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Draeger, W. C.

Publications and source records attributed to Draeger, W. C..

Monitoring irrigated land acreage using LANDSAT imagery: An application example

A demonstration of the utility of LANDSAT imagery for quickly and cheaply estimating irrigated land area was conducted in the Klamath River basin of Oregon. LANDSAT color composite images, at 1:250,000 scale and acquired on two dates during the 1975 growing season, were interpreted. Irrigated lands were delineated manually, and the irrigated area was estimated, based on dot-grid sampling of the manually delineated lands. The image interpretation estimate of irrigated area was then adjusted by a comparison of interpretation results with ground data on 45 sample plots, each 2.6 square kilometers in size. Two interpreters independently estimated the irrigated area. Their adjusted estimates were 115,000 hectares and 108,000 hectares respectively, with corresponding 95 percent confidence intervals of + or - 7,880 hectares and + or - 14,000 hectares.

Draeger, W. C.↗

Water supply studies

There are no author-identified significant results in this report.

Colwell, R. N.↗

Regional agriculture surveys using ERTS-1 data

The Center for Remote Sensing Research has conducted studies designed to evaluate the potential application of ERTS data in performing agricultural inventories, and to develop efficient methods of data handling and analysis useful in the operational context for performing large area surveys. This work has resulted in the development of an integrated system utilizing both human and computer analysis of ground, aerial, and space imagery, which has been shown to be very efficient for regional crop acreage inventories. The technique involves: (1) the delineation of ERTS images into relatively homogeneous strata by human interpreters, (2) the point-by-point classification of the area within each strata on the basis of crop type using a human/machine interactive digital image processing system; and (3) a multistage sampling procedure for the collection of supporting aerial and ground data used in the adjustment and verification of the classification results.

Draeger, W. C.↗

Water supply studies

The primary test site for water supply investigations continues to be the Feather River watershed in northeastern California. This test site includes all of the area draining into and including the Oroville Reservoir. The principal effort is to determine the extent to which remote sensing techniques, when properly employed, can provide information useful to those persons concerned with the management and planning of lands and facilities for the production of water, using the Oroville Reservoir and the California Water Project as the focus for the study. In particular, emphasis is being placed on determining the cost effectiveness of information derived through remote sensing as compared with that currently being derived through more conventional means.

Burgy, R. H.↗

Agricultural applications of ERTS-1 data

In an attempt to evaluate the usefulness of ERTS imagery for the production of land use stratifications as a preliminary step in the crop inventory process, all land within San Joaquin County was delineated into broad land use and crop category classes based on their appearance on the ERTS-1 Color composite image. The stratification of the agricultural land use categories proved to be a relatively simple task, taking each of three interpreters approximately 30 minutes to complete. The three interpretations were quite similar requiring only minor revisions to produce a consensus stratification. A total of 13 different agricultural strata were recognized, differing both in general field size and relative proportions of crop types and degree of irrigation. Upon comparing these interpretations, it was concluded that nearly all boundaries were truly representative of differing cropping practices. In a number of cases, the stratifications agreed almost exactly with soil type boundaries as drawn by earlier soils surveys.

Draeger, W. C.↗

Development of analysis techniques for remote sensing of vegetation resources

Various data handling and analysis techniques are summarized for evaluation of ERTS-A and supporting high flight imagery. These evaluations are concerned with remote sensors applied to wildland and agricultural vegetation resource inventory problems. Monitoring California's annual grassland, automatic texture analysis, agricultural ground data collection techniques, and spectral measurements are included.

Draeger, W. C.↗

The Use of Small Scale Aerial Photography in a Regional Agricultural Survey

The feasibility of performing inventories of agricultural resources using very small scale aerial or space photography has been investigated. Results to date are encouraging on two counts: (1) the questions posed initially are being answered, and (2) it would seem that a fully operational agricultural inventory using very small scale photography is not beyond the scope of present technology. The biggest problems to be faced in establishing a functional inventory system are those concerning logistics and data handling.

Draeger, W. C.↗

Measurement of Hydrologic Resource Parameters Through Remote Sensing in the Feather River Headwaters Area

The four problem are as being investigated are: (1) determination of the feasibility of providing the resource manager with operationally useful information through the use of remote sensing techniques; (2) definition of the spectral characteristics of earth resources and the optimum procedures for calibrating tone and color characteristics of multispectral imagery (3) determination of the extent to which humans can extract useful earth resource information through remote sensing imagery; (4) determination of the extent to which automatic classification and data processing can extract useful information from remote sensing data.

Thorley, G. A.↗

A semi-operational agricultural inventory using small scale aerial photography

The feasibility of performing inventories of agricultural resources using very small scale aerial or space photography was studied. The results were encouraging on two counts: (1) The very practical problems of an operational survey are being faced and solutions are being found. (2) It seems that a fully operational agricultural inventory using space photography is not beyond the scope of present technology.

Draeger, W. C.↗