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General-purpose, water-quality sampling process detects microorganisms and integrates sampling, sample preservation, and sample analysis. System overcomes difficulties in correlation of surface measurements with remote measurements and minimizes human error in handling of samples and instrumentation.
Environmental legislation affecting airports and the more common environmental effects resulting from airport construction are discussed with special emphasis on general aviation airports. The discussion is focused on the regulation of noise, pollution, and water quality.
The author has identified the following significant results. Land cover overlays and maps produced from LANDSAT are providing information on existing land use and resources throughout the 208 study area. The overlays are being used to delineate drainage areas of a predominant land cover type. Information on cover type is also being combined with other pertinent data to develop estimates of sediment and nutrients flows from the drainage area. The LANDSAT inventory of present land cover together with population projects is providing a basis for developing maps of anticipated land use patterns required to evaluate impact on water quality which may result from these patterns. Overlays of forest types were useful for defining wildlife habitat and vegetational resources in the region. LANDSAT data and computer assisted interpretation was found to be a rapid cost effective procedure for inventorying land cover on a regional basis. The entire 208 inventory which include acquisition of ground truth, LANDSAT tapes, computer processing, and production of overlays and coded tapes was completed within a period of 2 months at a cost of about 0.6 cents per acre, a significant improvement in time and cost over conventional photointerpretation and mapping techniques.
ERTS and Landsat images were used to study water quality and turbidity around St. Paul-Minneapolis metropolitan area. Sediments were also investigated in the same area. In northeastern Minnesota north of Lake Superior, the intercontinental rift was examined, along with large, low grade, copper-nickel deposits.
A number of papers dealing with the practical application of imagery obtained from remote sensors on LANDSAT satellites, the Skylab Earth resources experiment package, and aircraft to problems in agriculture and the environment were presented. Some of the more important topics that were covered included: range management and resources, environmental monitoring and management, crop growth and inventory, land management, multispectral band scanners, forest management, mapping, marshlands, strip mining, water quality and pollution, ecology.
Applications of remote sensing technology to wildlife preservation, pest control, strip mining, water quality monitoring, and wetlands mapping were discussed. Economic, political and social factors were also considered.
Applications of remote sensing technology to analysis of watersheds, snow cover, snowmelt, water runoff, soil moisture, land use, playa lakes, flooding, and water quality are summarized. Recommendations are given for further utilization of this technology.
The author has identified the following significant results. The S190A, S190B, and S192 photographs and imagery were studied, using standard air-photo interpretation techniques supplemented by color additive viewing and density slicing. The EREP data were found to have potential usefulness for natural resource inventory work, water quality monitoring, and land use mapping for specific problems at scales up to 1:30,000. Distinctions between forest types in North Carolina are limited to conifers, mixed conifer-hardwoods, and hardwoods. Geologic interpretation was limited to detection of lineaments; lithologic differentiation and soil group mapping have proved infeasible in North Carolina except for differentiation of wetland soils in the coastal plain. Imagery from the S192 multispectral scanner has proved to be capable of useful discriminations for vegetation and crop analysis.
The author has identified the following significant results. S190A and S190B photography proved to be useful for mapping large scale geomorophological features, and for assessing water depth and water quality. Available S192 data were affected by low frequency noise caused by diode light. Hydrological features were classified, and upland green herbaceous vegetation was separated into several classes based on percent vegetation cover. A model for estimating surface soil moisture based on red and near infrared reflectance data was developed and subsequently implemented.
The author has identified the following significant results. Evaluation of ERTS-1 imagery for the Sand Hills region of Nebraska has shown that the data can be used to effectively measure several parameters of inventory needs. (1) Vegetative biomass can be estimated with a high degree of confidence using computer compatable tape data. (2) Soils can be mapped to the subgroup level with high altitude aircraft color infrared photography and to the association level with multitemporal ERTS-1 imagery. (3) Water quality in Sand Hills lakes can be estimated utilizing computer compatable tape data. (4) Center pivot irrigation can be inventoried from satellite data and can be monitored regarding site selection and relative success of establishment from high altitude aircraft color infrared photography. (5) ERTS-1 data is of exceptional value in wide-area inventory of natural resource data in the Sand Hills region of Nebraska.
The application of satellite remote sensing technology in hydrologic studies and regulatory programs of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is discussed. Site selection, location of construction material, environment impact assessment, analysis of hydrologic systems, reservoir system analysis, water quality, quantity and quality of runoff from urban areas, river hydraulics, and sediment movement are among the applications described. Emphasis is placed on introducing automatic classification of multispectral data into modeling techniques used in hydrologic studies.
The application of remote sensing products to the development and understanding of water resources problems is considered. Geology and hydrogeology, analysis of watersheds, snow and ice, prediction of runoff from snowmelt, hydrologic land use classifications, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, flood hazards, and water quality surveys are among the topics discussed. Suggestions for further use of remotely sensed data are given along with increased user requirements.
The utility of a scanning densitometer for analyzing imagery in the NASA Lewis Research Center's regional remote sensing program was evaluated. Uses studied include: (1) quick-look screening of imagery by means of density slicing, magnification, color coding, and edge enhancement; (2) preliminary category classification of both low- and high-resolution data bases; and (3) quantitative measurement of the extent of features within selected areas. The densitometer was capable of providing fast, convenient, and relatively inexpensive preliminary analysis of aerial and satellite photography and scanner imagery involving land cover, water quality, strip mining, and energy conservation.
An explicit two-dimensional finite difference model, designed to investigate the influence of suspended sediment on the pollutant transport process, is presented. Specific attention is directed toward examining the role of suspended sediment in: (1) the turbulent vertical transport mechanism in a stratified flow, and (2) pollutant uptake due to sorption. Results presented indicate that suspended sediment plays a major role in the pollutant transport process, and subsequently, any meaningful attempt to model the fate of a pollutant in an alluvial channel must account for the presence of a suspended sediment concentration profile. Similarly, the vertical and longitudinal pollutant concentration distributions provided by the model may be utilized to improve upon the predictive capacities of existing water quality models.
Papers are presented on the applicability of Landsat data to water management and control needs, IBIS, a geographic information system based on digital image processing and image raster datatype, and the Image Data Access Method (IDAM) for the Earth Resources Interactive Processing System. Attention is also given to the Prototype Classification and Mensuration System (PROCAMS) applied to agricultural data, the use of Landsat for water quality monitoring in North Carolina, and the analysis of geophysical remote sensing data using multivariate pattern recognition. The Illinois crop-acreage estimation experiment, the Pacific Northwest Resources Inventory Demonstration, and the effects of spatial misregistration on multispectral recognition are also considered. Individual items are announced in this issue.
Results of experiments conducted in the James River, Virginia and the New York Bight indicate that concurrently collected sea-truth measurements may be used to calibrate remotely sensed multispectral scanner data collected over each of these environmentally different scenes. Statistical stepwise regression analysis was used in both experiments to incorporate significant bands of MSS data into regression equations that quantitatively relate remotely sensed data to water quality parameters, such as chlorophyll a and suspended sediment. These regression equations are used to map synoptic distributions of chlorophyll a in the remotely sensed scenes.
Water monitoring system includes equipment and techniques for waste water sampling sensors for determining levels of microorganisms, oxygen, chlorine, and many other important parameters. System includes data acquisition and display system that allows computation of water quality information for real time display.
Solid-state sensing unit developed for use with NASA's Water-Quality Monitoring System can detect small velocity changes in slow moving fluid. Nonprotruding sensor is applicable to numerous other uses requiring sensitive measurement of slow flows.