Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

How Could Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas) Be Used For Ecohydrological And Ecosystem Research? Experiences Of First Operations With Uas In River Flood Plains Of Northern Mongolia, Jürgen Hofmann, Martin Oczipka, Thomas Rutz, Hauke Dämpfling

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

This paper proposes the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) as a method for monitoring biotic resources and ecohydrological systems in river floodplains.

Small scale mapping based on LANDSAT and SRTM or ASTER data is of limited applicability since a spatial resolution of 30 to 90 m is not sufficient to meet the demands of habitat mapping and large scale 3D -modelling. Newer satellites like WorldView2 and SENTINEL (space mission from European Space Agency within the Copernicus Programme) could be an option to gain a 0.5 m resolution, but the availability of image data is limited.

UAS allow the collection …

Simulating The Impacts Of Land-Use Land-Cover Changes On Cropland Carbon Fluxes In The Midwest Of The United States, Zhengpeng Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the major drivers of the cropland carbon fluxes is important for carbon management and greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture. Past studies found that agricultural land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes, such as changes in cropland production technologies, tillage practices, and planted crop species, could have large impacts on carbon fluxes. However, the impacts remain highly uncertain at regional to global scales. Satellite remote sensing is commonly used to create products with geospatial information on LULC changes. This geospatial information can be integrated into biogeochemical models to simulate the spatial and temporal patterns of carbon fluxes. We used the General Ensemble …

Early Detection Of Mountain Pine Beetle Damage In Ponderosa Pine Forests Of The Black Hills Using Hyperspectral And Worldview-2 Data, Kyle Edward Mullen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

A leading cause for mortality in the pine forests of western North America, the mountain pine beetle, has impacted over 400,000 acres of ponderosa pine forest in the Black Hills of South Dakota since 1996. Methods aimed at earlier detection, prior to visual manifestation of a mountain pine beetle damage in the tree crown, have not been successful because of the overlap and variability of spectral response between the initial stages of attack (green-attacked) and non-attacked tree crowns. Needle-level reflectance spectra was measured from green-attack and non-attack ponderosa pine trees in early spring following an infestation and analyzed using a …

Anthropogenic Influence On Blackfin Sucker (Thoburnia Atripinnis) Distribution, In The Upper Barren River System, Kentucky And Tennessee, Christa Rose Hurak

Online Theses and Dissertations

We evaluated the effects of land use and cover on endemic blackfin sucker (Thoburnia atripinnis) catch per unit effort and abundance within the Upper Barren River (UBR) system, a priority conservation area, in south-central Kentucky. Anthropogenic impacts have rendered T. atripinnis a “species of greatest conservation need” by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. This study focused on determining if land use surrounding blackfin sucker sampling sites and certain physicochemical parameters could be impacting their inhabitance at these sites. Data collection and ground truthing occurred between September 2015 and June 2016. ArcGIS was used to extract land use …

A Multi-Sensor View Of The 2012 Central Plains Drought From Space, Jun Wang, Amy L. Kessner, Clint Aegerter, Ambrish Sharma, Laura Judd, Brian D. Wardlow, Jinsheng You, Martha Shulski, Suat Irmak, Ayse Kilic, Jing Zeng

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

In summer of 2012, the Central Plains of the United States experienced its most severe drought since the ground-based data record began in the late 1900s. By using comprehensive satellite data from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission), along with in-situ observations, this study documents the geophysical parameters associated with this drought, and thereby providing, for the first time, a large-scale observation-based view of the extent to which the land surface temperature and vegetation can likely be affected by both the severe drought and the agricultural response (irrigation) to the drought. Over non-irrigated area, 2012 …

Developing The Framework For A Risk Map For Mite Vectored Viruses In Wheat Resulting From Pre-Harvest Hail Damage, Anthony L. Nguy-Robertson, Arthur Zygielbaum, Anthony J. Mcmechan, Gary L. Hein, Stephen N. Wegulo, Abby R. Stilwell, Travis M. Smith

Department of Plant Pathology: Faculty Publications

There is a strong economic incentive to reduce mite-vectored virus outbreaks. Most outbreaks in the central High Plains of the United States occur in the presence of volunteer wheat that emerges before harvest as a result of hail storms. This study provides a conceptual framework for developing a risk map for wheat diseases caused by mite-vectored viruses based on pre-harvest hail events. Traditional methods that use NDVI were found to be unsuitable due to low chlorophyll content in wheat at harvest. Site-level hyperspectral reflectance from mechanically hailed wheat showed increased canopy albedo. Therefore, any increase in NIR combined with large …

