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At least 145 records · Page 8

Atlas of Archived Vegetation, Land-use and Seasonal Albedo Data Sets

Global digital data bases of natural vegetation and land use were compiled, for use in climate studies, at 1 deg resolution from over 100 published sources. A series of 6 data sets, derived from the original compilations, was prepared and archived on tape at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) (Matthews, 1984). The first is a vegetation data set representing natural (pre-agricultural) vegetation based on the UNESCO classification system. The second, derived from the land-use compilation, is a cultivation-intensity data set defining the areal extent of presently-cultivated land in the 1 deg cells. The last four are integrated surface-albedo data sets (January, April, July, October) for snow-free conditions, incorporating natural-vegetation and cultivation characteristics from the vegetation and cultivation-intensity data sets. Each of these data sets covers the entire surface of the earth. They include non-zero data for permanent land only, including continental ice; water, including oceans and lakes, is zero. The present report includes maps, presented by continent, of the complete archived data, with the exception of Antarctica.

Matthews, E.↗

Effects of autocorrelation upon LANDSAT classification accuracy

Richmond, Virginia and Denver, Colorado were study sites in an effort to determine the effect of autocorrelation on the accuracy of a parallelopiped classifier of LANDSAT digital data. The autocorrelation was assumed to decay to insignificant levels when sampled at distances of at least ten pixels. Spectral themes developed using blocks of adjacent pixels, and using groups of pixels spaced at least 10 pixels apart were used. Effects of geometric distortions were minimized by using only pixels from the interiors of land cover sections. Accuracy was evaluated for three classes; agriculture, residential and "all other"; both type 1 and type 2 errors were evaluated by means of overall classification accuracy. All classes give comparable results. Accuracy is approximately the same in both techniques; however, the variance in accuracy is significantly higher using the themes developed from autocorrelated data. The vectors of mean spectral response were nearly identical regardless of sampling method used. The estimated variances were much larger when using autocorrelated pixels.

Craig, R. G.↗

Analysis of the quality of image data acquired by the LANDSAT-4 Thematic Mapper (TM) of the Black Hills area, South Dakota

The structure, format, and quality of the LANDSAT-4 TM and MSS photographic and digital products for one scene covering the Black Hills area of South Dakota were assessed and the extent to which major resource categories can be detected and identified on various photographic products generated from a subset of TM spectral bands and from all bands of the MSS was determined. The overall spectral, spatial, and radiometric quality of the TM data was found to be excellent. Agricultural fields of variable shape, size, and orientation were detected with relative ease. The addition of the short-wave infrared band (TM5) has significantly improved the ability to detect and identify crop types on single date imagery.

Colwell, R. N.↗

Inventories of Delaware's coastal vegetation and land-use utilizing digital processing of ERTS-1 imagery

Digital analysis of ERTS-1 imagery was used in an attempt to map and inventory the significant ecological communities of Delaware's coastal zone. Eight vegetation and land use discrimination classes were selected: (1) phragmites communis (Giant Reed grass); (2) spartina alterniflora (Salt marsh cord grass); (3) spartina patens (Salt marsh hay); (4) shallow water and exposed mud; (5) deep water (2 meters); (6) forest; (7) agriculture; and (8) exposed sand and concrete. Canonical analysis showed that classification accuracy was quite good with spartina alterniflora, exposed sand-concrete, and forested land - all discriminated with between 94% and 100% accuracy. The shallow water-mud and deep water categories were classified with accuracies of 88% and 93% respectively. Phragmites communis showed a classification accuracy of 83% with all confusion occurring with spartina patens which may be due to use of mixed stands of these species as training sets. Discrimination of spartina patens was very poor (accuracy 52%).

Klemas, V.↗

Mapping coastal vegetation, land use and environmental impact from ERTS-1

The author has identified the following significant results. Digital analysis of ERTS-1 imagery was used in an attempt to map and inventory the significant ecological communities of Delaware's coastal zone. Eight vegetation and land use discrimination classes were selected: (1) Phragmites communis (giant reed grass); (2) Spartina alterniflora (salt marsh cord grass); (3) Spartina patens (salt marsh hay); (4) shallow water and exposed mud; (5) deep water (greater than 2 m); (6) forest; (7) agriculture; and (8) exposed sand and concrete. Canonical analysis showed the following classification accuracies: Spartina alterniflora, exposed sand, concrete, and forested land - 94% to 100%; shallow water - mud and deep water - 88% and 93% respectively; Phragmites communis 83%; Spartina patens - 52%. Classification accuracy for agriculture was very poor (51%). Limitations of time and available class-memory space resulted in limiting the analysis of agriculture to very gross identification of a class which actually consists of many varied signature classes. Abundant ground truth was available in the form of vegetation maps compiled from color and color infrared photographs. It is believed that with further refinement of training set selection, sufficiently accurate results can be obtained for all categories.

