photo: Martin Le-May

29. Ecosystem Services

30. Back to Digital Earth
Maps, Apps, Experiences

31. Enabling Exploration

32. Matt Ball
mball@v1-media.com
720-255-8127
Questions?