Integration Of Spectral And Spatial Information Via Local Covariance Matrices For Segmentation And Classification Of Hyperspectral Images, Uğur Ergül, Gökhan Bi̇lgi̇n

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this work, a novel approach is presented for the feature extraction step in hyperspectral image processing to form more discriminative features between different pixel regions. The proposed method combines both spatial and spectral information, which is very important for segmentation and classification of hyperspectral images. For comparison, five different feature sets are formed using eigen decomposition of local covariance matrices of subcubes located around a pixel of interest in the scene. Subcubes of neighbor pixels are obtained by a windowed structure to expose pattern similarities. As a novel approach, local covariance matrices are computed in eigenspace and proposed feature …

Fine-Scale Change Detection Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Uas) To Inform Reproductive Biology In Nesting Waterbirds, Sharon Dulava

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Aerial photographic surveys from manned aircraft are commonly used to estimate the size of bird breeding colonies but are rarely used to evaluate reproductive success. Recent technological advances have spurred interest in the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for monitoring wildlife. The ability to repeatedly sample and collect imagery at fine-scale spatial and temporal resolutions while minimizing disturbance and safety risks make UAS particularly appealing for monitoring colonial nesting waterbirds. In addition, advances in photogrammetric and GIS software have allowed for more streamlined data processing and analysis. Using UAS imagery collected at Anaho Island National Wildlife Refuge during the …

Spatiotemporal Variability Of Plant Phenology In Drylands: A Case Study From The Northern Chihuahuan Desert, Naomi Robin Luna

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

With global change, which includes climate change, there is a sense of urgency to understand how shifts in climate will affect ecosystems. Although several studies have improved understanding of how and why some ecosystems respond, most studies have not explored simultaneous responses of different land cover types throughout a given region. Dryland ecosystems, such as the Chihuahuan Desert, appear to respond to climate variability and currently make up about 40% of global land surface area. It is expected that drylands will expand to cover 60% of land surface area on earth by mid-century making this ecosystem more critical to global …

Estimating The Water Quality Condition Of River And Lake Water In The Midwestern United States From Its Spectral Characteristics, Jing Tan

Open Access Dissertations

This study focuses on developing/calibrating remote sensing algorithms for water quality retrieval in Midwestern rivers and lakes. In the first part of this study, the spectral measurements collected using a hand-held spectrometer as well as water quality observations for the Wabash River and its tributary the Tippecanoe River in Indiana were used to develop empirical models for the retrieval of chlorophyll (chl) and total suspended solids (TSS). A method for removing sky and sun glint from field spectra for turbid inland waters was developed and tested. Empirical models were then developed using a subset of the field measurements with the …

Fire And Flood Expand The Floodplain Shifting Habitat Mosaic Concept, W. J. Kleindl, Mark C. Rains, L. A. Marshall, F. R. Hauer

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The floodplain shifting habitat mosaic concept suggests that habitat patch dynamics are influenced by hydrologic disturbances driven by flood pulses of sufficient power to initiate incipient motion of the substratum and maintain cut-and-fill alluviation of the channel and banks. However, floodplain habitat mosaics are subject to other important landscape-scale disturbance regimes. In the Rocky Mountains of the USA and Canada, fire also affects floodplain habitat patch composition. The floodplain exists at the intersection of disturbance regimes that shape the riverscape and those that shape the landscape. We extended the shifting habitat mosaic concept by examining the effects of multiple disturbance …

Comparison Of Microfacet Brdf Model To Modified Beckmann-Kirchhoff Brdf Model For Rough And Smooth Surfaces, Samuel D. Butler, Stephen E. Nauyoks, Michael A. Marciniak

Faculty Publications

A popular class of BRDF models is the microfacet models, where geometric optics is assumed. In contrast, more complex physical optics models may more accurately predict the BRDF, but the calculation is more resource intensive. These seemingly disparate approaches are compared in detail for the rough and smooth surface approximations of the modified Beckmann-Kirchhoff BRDF model, assuming Gaussian surface statistics. An approximation relating standard Fresnel reflection with the semi-rough surface polarization term, Q, is presented for unpolarized light. For rough surfaces, the angular dependence of direction cosine space is shown to be identical to the angular dependence in the microfacet …

