Remote Sensing Commons^™

The Cost Of Hauling Timber: A Comparison Of Raster- And Vector- Based Travel-Time Estimates In Gis, Sara M. Loreno

Geography Masters Research Papers

The cost of transporting forest products from harvest site to processing facility is a critical indicator of timber project feasibility. In order to accurately assess these timber haul costs, least-cost travel-time estimates among the site and the facility can be estimated using vector- or raster-based GIS methods. This study explores the applicability of both the raster- and vector-techniques within a variety of landscapes, including forested areas where comprehensive transportation data is limited. A comparison between the travel-time estimates derived from both methods was performed on three study sites using real-world data. The comparison also tested the effect of resolution on …

Convergence Of Dune Topography Among Multiple Barrier Island Morphologies, Jackie Ann Monge

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Wave-dominated and mixed tidal and wave energy barrier islands are assumed to have characteristic dune topographies that link to their macroscale form. However, there has been no systematic attempt to describe the linkage between barrier island macroscale form and dune topography. The goal of this thesis was to investigate how dune topographies correspond to a number of barrier island morphologies found along the southeastern U.S. Atlantic coast. Macroscale process-form variables were used to classify 77 islands into seven morphologic clusters. Islands from each cluster were selected and sites characteristic of the range of dune topographies within islands were characterized using …

Numerical Simulation Of “An American Haboob”, A. Vukovic, M. Vujadinovic, G. Pejanovic, J. Andric, M. J. Kumjian, V. Djurdjevic, M. Dacic, Anup K. Prasad, Hesham El-Askary, B. C. Paris, S. Petkovic, W. Sprigg, S. Nickovic

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

A dust storm of fearful proportions hit Phoenix in the early evening hours of 5 July 2011. This storm, an American haboob, was predicted hours in advance because numerical, land–atmosphere modeling, computing power and remote sensing of dust events have improved greatly over the past decade. High-resolution numerical models are required for accurate simulation of the small scales of the haboob process, with high velocity surface winds produced by strong convection and severe downbursts. Dust productive areas in this region consist mainly of agricultural fields, with soil surfaces disturbed by plowing and tracks of land in the high Sonoran Desert …

Detecting The Influence Of Best Management Practices On Vegetation Near Ephemeral Streams With Landsat Data, Matthew Rigge, Alexander Smart, Bruce Wylie, Kendall De Van Kamp

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Various best management practices (BMPs) have been implemented on rangelands with the goals of controlling nonpoint sourcepollution, reducing the impact of livestock in ecologically important riparian areas, and improving grazing distribution.Providing off-stream water sources to livestock in pastures, cross-fencing, and rotational grazing are common rangeland BMPsthat have demonstrated success in drawing livestock grazing pressure away from streams. We evaluated the effects of rangelandBMP implementation with six commercial-scale pastures in the northern mixed-grass prairie. Four pastures received a BMPsuite consisting of off-stream water, cross-fencing, and deferred-rotation grazing, and two pastures did not receive BMPs. Wehypothesized that the BMPs increased the quantity …

Mapping Technologically And Economically Important Materials At Lunar And Terrestrial Sites Using Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) And Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission And Reflection Radiometer (Aster) Data, Douglas L. Standart

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation comprises three distinct research projects, all of which employ the use of remote sensing and digital image processing methods for the discovery and characterization of mineral resources. Two of the research projects focus on the use of hyperspectral data to identify water and ilmenite on the lunar surface. The third research project involves the use of multispectral data to map alunite in copper porphyry and epithermal silver-gold deposits. Our approach to these problems result in innovative algorithms and geological interpretations that are of use to both planetary science and exploration and the terrestrial mineral industry.

Project I: Towards …

Landscape And Impervious Surface Mapping In The Twin Cities Metropolitan Area Using Feature Recognition And Decision Tree Techniques, Philipp Nagel

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) and Impervious Surface Area (ISA) are important parameters for many environmental studies, and serve as an essential tool for decision makers and stakeholders in Urban & Regional planning. Newly available high spatial resolution aerial ortho-imagery and LiDAR data, in combination with specialized, object-oriented and decision-tree classification techniques, allow for accurate mapping of these features. In this study, a method was developed to first classify LULC using an object-based classifier, and then use the resulting map as input for a decision-tree model to classify ISA in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area in Minnesota. It was …

Geographic Analysis Of West Nile Virus In The Upper Minnesota River Valley: A Gis And Multi-Temporal Remote Sensing Approach, Matthew Moore