Klemas, V.↗

SCCOUT: Surveying for Categorization and Control of Organism in Unwelcome Territory

Advancements in the fields of science, technology, and medicine have contributed largely to the growth of society over the last century. Thanks to these discoveries, all corners of the planet are connected both digitally and physically. Progress in the field of medicine has led to people living longer, fuller lives and a general increase in global population. Awareness of our world’s changing climate and the effects that has on local and global ecosystems has spurred great efforts to protect the environment. These discoveries along with many others have helped our world grow in a myriad of ways; however, certain efforts in agriculture, natural resource management, and ecosystem management have not scaled to accommodate this growth. Increasing prevalence and ease of dissemination of invasive plants and animals, diseases, and changing ecological conditions pose significant challenges to biodiversity, ecosystem health, and agricultural productivity. Moreover, as the world population grows, there are more people to feed and less viable farmland to produce food for them. Despite the increasing prevalence of these issues, methods for addressing and tracking them have stayed relatively the same for at least the last several decades.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Processed Surface Imagery & Raster Imagery taken onboard TigerShark (U3) UAS

Land-surface orthomosaic imagery derived from the images collected using the Micasense Altum Imager on board the UAS TigerShark (U3) on March 11th, 2021 at an altitude of 2000 ft. The Altum takes images of the land surface across five visible bands and one long wave infrared thermal band. The photogrametry software Agisoft PhotoScan v 1.4 is used to align and stitch the images into a larger composet image using the technique of structure from motion image capture to construct a dense cloud and 3-D model of the surface, which is used to produce a digital elevation model of the terraine surveyed and orthomosaic imagery. This dataset contains the raster calculated orthomosaics of various vegetative indicies, which are used to indicate plant health and land surface characteristics, including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (GNDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), surface temperature, and Enhanced_vegetation_index (EVI). These orthomosaics were collected west of the Starkville, MS, airport, and include natural, agricultural, and industrial land coverage. The images have a resolution of 0.2 m/pix.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Digital registration of topographic data and satellite MSS data for augmented spectral analysis

Results are presented for a project directed to assess the type and extent of long-term natural and man-made changes in floodplain features of a definite area in the Mississipi River Valley. 1:6000 scale maps were prepared from remotely sensed film/filter photographic coverage of the area at different times to compare changes in such features as channels, backwaters, vegetation as well as changes in the amount, location, and conditions of dredge spoil. Changes observed by this sequential photo comparison include abandonment of agricultural land followed by orderly secondary plant succession, the filling-in of shallows by sediment and the orderly succession of plants from a hydric to a more mesic environment and changes in deltas of small tributary streams in response to agricultural practices occurring at their headwaters. Plant colonization is observed on some spoil, and secondary movement of spoil is revealed in other areas.

Anuta, P. E.↗

Assessing Shifts in Regional Hydroclimatic Conditions of U.S. River Basins in Response to Climate Change over the 21st Century

Characterization of shifts in regional hydroclimatic conditions helps reduce negative consequences on agriculture, environment, economy, society, and ecosystem. This study assesses shifts in regional hydroclimatic conditions across the conterminous United States in response to climate change over the 21 st Century. The hydrological responses of five downscaled climate models from the Multivariate Adaptive Constructed Analogs (MACA) dataset ranging from the driest to wettest and least warm to hottest were simulated using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model. Shifts in regional hydroclimatic conditions at 8-digit hydrologic unit scale (HUC8) were evaluated by the magnitude and direction of movements in the Budyko space. HUC8 river basins were then clustered into seven unique hydroclimatic behavior groups using the K-means method. A tree classification method was proposed to illustrate the relationships between hydroclimatic behavior groups and regional characteristics. The results indicate that hydroclimatic responses may vary from a river basin to another, but basins in the same neighborhood follow a similar movement in the Budyko space. The systematic hydroclimatic behavior of river basins is highly associated with their regional landform, climate, and ecosystem characteristics. Most HUC8s with Mountain, Plateau and Basin landform types will likely experience less arid conditions. However, most HUC8s with Plain landform type behave differently according to the regional ecosystem and climate. This study provides a potential roadmap of shifts in regional hydroclimatic conditions of U.S. river basins, which can be used to improve regional preparedness and ability of various sectors to mitigate or adapt to the impacts of future hydroclimate change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

