application of remote sensing in various field of engineering and sciences

1. APPLICATIONS OF REMOTE
SENSING
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2. Table of contents
 Introduction
 Land cover and land use
 Agriculture
 Forestry
 Geology
 Geomorphology
 Urban application
 Hydrology
 Mapping
 Ocean and coastal monitoring
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3. Introduction
 Remote sensing is a versatile field.
 Can be used in various field such as agriculture, geology, oceanography, etc.
 Some areas of application include
 Landcover and landuse
 Agriculture
 Forestry
 Geology
 Geomorphology
 Urban applications
 Hydrology
 Mapping
 Ocean and coastal monitoring 3

4. Land cover and land use
 Land cover: physical condition of ground surface
 Land use: human employment of land
 Land use/land cover change:
 urban encroachment over agriculture/forest land.
 Change in land use from rural to urban is monitored to estimate
populations and sustainable planning.
 High resolution imageries can be used to estimate housing density.
 Analysis agriculture vs urban land use
 Can be used to identify building and violation
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5.  Land cover mapping:
 Basic inventory for all levels of government.
 Includes ice cover, snow, biomass mapping, etc.
 Biomass mapping includes leaf area index (LAI) which denotes
health of forest.
 LAI= ∗
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑠
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
 LAI is dependent on reflectance . Near IR reflectance increase
with LAI
 RS sensors capture changes in plant phenology by identifying
changes in chlorophyll content.
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6. Agriculture
 Plays a dominant role in economy
 RS aids in understanding health of crop, extent of infestation and potential
yields
 RS does not replace field work but directs farmers to the areas in need of
immediate attention
 Air borne images can be used to examine crop health and viability.
 RS gives synoptic view, provides information on health of vegetation
through spectral reflectance
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7.  Crop monitoring and crop assessment:
 RS imagery is done at a frequent basis.
 Growth differences are spotted
 Helps to identify areas of stunted growth
 Reduces input costs
 Not only detects problems but also monitors success of the treatment.
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8. Forestry
 Introduction
 Commercial and non commercial forests
 Causes of forest depletion (Natural and human activities)
 Traditional analysis of forests
 Use of remote sensing in forestry
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9. Remote sensing application in forestry include the following:
 Reconnaissance mapping:
 Collecting information (forest cover updating, depletion,
biophysical properties of forest stand)
 Forest cover type classification (usually done by Landsat TM
FCC)
 Agroforestry mapping
 Commercial forestry:
 Collecting information( harvesting, timber supply, forest type,
vegetation density and biomass measurement)
 Clear cut mapping
 Burn delineation
 Forest inventory
 Biomass estimation
 Species inventory 9

10.  Environmental mapping:
 Concerned with monitoring the quantity, health, and diversity of the
earth’s forests
 Deforestation
 Species inventory
 Watershed protection
 Coastal protection
 Forest health
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11. Clear cut mapping and deforestation
 Multi temporal data provides for change detection analysis.
 Normal image analysis
 Radar image analysis
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12. Species identification
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13. Fire detection
 Detect and monitor forest fire
 Thermal and meteorological data can be used when optical
sensors are hindered by smoke or darkness 13

14. Geology
 Mapping of surficial deposit/bed rock
 Lithological mapping
 Structural mapping
 Mineral exploration
 Environmental geology
 Geo hazard mapping
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15. Structural mapping and terrain analysis
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16. Geomorphology
 Introduction:
It is the study of shape or configuration of earths solid surface above and below
ocean level, involving the classification of landforms and the process by which
they develop.
 Application of RS:
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 In geomorphology the RS application tells about the landforms and the process
that are being used i.e. endogenetic and exogenetic process
 In its most simple application we can take remotely sensed image of earths
surface and interpret what we see to produce a geomorphological map.
 A very useful regard to todays RS is the availability of hyperspectral imagery.
 RS provides 3D representation of the surface in the production of digital
elevations models
 RS allows the rapid assessment of large areas and for monitoring of changes to
these areas 16

17. Urban application
 Analyzing urban growth studies
 Detection and measurement of variety of elements relating to the
morphology of cities
 Urban change analysis and modelling of future growth.
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18. Hydrology
Application of remote sensing in hydrology are as follows:
 Water quality monitoring
 Flood mapping and monitoring
 Measuring snow thickness
 Soil moisture estimation
 Ground water prospects and recharge
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19. Mapping
Application of remote sensing in mapping includes following:
 Planimetry:
It consists of the identification and geolocation of basic land covers (e.g., forest,
drainage) and anthropogenic features (e.g. urban infrastructures, transportation
networks) in (x,y) plane
 Digital elevation models(DEMs):
 DEM is the digital representation of the land surface elevation with respect to
any reference datum.
 It is the simplest form of digital representation of topography
 It is used to determine terrain attributes such as elevation at any point and slope
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20.  Base line thematic mapping/topographic mapping:
 It is the digital integration of satellite imagery, land use, land cover and
topographic data to produce an image map with contour lines.
 Various combinations of thematic information may be displayed to
optimize the map information for application purposes like:
• land use allocation
• Utility site selection
• Route planning
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21. Ocean and coastal monitoring
 RS offers numerous methods for acquiring information of ocean and
coastal regions
 Wind speed and direction, wave heights, sea water temperature can
be recorded
 This information is useful for offshore engineering works, fisheries
and more
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22.  Ocean colors:
 Ocean color analysis indicates the health of the ocean
 Mapping the changes in ocean color can assist the fish stock
management, potential feeding sites.
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23.  Oil spills
 Oil spills destroy aquatic life
 Using remote sensing we can determine the spill location, size
and extent of spill, and predict the spill movement
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24.  Sea ice:
 Remote sensing data can be used to map and identify ice type, locate
cracks, movements.
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25.  Ship routing:
 The remote sensing data allows to design us the most feasible
foots for designing routes for the ships.
 Data such as wind speed , wave height, sea ice, provide us
information of ocean activity.
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