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Throughout human evolution civilizations have been faced with implications from infectious diseases caused by various environmental factors. This connection was recognized as far back as the 5th century by Hippocrates and since several key advances have been realized and will be addressed in this an environmental and physical geography of disease. Arthropod or vector-borne viruses are among the most common pathogens introduced into the modern human population. West Nile Virus is considered endemic in most parts of the world and appeared in the United States in 1999 with 62 confirmed cases in an urban New York location. Since its first …

An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Farmland Protection Policy In China, Man Li

Man Li

This paper examines the effectiveness of the Basic Farmland Protection Regulation in protecting high-quality farmland from urban development in China in the first decade after it came into effect (1995‒2005). The theoretical basis for this study is a spatial urban development model with a splitting equation. The empirical evaluation is conducted with georeferenced, longitudinal data on more than 2,000 counties in the country. Results indicate that the Regulation was effective in preserving farmland with high productivity potential only during the period 1995‒2000. There is no evidence of effectiveness of the Regulation in protecting lands with good irrigation conditions or lands …

Studying Soil Moisture And Land-To-Water Carbon Export In Urbanized Coastal Areas Using Remotely Sensed Data And A Regional Hydro-Ecological Model, Yun Yang

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The main objective of this research was to study the flux of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from a terrestrial urbanized watershed to an estuarine system using a process-based regional hydro-ecological model and remotely sensed data.

While DOC is an important component of the global carbon cycle, the link of the variations in terrestrial carbon storage is still poorly understood. Soil moisture is a key factor that influences the amount of available water for vegetation growth and the decomposition rate of organic matter in the soil and thus contributes to the amount of DOC in the soil at the land-water boundary. …

Temperature Trends And Urban Heat Island Intensity Mapping Of The Las Vegas Valley, Adam Leland Black

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Modified urban climate regions that are warmer than rural areas at night are referred to as Urban Heat Islands or UHI. Islands of warmer air over a city can be 12 degrees Celsius greater than the surrounding cooler air. The exponential growth in Las Vegas for the last two decades provides an opportunity to detect gradual temperature changes influenced by an increasing presence of urban materials. This thesis compares ground based thermometric observations and satellite based remote sensing temperature observations to identify temperature trends and UHI areas caused by urban development.

Analysis of temperature trends between 2000 and 2010 at …

Global Digital Elevation Model Accuracy Assessment In The Himalaya, Nepal, Luke G. Miles

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are digital representations of surface topography or terrain. Collection of DEM data can be done directly through surveying and taking ground control point (GCP) data in the field or indirectly with remote sensing using a variety of techniques. The accuracies of DEM data can be problematic, especially in rugged terrain or when differing data acquisition techniques are combined. For the present study, ground data were taken in various protected areas in the mountainous regions of Nepal. Elevation, slope, and aspect were measured at nearly 2000 locations. These ground data were imported into a Geographic Information System …

Use Of Ground Penetrating Radar For Determination Ofwater Table Depth And Subsurface Soil Characteristics At Kennedy Space Center, Gideon M. Hengari, Carlton R. Hall, Tim J. Kozusko, Charles R. Bostater

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Sustainable use and management of natural resources require strategic responses using non-destructive tools to provide spatial and temporal data for decision making. Experiments conducted at John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) demonstrate ground penetrating radar (GPR) can provide high-resolution images showing depth to water tables. GPR data at KSC were acquired using a MALÅ Rough Terrain 100 MHz Antenna. Data indicate strong correlation (R²=0.80) between measured water table depth (shallow monitoring wells and soil auger) and GPR estimated depth. The study demonstrated the use of GPR to detect Holocene and Pleistocene depositional environments such as Anastasia Formation that consists of …

Operational Multi-Angle Hyperspectral Sensing For Feature Detection, Charles R. Bostater, Donald K. Brooks

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Remote sensing results of land and water surfaces from airborne and satellite platforms are dependent upon the illumination geometry and the sensor viewing geometry. Correction of pushbroom hyperspectral imagery can be achieved using bidirectional reflectance factors (BRF's) image features based upon their multi-angle hyperspectral signatures. Ground validation of features and targets utilize non-imaging sensors such as hemispherical goniometers. In this paper, a new linear translation based hyperspectral imaging goniometer system is described. Imagery and hyperspectral signatures obtained from a rotation stage platform and the new linear non-hemispherical goniometer system shows applications and a multi-angle correction approach for multi-angle hyperspectral pushbroom …

Land Surface Phenologies And Seasonalities Using Cool Earthlight In Mid-Latitude Croplands, Woubet G. Alemu, G. M. Henebry