A global model of carbon-nutrient interactions

The global biogeochemical model presented has two primary objectives. First, it characterizes natural elemental cycles and their linkages for the four elements significant to Earth's biota: C, N, S, and P. Second, it describes changes in these cycles due to human activity. Global nutrient cycles were studied within the drainage basins of several major world rivers on each continent. The initial study region was the Mississippi drainage basin, concentrating on carbon and nitrogen. The model first establishes the nutrient budgets of the undisturbed ecosystems in a study region. It then uses a data set of land use histories for that region to document the changes in these budgets due to land uses. Nutrient movement was followed over time (1800 to 1980) for 30 ecosystems and 10 land use categories. A geographically referenced ecological information system (GREIS) was developed to manage the digital global data bases of 0.5 x 0.5 grid cells needed to run the model: potential vegetation, drainage basins, precipitation, runoff, contemporary land cover, and FAO soil maps of the world. The results show the contributions of land use categories to river nutrient loads on a continental scale; shifts in nutrient cycling patterns from closed, steady state systems to mobile transient or open, steady state systems; soil organic matter depletion patterns in U.S. agricultural lands; changing nutrient ratios due to land use changes; and the effect of using heavy fertilizer on aquatic systems.

Moore, Berrien, III↗

Attempting to detect and record brushland in the northeastern United States using MSS data - Schoharie County, N.Y., as a case study

Before county and local governments will utilize satellite data extensively for landcover inventories, digital image processing techniques must be developed to identify transitional land-use conditions and create large-scale, readable land-cover maps. This study examines a satellite-based land-cover inventory done for Schoharie County, New York and reviews the problems encountered in identifying and mapping brushland - a significant transitional land use - within the county and region. Brushland throughout the Northeast represents a barometer for measuring the shift away from agricultural land use to second-home property. Detecting and locating brushland on a regular basis can greatly assist county and local government officials in planning and managing a county's future.

Baumann, Paul R.↗

Anatomy of an agricultural antagonist: Feeding complex structure and function of three xylem sap‐feeding insects illuminated with synchrotron‐based 3D imaging

Abstract Many insects feed on xylem or phloem sap of vascular plants. Although physical damage to the plant is minimal, the process of insect feeding can transmit lethal viruses and bacterial pathogens. Disparities between insect‐mediated pathogen transmission efficiency have been identified among xylem sap‐feeding insects; however, the mechanistic drivers of these trends are unclear. Identifying and understanding the structural factors and associated integrated functional components that may ultimately determine these disparities are critical for managing plant diseases. Here, we applied synchrotron‐based X‐ray microcomputed tomography to digitally reconstruct the morphology of three xylem sap‐feeding insect vectors of plant pathogens: Graphocephala atropunctata (blue‐green sharpshooter; Hemiptera, Cicadellidae) and Homalodisca vitripennis (glassy‐winged sharpshooter; Hemiptera, Cicadellidae), and the spittlebug Philaenus spumarius (meadow spittlebug; Hemiptera, Aphrophoridae). The application of this technique revealed previously undescribed anatomical features of these organisms, such as key components of the salivary complex. The visualization of the 3D structure of the precibarial valve led to new insights into the mechanism of how this structure functions. Morphological disparities with functional implications between taxa were highlighted as well, including the morphology and volume of the cibarial dilator musculature responsible for extracting xylem sap, which has implications for force application capabilities. These morphological insights will be used to target analyses illuminating functional differences in feeding behavior.

3D imaging↗

Extraction and classification of objects in multispectral images

Presented here is an algorithm that partitions a digitized multispectral image into parts that correspond to objects in the scene being sensed. The algorithm partitions an image into successively smaller rectangles and produces a partition that tends to minimize a criterion function. Supervised and unsupervised classification techniques can be applied to partitioned images. This partition-then-classify approach is used to process images sensed from aircraft and the ERTS-1 satellite, and the method is shown to give relatively accurate results in classifying agricultural areas and extracting urban areas.

