REMOTE SENSING includes all methods and techniques used to gain qualitative and quantitative information about distant objects without coming into direct contact with these objects. Remote Sensing (Look-Look, No Touch) is a much wider field than we will discuss in this lecture series. We will concentrate on that part of RS dealing with EARTH LAND RESOURCES

1. Introduction to Remote Sensing

4. What is REMOTE SENSING ?
 REMOTE SENSING includes all
methods and techniques used to
gain qualitative and quantitative
information about distant objects
without coming into direct
contact with these objects.
Look-Look, NO Touch

5. What is REMOTE SENSING ?
Remote Sensing (RS) methods try to answer
four basic questions:
 HOW MUCH of WHAT is WHERE?
 What is the SHAPE and EXTENT of ... ?
(Area, Boundaries, Lineaments, ...)
 Has it CHANGED?
 What is the MIX of Objects

6. What is REMOTE SENSING ?
HOW MUCH of WHAT is WHERE?
 WHAT: Type, Characteristic and Properties
of Object. Eg. Water, Vegetation, Land;
Temperature, Concentration, State of
Development; Subtype, Species, Use of ... ;
Includes determination of generic object type,
character and property as well as it’s abstract
meaning.
=> DATA INTERPRETATION

7. What is REMOTE SENSING ?
 HOW MUCH of WHAT is WHERE?
 HOW MUCH: determine by simple COUNTING,
measuring AREA covered or percentage of total
area coverage.
 WHERE: Relate locations and area covered to
either a standard map or to the actual location on
the ‘ground’ where the object occurs.
NOTE: WHERE also refers to a moment in time

8. What is REMOTE SENSING ?
 What is the SHAPE and EXTENT of ... ?
(Area, Boundaries, Lineaments, ...)
 This extends the ‘WHERE’ to be a completely
GEOMETRIC problem. MAP PRODUCTION
methods are to be applied to the analysis of RS
information. These include:
Photogrammetric Methods:
Identification and Delineation of Boundaries and
Lineaments (Roads, Rivers, Fault Lines)

9. What is REMOTE SENSING ?
 Has it CHANGED?
CHANGE may occur with progress of TIME.
Change may be detected through comparison of observed
states at different moments in time.
=> CHANGE DETECTION

10. What is REMOTE SENSING ?
 What is the MIX of Objects?
The surface of the Earth is covered by objects like
Soil, Water, Grass, Trees, Houses, Roads and so
on. These are ‘GENERIC OBJECTS’. We
know these well, but we also know objects like
Open Forest, Residential and Industrial
Estates, etc. Each of these ABSTRACT
OBJECTS are made up of a typical collection
of Generic Objects.

11. What is REMOTE SENSING ?
 What is the MIX of Objects?
One important task for Remote Sensing is to
identify
GENERIC OBJECTS as well as
ABSTRACT OBJECTS within areas of interest
The following lessons will be devoted to
techniques and methods as well as to the
logistic for finding answers to the four basic
questions.

12. What is REMOTE SENSING ?
 Remote Sensing (Look-Look,
No Touch) is a much wider
field than we will discuss in
this lecture series. We will
concentrate on that part of
RS dealing with
 EARTH LAND
RESOURCES
Vision Medical Imaging
Sound and Radio Wave Detection

30. Remote Sensing
applications
Intro to Remote Sensing

31. Agriculture
 Analysis include – climate, weather; the quality,
quantity, and location of arable land; population
dynamics, energy production, and environmental
quality issues.
 Most common
 crop-type identification
 Crop condition assessments
 crop yield forecasting
 historic planting patterns
 Soil vitality

32. Forestry
 The most important forest information
obtained from remotely sensed data is:
 Detailed forest inventory data
 Broad area monitoring of forest health
 Assessment of forest structure in support of
sustainable forest management

33. Geology

34. Geology

35. Climate & Weather
 Atmospheric
 Temperature
 Wind
 Pressure
 Precipitable water
 Natural Disaster Monitoring & Prediction
 Land
 Snow cover
 Urban heat effect

36. Climate & weather

37. Archaeology
 Site Discovery
 Faint visible lines
 Slight variations in topography
 Crop & soil marks
 New technology can penetrate sand (SIR-
C)
 Environmental Analysis
 To understand environment in historic
times
 Identify possible historical natural disasters

38. Archaeology
This overview image shows
a map of the
archaeological findings in
the region around
Carnuntum, superimposed
on a satellite image map of
the area (e.g 1,2-
amphitheatres, 10-
adminstrative quarter, 12-
camp of the legion, 13-
settlement).

39. Archaeology

40. Archaeology

41. Archaeology

42. Military & Intelligence
 Where Remote Sensing got started
 Applications
 Battlefield awareness
 Status of both sides
 Targeting
 Inventory of other militaries
 Threat assessment
 Planning
 Tools
 Surveillance aircraft
 High altitude
 New UAV-type
 Satellites

43. Military & Intelligence

44. Military & Intelligence

45. Urban Infrastructure
 Popular area for research
 Urban infrastructure uses
 Planimetric base mapping
 Airborne & satellite imagery
 Used for infrastructure inventory & road centerline
mapping
 Topography
 Land cover
 Development monitoring
 Emergency Response/Disaster Management

46. Urban Infrastructure

47. Urban Infrastructure