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Phenology deals with timing of biotic phenomena and seasonality concerns temporal patterns of abiotic variables. Studies of land surface phenology (LSP) and land surface seasonality (LSS) have long been limited to visible to near infrared (VNIR) wavelengths, despite degradation by atmospheric effects and solar illumination constraints. Enhanced land surface parameters derived from passive microwave data enable improved temporal monitoring of agricultural land surface dynamics compared to the vegetation index data available from VNIR data. LSPs and LSSs in grain growing regions of the Volga River Basin of Russia and the spring wheat belts of the USA and Canada were characterized …

Mius News : Maps And Imagery User Services @ Fiu Green Library: Vol. 5 Issue 1 Fall 2013, Matthew Toro, Evan Cook, Peter Harlem

MIUS News

Florida International University's Fall 2013 Map and User Imagery Services Newsletter

Monte Carlo Simulations Of Electromagnetic Wave Scattering From A Random Rough Surface With Three-Dimensional Penetrable Buried Object: Mine Detection Application Using The Steepest-Descent Fast Multipole Method, Magda El-Shenawee, Carey Rappaport, Michael Silevitch

Carey Rappaport

We present a statistical study of the electric field scattered from a three-dimensional penetrable object buried under a two-dimensional random rough surface. Monte Carlo simulations using the steepest-descent fast multipole method (SDFMM) are conducted to calculate the average and the standard deviation of the near-zone scattered fields. The SDFMM, originally developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, has been modified to calculate the unknown surface currents both on the rough ground and on the buried object that are due to excitation by a tapered Gaussian beam. The rough ground medium used is an experimentally measured typical dry Bosnian soil …

Monte Carlo Simulations Of Electromagnetic Wave Scattering From A Random Rough Surface With Three-Dimensional Penetrable Buried Object: Mine Detection Application Using The Steepest-Descent Fast Multipole Method, Magda El-Shenawee, Carey Rappaport, Michael Silevitch

Michael B. Silevitch

We present a statistical study of the electric field scattered from a three-dimensional penetrable object buried under a two-dimensional random rough surface. Monte Carlo simulations using the steepest-descent fast multipole method (SDFMM) are conducted to calculate the average and the standard deviation of the near-zone scattered fields. The SDFMM, originally developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, has been modified to calculate the unknown surface currents both on the rough ground and on the buried object that are due to excitation by a tapered Gaussian beam. The rough ground medium used is an experimentally measured typical dry Bosnian soil …

Experimental Validation Of A Numerical Forward Model For Tunnel Detection Using Cross-Borehole Radar, Arvin Farid, Jose A. Martinez-Lorenzo, Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Carey M. Rappaport

Jose Martinez-Lorenzo

The goal of this research is to develop an experimentally validated two-dimensional(2D) finite difference frequency domain (FDFD) numerical forward model to studythe potential of radar-based tunnel detection. Tunnel detection has become a subject of interest to the nation due to the use of tunnels by illegal immigrants, smugglers, prisoners, assailants, and terrorists. These concerns call for research to nondestructively detect, localize, and monitor tunnels. Nondestructive detection requires robust image reconstruction and inverse models, which in turn need robust forward models. Cross-Well Radar (CWR) modality is used for experimentation to avoid soil-air interface roughness. CWR is not a versatile field technology …

Cross-Well Radar. Ii: Comparison And Experimental Validation Of Modeling Channel Transfer Function, Arvin Farid, Sophia Zhan, Akram Alshawabkeh, Carey Rappaport

Akram N. Alshawabkeh

Close agreement between theory and experiment is critical for adequate understanding and implementation of the cross-well radar (otherwise known as cross-borehole ground penetrating radar) technique, mentioned in a previous paper by the authors. Comparison of experimental results to simulation using a half-space dyadic Green’s function in the frequency domain requires development of transfer functions to transform the experimental data into a compatible form. A channel transfer function (CTF) was developed to avoid having to model the transmitting and receiving characteristics of the antennas. The CTF considers electromagnetic wave propagation through the intervening media only (soil in this case) and hence …

Cross-Well Radar. I: Experimental Simulation Of Cross-Well Tomography And Validation, Arvin Farid, Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Carey M. Rappaport

Akram N. Alshawabkeh

This paper explains and evaluates the potential and limitations of conducting cross-well radar (CWR) in sandy soils. Implementing the experiment and data collection in the absence of any scattering object, and in the presence of an acrylic plate [a representative of dielectric objects, such as dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) pools, etc.], as a contrasting object in a water-saturated soil is also studied. To be able to image the signature of any object, more than one pair of receiving and transmitting antennas are required. The paper describes a method to achieve repeatable, reliable, and reproducible laboratory results for different transmitter-receiver …