Experimental And Theoretical Basis For A Closed-Form Spectral Brdf Model, Samuel D. Butler

Theses and Dissertations

The microfacet class of BRDF models is frequently used to calculate optical scatter from realistic surfaces using geometric optics, but has the disadvantage of not being able to consider wavelength dependence. This dissertation works toward development of a closed-form approximation to the BRDF that is suitable for hyperspectral remote sensing by presenting measured BRDF data of 12 different materials at four different incident angles and up to seven different wavelengths between 3.39 and 10.6 µm. The data was intended to be fit to various microfacet BRDF models to determine an appropriate form of the wavelength scaling. However, when fitting the …

Evaluation Of Regional Climate Models With Remotely Sensed Evapotranspiration Data, Doruk Ozturk

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Water is one of the most precious resources on Earth. Managing water resources is a complex discipline that requires accurate data, which in turn means that the management of water resources is limited by the availability and quality of these datasets. Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of these key datasets, but is also one that is lacking in large-scale spatial distribution with traditional methods such as weighing lysimeters or Bowen ratio. This is a quantity that needs to be evaluated in regional and global climate models since it is a substantial component of the land surface-atmosphere interaction. In order to overcome …

Assessing Biogeochemical Impacts And Environmental Conditions Associated With Cross-Shelf High Chlorophyll Plumes In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Erin Brooke Jones

Dissertations

The northern Gulf of Mexico is a complex marine system subject to episodic physical phenomena such as loop current eddies. Flow fields generated by these eddies can result in cross-shelf exchanges between riverine influenced shelf waters and the offshore water column. This study considers the impacts of high chlorophyll plumes (HCPs) resulting from cross-shelf exchanges to the bio-optical properties of affected waters and how these plumes are influenced by their environment. The seasonal, interannual and decadal chlorophyll cycles of the Gulf of Mexico and the northern Gulf of Mexico are described to provide context for evaluating the ecological effects of …

Slides: New Era Of Water Banking And Refined "Water Accounting", Bonnie Colby

Innovations in Managing Western Water: New Approaches for Balancing Environmental, Social and Economic Outcomes (Martz Summer Conference, June 11-12)

Presenter: Professor Bonnie Colby, Departments of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Arizona

23 slides

Slides: Food Production: Technical Challenges In Agricultural Water Conservation, Perry Cabot

Innovations in Managing Western Water: New Approaches for Balancing Environmental, Social and Economic Outcomes (Martz Summer Conference, June 11-12)

Presenter: Dr. Perry Cabot, Research Scientist and Extension Specialist, Colorado Water Institute, Colorado State University

35 slides

A Comparison Of Habitat And Geomorphic Changes On East Ship Versus Sand Islands Mississippi, 2007-2014, Carlton Peter Anderson

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

A COMPARISON OF HABITAT AND GEOMORPHIC CHANGES ON EAST SHIP VERSUS SAND ISLANDS MISSISSIPPI, 2007-2014

by Carlton Peter Anderson

May 2015

The islands of the Mississippi-Alabama (MS-AL) barrier island chain along the micro-tidal northern Gulf of Mexico are highly dynamic coastal features subject to rapid changes in habitat, geomorphology, and elevation by natural and anthropogenic disturbances, such as hurricanes, subsidence, sea-level rise, and dredging activities. The purpose of this study was to compare elevation, total volume, habitat-type coverage, and short-term change between “naturally” formed East Ship Island and “man-made” Sand Island (Disposal-Area 10). This study used a combination of …

Utilizing Remote Sensing Imagery To Monitor Vegetation Change Within World Heritage Sites, Mimi Eve Hatzis

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

World Heritage sites provide a glimpse into the stories and civilizations of the past. There are currently 1007 unique World Heritage properties with 779 being classified as cultural sites, 197 as natural sites, and 31 falling into the categories of both cultural and natural sites (UNESCO & World Heritage Centre, 1992-2015). However, of these 1007 World Heritage sites, at least 46 are categorized as in danger and this number continues to grow. These unique and irreplaceable sites are exceptional because of their universality. Consequently, since World Heritage sites belong to all the people of the world and provide inspiration …

