This document discusses various applications of remote sensing including land cover/land use mapping, agriculture, forestry, geology, geomorphology, urban analysis, hydrology, mapping, and ocean/coastal monitoring. Remote sensing is used for tasks such as crop health monitoring, deforestation detection, structural and terrain analysis, water quality monitoring, flood mapping, and oil spill monitoring. It provides data to study a wide range of Earth science topics and human impacts on the environment.

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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