1. University of the West of England, Bristol
BSc Geography and Environmental
Management
GIS AND REMOTE
SENSING APPLICATIONS
PORTFOLIO (UBGMSU-
30-3)
Tony Gregory

6. Reflective Diary:
Description:
The structure of thisreportis basedonGibbs’reflectivecycle (1988).It encouragesreflexive and
reflectivethinkingaboutthe differentstagesof anactivityorexperience(Gibbs,1988).
For the GIS Remote sensingapplicationsmodulethisyear,anew programwas introduced. The aim
was to developanunderstandingandoperate ErdasImagine tocomplete twotasks.The firsttask
was a landcoverchange analysisof Rondonia,Brazil.Anunsupervisedclassificationwasperformed
for the dates1999-2013 to identifylandcoverchange,andaNormaliseddifference vegetationindex
to recognise change invegetationquality.
The secondtask wasa Burnt areaanalysisonUKhahlamba;an areain the SouthAfrican
Drakensburg. ERDASimagine wasusedtoquantifythe extentof burntareabetweenApril –October
2013, andthe NormalisedBurnRatioacrossthe same dates. All maps createdwere transferredto
Arc map to create aestheticallypleasingfiles.
Feelings, evaluation and actions
InitiallyIfeltworriedandanxiousafterdiscoveringthatwe wouldbe usinganew computer
programme,havingpreviously become veryfamiliarandwithArcGIS. My initial feelingswere
amplifiedonce Ibeganfollowingthe videosprovidedbyMichael. The structure wassimplisticwhich
allowedme tofollowthe taskswithoutanissue,butthe unfamiliarityof the programme made me
feel like Ihadnounderstandingof whatIwas tryingto achieve,andsofeltIwas followingeachtask
withoutreallylearningalongthe way. Thisbecame evidentwhenperforminganunsupervised
classificationforthe firsttime. Icreatedslightlyinaccurate landcovermapswithsome areasbeing
represented asafforestationwhenitwasobvioustheywere not.The erroroccurredwhenassigning
the spectral classes andperformingthe matrix union; Iexperiencedthison boththe landcover
analysisandthe burn change analysis,causingme tohave to performthese tasksseveral times
whichcreatedstressand I became disheartened.Ieventuallygotthe hangof themand produced
representable maps. Ifeltthiswasanachievementandwouldbe able toperformthe taska lotmore
efficientlynexttime round.If Iwasina positiontodo themagainI woulddoone of twothings.I
wouldproduce computerised matrix unionsratherthana handdrawnone soas to avoid
misunderstandingwhenIreferredbacktoit lateron,or if possible Iwouldperformasupervised
classification(Richards,1993);thiswould increase the accuracyof my workand reduce confusion.

7. I feltveryself-assuredwhencompletingthe NDVIandNBRelementsof the portfolio. They wentalot
more smoothlyforme than the othertasks;I feel thiswasbecause the lengthof eachtaskand the
structure was slightlylesscomplex withfewerareastotrip up on.I wouldnotchange my approach if
I was to tackle these tasksagain.
At timesIfeltIwas gettingthe hangof the programme,especiallyaftercompletingthe Rondonia
task,whichgrewmy confidence;howeverwithconfidencecame adegree of arrogance which
causedme to make mistakes atthe recode stage onthe UKhahlambatask.Thisresultedin
substantial setbacksinmyprogress,andontwo occasionsIhad to re start the entire change
analysis.IfeltIwouldnevergraspthe Erdas imagine programat thispoint,butI perseveredwithit
to create maps I waspleasedwith.InhindsightIwouldwrite downkey notesthroughoutthe taskso
as to not confuse myself andtoavoidmakingsimpleerrors.
I foundsome aspectsof the programme such as the swipe tool veryuseful andeasytouse,but
differentiatingbetweenlandformsdue tomylackof knowledgemeantsome classeswere
misrepresented.Ibecame impatientwiththispartof the task and rushedcertaindecisionsover
assigningclasses.Iwouldtake longerover decisions andnotletimpatience getthe betterof me in
the future.
I feltrelieved aftereachrecode asitsignifiedthe endof usingErdasimagine andthe start of Arc
GIS. My previousworkwiththisprogramme made me feel atease anda lotmore comfortable purely
because of the familiarityIassociate withit.The resultof thiswasfinal mapsthatI feltexceptionally
proudof.
Conclusion
Havinglearnedthatthe newprogram isnot as daunting touse as I originallyfearedand now Ifeel
that I couldcarry out similarassessmentswithconsiderablylesstrouble. Ihave significantly
improvedmyunderstandingof the ERDASsystem whichmakesme feel verysatisfiedwithmy
developmentasan undergraduate. Thisunderstandingwill be essential tome forfuture prospectsif
I decide totake GIS furtheras a potential carrierchoice.Asa nextstepIneed to take forwardwhatI
have learntso farand employthatknowledgetothe restof the module.
References:
GibbsG (1988) Learning by Doing:A guide to teaching and learning methods.FurtherEducation
Unit.OxfordPolytechnic:Oxford.

8. Richards,J. A.,(1993). Remote sensingdigitalimage analysis:anintroduction(secondedition)