A Two-Laser Beam Technique For Improving The Sensitivity Of Low Frequency Open Path Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectrometer (Op-Tdlas) Measurements, Isra'a Lateef Mohammad

Theses and Dissertations

Open path tunable diode-laser absorption spectroscopy (OP-TDLAS) is a promising technique that is proposed for detecting low concentrations of possible biogenic gases on Mars. This technique determines the concentration of a gas by measuring the amount of laser light absorbed by molecules at a specific wavelength that is characteristic of those molecules. One of the major factors limiting sensitivity in the OP-TDLAS systems is noise. At low modulation frequencies, 1/f noise usually dominates. This 1/f noise is minimized in many spectroscopy systems by use of high frequency techniques. However, these methods use complex instruments that include reference cells and other …

Assessment Of Surface Soil Moisture Using High-Resolution Multi-Spectral Imagery And Artificial Neural Networks, Leila Hassan-Esfahani, Alfonso Torres-Rua, Austin Jensen, Mac Mckee

AggieAir Publications

Many crop production management decisions can be informed using data from high-resolution aerial images that provide information about crop health as influenced by soil fertility and moisture. Surface soil moisture is a key component of soil water balance, which addresses water and energy exchanges at the surface/atmosphere interface; however, high-resolution remotely sensed data is rarely used to acquire soil moisture values. In this study, an artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed to quantify the effectiveness of using spectral images to estimate surface soil moisture. The model produces acceptable estimations of surface soil moisture (root mean square error (RMSE) = …

Productivity, Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation, And Light Use Efficiency In Crops: Implications For Remote Sensing Of Crop Primary Production, Anatoly A. Gitelson, Yi Peng, Timothy J. Arkebauer, Andrew E. Suyker

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Vegetation productivity metrics such as gross primary production (GPP) at the canopy scale are greatly affected by the efficiency of using absorbed radiation for photosynthesis, or light use efficiency (LUE). Thus, close investigation of the relationships between canopy GPP and photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by vegetation is the basis for quantification of LUE. We used multiyear observations over irrigated and rainfed contrasting C3 (soybean) and C4 (maize) crops having different physiology, leaf structure, and canopy architecture to establish the relationships between canopy GPP and radiation absorbed by vegetation and quantify LUE. Although multiple LUE definitions are reported in the literature, …

Eeflux: A Landsat-Based Evapotranspiration Mapping Tool On The Google Earth Engine, Richard Allen, Charles Morton, Baburao Kamble, Ayse Kilic, Justin Huntington, David Thau, Noel Gorelick, Tyler Erickson, Rebecca Moore, Ricardo Trezza, Ian C. Ratcliffe, Clarence Robison

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

“EEFlux” is an acronym for ‘Earth Engine Evapotranspiration Flux.’ EEFlux is based on the operational surface energy balance model “METRIC” (Mapping ET at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration), and is a Landsat-imagebased process. Landsat imagery supports the production of ET maps at resolutions of 30 m, which is the scale of many human-impacted and human-interest activities including agricultural fields, forest clearcuts and vegetation systems along streams. ET over extended time periods provides valuable information regarding impacts of water consumption on Earth resources and on humans. EEFlux uses North American Land Data Assimilation System hourly gridded weather data collection for energy …

Multi-Scale Evaluation Of Light Use Efficiency In Modis Gross Primary Productivity For Croplands In The Midwestern United States, Qinchuan Xin, Mark Broich, Andrew E. Suyker, Le Yu, Peng Gong

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Satellite remote sensing provides continuous observations of land surfaces, thereby offering opportunities for large-scale monitoring of terrestrial productivity. Production Efficiency Models (PEMs) have been widely used in satellite-based studies to simulate carbon exchanges between the atmosphere and ecosystems. However, model parameterization of the maximum light use efficiency (ε*_GPP) varies considerably for croplands in agricultural studies at different scales. In this study, we evaluate cropland ε*_GPP in the MODIS Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) model (MOD17) using in situ measurements and inventory datasets across the Midwestern US. The site-scale calibration using 28 site-years tower measurements derives ε*_GPP values …

Estimation And Analysis Of Gross Primary Production Of Soybean Under Various Management Practices And Drought Conditions, Pradeep Wagle, Xiangming Xiao, Andrew E. Suyker

