Digital Commons Network^™

Estimating Energy Fluxes And Evapotranspiration Of Corn And Soybean With An Unmanned Aircraft System In Ames, Iowa, Áthila Gevaerd Montibeller

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key hydrological variable and has been studies to plan irrigation schedule, understand surface-atmospheric interactions, assess crop sensitivity to droughts, etc. On top of that, ET is a proxy for evaluating water availability in trees canopies and assess soil moisture content. The recent advent of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) has presented new opportunities and challenges in mapping ET at a much finer scale and under various atmospheric conditions. In this research, we integrate traditional remote sensing techniques with the novel UAS technology to estimate ET and surface energy fluxes for a corn and soybean field near …

Surface Temperature Mapping Of The University Of Northern Iowa Campus Using High Resolution Thermal Infrared Aerial Imagery, Alexander Savelyev

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The goal of this study was to produce and analyze a heat loss map of the University of the Northern Iowa campus using thermal infrared remote sensing data. Aerial data with the spatial resolution of 0.29m and radiometric resolution of 14 bit was collected. A model for the pixel to radiance and temperature conversion was developed with its parameters estimated with an R² of 0.78. Temperature imagery was shown to be consistent over the time of the survey and accurate to within 12°C. The temperature map then was used to assess the conditions of the rooftops and steam pipelines …

Tree Species Identification In An Urban Environment Using A Data Fusion Approach, Matthew A. Voss

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This thesis explores a data fusion approach combining hyperspectral, LiDAR, and multispectral data to classify tree species in an urban environment. The study area is the campus of the University of Northern Iowa.

In order to use the data fusion approach, a wide variety of data was incorporated into the classification. These data include: a four-band Quickbird image from April 2003 with 0.6m spatial resolution, a 24-band AISA hyperspectral image from July 2004 with 2m spatial resolution, a 63-band AISA Eagle hyperspectral image from October 2006 with lm spatial resolution, a high resolution, multiple return LiDAR data set from April …

Monitoring Spatial And Temporal Water Quality Changes In Iowa Lakes Using Airborne Hyperspectral Imagery, Nathan Robert Green

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has identified more than 20,000 water bodies across America as polluted mainly due to agricultural non-point source pollution. Current techniques for monitoring and assessing the quality of waters in streams, reservoirs, lakes, and estuaries involve on site measurements and/or the collection of water samples for subsequent laboratory analyses. While this approach yields accurate measurements for a point in time and space, it is expensive, laborious, and cannot provide a temporal or spatial overview of water-quality trends. To overcome this liability, state and local agencies are seeking alternative and more cost effective methods. A …

Mapping Wetlands And Potential Wetland Restoration Areas In Black Hawk County, Iowa Using Object-Oriented Classification And A Gis-Based Model, James Harken

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Wetlands are transitional lands between terrestrial and aquatic systems that provide many benefits, including: floodwater retention, non-point pollution treatment, wildlife habitat, and soil-erosion control. Wetlands in Iowa have decreased over 95% in the last 200 years. Therefore, there is a need to map and monitor these resources, as well as to determine potential sites for wetland restoration. In Black Hawk County, wetland maps are outdated, and ground surveys have proved to be too time-consuming and expensive. Traditional pixel-based automated classifiers of remotely-sensed imagery have also proven to be inaccurate in classifying wetlands because of spectral confusion. This study tests multispectral …

Assessing The Classification Accuracy Of Digitized National Aerial Photography Program Imagery: Comparison With Botanical Data, Mark Arthur Alexander

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The ability to acquire and use remotely sensed data has revolutionized large-scale ecological studies by reducing dependence on difficult and expensive field survey techniques for acquisition of land use and land cover data. Multispectral satellite imagery, typically from the Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS), Thematic Mapper (TM) and the SPOT High Resolution Visible (HRV) instruments, has proven particularly valuable in surveying and classifying vegetation cover (Frank & Thorn, 1985). Further studies have concluded that alpine vegetation communities and habitats can be mapped successfully by including the geomorphic parameters of elevation, slope, and incidence when classifying remotely sensed data.

This research analyzes …