Robertson, T. V.↗

Remote sensing techniques for the detection of soil erosion and the identification of soil conservation practices

The following paper is a summary of a number of techniques initiated under the AgRISTARS (Agriculture and Resources Inventory Surveys Through Aerospace Remote Sensing) project for the detection of soil degradation caused by water erosion and the identification of soil conservation practices for resource inventories. Discussed are methods to utilize a geographic information system to determine potential soil erosion through a USLE (Universal Soil Loss Equation) model; application of the Kauth-Thomas Transform to detect present erosional status; and the identification of conservation practices through visual interpretation and a variety of enhancement procedures applied to digital remotely sensed data.

Pelletier, R. E.↗

An integrated GIS/remote sensing data base in North Cache soil conservation district, Utah: A pilot project for the Utah Department of Agriculture's RIMS (Resource Inventory and Monitoring System)

A basic geographic information system (GIS) for the North Cache Soil Conservation District (SCD) was sought for selected resource problems. Since the resource management issues in the North Cache SCD are very complex, it is not feasible in the initial phase to generate all the physical, socioeconomic, and political baseline data needed for resolving all management issues. A selection of critical varables becomes essential. Thus, there are foud specific objectives: (1) assess resource management needs and determine which resource factors ae most fundamental for building a beginning data base; (2) evaluate the variety of data gathering and analysis techniques for the resource factors selected; (3) incorporate the resulting data into a useful and efficient digital data base; and (4) demonstrate the application of the data base to selected real world resoource management issues.

Wheeler, D. J.↗

Detailed interpretation and analysis of selected corn blight watch data sets

A detailed interpretation and analysis of selected corn blight data set was undertaken in order to better define the present capabilities and limitations of agricultural remote multispectral sensing and automatic processing techniques and to establish the areas of investigation needing futher attention in the development of operational survey systems. While the emphasis of this effort was directed toward the detection of various corn blight levels, problems related to the more general task of crop identification were also investigated. Since the analog recognition computer (SPARC) was fully committed to the more routine aspects of processing and since the detailed interpretation and analysis required more in the way of quantitative information, the CDC 1604 digital computer was employed.

Nalepka, R. F.↗

Biomass Burning Emissions in the Cerrado of Brazil Computed with Remote Sensing Data and GIS

Biomass burnin is a common force in much of the developing tropical world where it has wide-ranging environmental impacts. Fire is a component of tropical deforestation and is 0 p often used to clear broad expanses of land for shifting agriculture and cattle ranching. Frequent burning in the tropical savannas is a distinct problem from that of primary forest. In Brazil, most of the burning occurs in the cerrado which occupies approximately 1,800,000 km2, primarily on the great plateau in central Brazil. Wildland and agricultural fires are dramatic sources of regional air pollution in central Brazil. Biomass burning is an important source of a large number of trace gases including greenhouse gases and other chemically active species. Knowledge of trace gas emissions from biomass burning in Brazil is limited by a number of factors, most notably relative emission factors for gases from specific fire types/fuels and accurate estimates of temporal and spatial distribution and extent of fire activity. Estimates of trace gas emissions during September 1992 will be presented that incorporates a digital map of vegetation classes, pyrogenic emission factors calculated from ground and aircraft missions, and Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) fire products derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data. The regional emissions calculated from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) AVHRR estimates of fire activity will provide an independent estimate for comparison with results obtained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Transport and Atmospheric Chemistry Near the Equator - Atlantic (TRACE-A) experiments.

Guild, Liane S.↗

An initial analysis of LANDSAT 4 Thematic Mapper data for the classification of agricultural, forested wetland, and urban land covers

An initial analysis of LANDSAT 4 thematic mapper (TM) data for the delineation and classification of agricultural, forested wetland, and urban land covers was conducted. A study area in Poinsett County, Arkansas was used to evaluate a classification of agricultural lands derived from multitemporal LANDSAT multispectral scanner (MSS) data in comparison with a classification of TM data for the same area. Data over Reelfoot Lake in northwestern Tennessee were utilized to evaluate the TM for delineating forested wetland species. A classification of the study area was assessed for accuracy in discriminating five forested wetland categories. Finally, the TM data were used to identify urban features within a small city. A computer generated classification of Union City, Tennessee was analyzed for accuracy in delineating urban land covers. An evaluation of digitally enhanced TM data using principal components analysis to facilitate photointerpretation of urban features was also performed.

Quattrochi, D. A.↗