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Gross primary production (GPP) of croplands may be used to quantify crop productivity and evaluate a range of management practices. Eddy flux data from three soybean (Glycine max L.) fields under different management practices (no-till vs. till; rainfed vs. irrigated) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived vegetation indices (VIs) were used to test the capabilities of remotely sensed VIs and soybean phenology to estimate the seasonal dynamics of carbon fluxes. The modeled GPP (GPP_VPM) using vegetation photosynthesis model (VPM) was compared with the GPP (GPP_EC) estimated from eddy covariance measurements. The VIs tracked soybean …

Application Of Remote Sensing For Quantifying And Mapping Surface Energy Fluxes In South Central Nebraska: Analyses With Respect To Field Measurements, Vivek Sharma, Suat Irmak, Ayse Kilic, Denis Mutibwa

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Large-scale quantification of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) from various vegetation surfaces can aid in planning, managing, and allocating water resources. Field measurement of surface energy fluxes, including ETc, remains (and should remain) a crucial process for calibration and validation of satellite/remote sensing-based methods, which can provide important supporting information for water balance assessments and for analyzing the spatial distribution of energy fluxes on large scales. The Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) was evaluated in estimating surface energy fluxes in south central Nebraska using Landsat imagery and meteorological data. SEBS-estimated surface energy fluxes were compared to Bowen Ratio Energy Balance System (BREBS) …

Multi-Year Observations Of Breiðamerkurjökull, A Marine-Terminating Glacier In Southeastern Iceland, Using Terrestrial Radar Interferometry, Denis Voytenko, Timothy H. Dixon, Ian M. Howat, Noel Gourmelen, Chad Lembke, Charles L. Werner, Santiago De La Peña, Björn Oddsson

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Terrestrial radar interferometry (TRI) is a new technique for studying ice motion and volume change of glaciers. TRI is especially useful for temporally and spatially dense measurements of highly dynamic glacial termini. We conducted a TRI survey of Breiðamerkurjökull, a marine-terminating glacier in Iceland, imaging its terminus near the end of the melt season in 2011, 2012 and 2013. The ice velocities were as high as 5 m d−1, with the fastest velocities near the calving front. Retreat of the glacier over the 3 year observation period was accompanied by strong embayment formation. Iceberg tracking with the radar shows high …

Decrease Of Carbon Tetrachloride (Ccl⁴) Over 2004-2013 As Inferred From Global Occultation Measurements With Ace-Fts, E. Mahieu, Peter F. Bernath, Christopher D. Boone, Kaley A. Walker

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

In this contribution, we use infrared solar occultation measurements performed by the ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment – Fourier Transform Spectrometer) instrument onboard the SCISAT-1 Canadian satellite (Bernath et al., 2005). Since its launch in August 2003, this spectrometer has been in continuous operation with no significant degradation of its performance, and global measurements are available from late February 2004 onwards, spanning now more than a decade.

New Methodologies For Grasslands Monitoring, Katarzyna Dabrowska-Zielinska, Piotr Goliński, Marit Jorgensen, Jørgen Mølmann, Gregory Taff, Monika Tomaszewska, Barbara Golińska, Maria Budzynska, Martyna Gatkowska

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Monitoring grassland areas to assess changes in their condition over time has been the subject of a lot of research at different scales. Initially the techniques focused on field-based measurements, and modelling. However, several obtained data were site specific. Based on the increase in availability of remote sensing data and products, there is an expectation that remote sensing can provide rapid and definite answers to the challenges of detecting and monitoring grassland conditions and associated changes in productivity. At the time of European Copernicus Programme, the new possibilities of satellite data from the group of Sentinel satellites give the new …

Glaciological Applications Of Terrestrial Radar Interferometry, Denis Voytenko

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Terrestrial Radar Interferometry (TRI) is a relatively new ground-based technique that combines the precision and spatial resolution of satellite interferometry with the temporal resolution of GPS. Although TRI has been applied to a variety of fields including bridge and landslide monitoring, it is ideal for studies of the highly-dynamic terminal zones of marine-terminating glaciers, some of which are known to have variable velocities related to calving and/or ocean-forced melting. My TRI instrument is the Gamma Portable Radar Interferometer, which operates at 17.2 GHz (1.74 cm wavelength), has two receiving antennas for DEM (digital elevation model) generation, and images the scenes …