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The necessary elements to perform global inventories of agriculture, forestry, and range resources are being brought together through the use of satellites, sensors, computers, mathematics, and phenomenology. Results of ERTS-1 applications in these areas, as well as soil mapping, are described.
The procedure is described which was used to train automatic data processing (ADP) analysts to process ERTS 1 imagery from a 5 nm by 6 nm area in Delisle, Canada, and to estimate wheat acreage using training fields provided by photointerpreters. The exercise also served to evaluate and test current large area crop inventory experiment (LACIE) procedures.
The primary purpose of the remote sensing applications program is for various members of the university community to participate in activities that improve the effective communication between the scientific community engaged in remote sensing research and development and the potential users of modern remote sensing technology. Activities of this program are assisting the State of Mississippi in recognizing and solving its environmental, resource and socio-economic problems through inventory, analysis, and monitoring by appropriate remote sensing systems. Objectives, accomplishments, and current status of the following individual projects are reported: (1) bark beetle project; (2) state park location planning; and (3) waste source location and stream channel geometry monitoring.
The results of an investigation of the value of improving information for forecasting future crop harvests are described. A theoretical model is developed to calculate the value of increased speed of availablitiy of that information. The analysis of U.S. domestic wheat consumption was implemented. New estimates of a demand function for wheat and of a cost of storage function were involved, along with a Monte Carlo simulation for the wheat spot and future markets and a model of market determinations of wheat inventories. Results are shown to depend critically on the accuracy of current and proposed measurement techniques.
The author has identified the following significant results. Collection and update of resource inventory data has historically been a difficult, time consuming task. Accurate resource data is necessary as a basis for wise management decisions made by a resource management agency such as the Bureau of Land Management. Black and white and color infrared composites of ERTS satellite imagery at 1:1,000,000 and enlarged scales can be used as data gathering tools. No investment in expensive sophisticated equipment is necessary. A photointerpreter can map boundaries of soils, plant communities, levels of forage production, areas revegetated by man, and areas burned by wildlife directly from satellite imagery. The ERTS system of producing and distributing imagery must be improved greatly before satellite imagery can be useful to the resource manager.
The usefulness of dynamic display techniques in exploiting the repetitive nature of ERTS imagery was investigated. A specially designed Electronic Satellite Image Analysis Console (ESIAC) was developed and employed to process data for seven ERTS principal investigators studying dynamic hydrological conditions for diverse applications. These applications include measurement of snowfield extent and sediment plumes from estuary discharge, Playa Lake inventory, and monitoring of phreatophyte and other vegetation changes. The ESIAC provides facilities for storing registered image sequences in a magnetic video disc memory for subsequent recall, enhancement, and animated display in monochrome or color. The most unique feature of the system is the capability to time lapse the imagery and analytic displays of the imagery. Data products included quantitative measurements of distances and areas, binary thematic maps based on monospectral or multispectral decisions, radiance profiles, and movie loops. Applications of animation for uses other than creating time-lapse sequences are identified. Input to the ESIAC can be either digital or via photographic transparencies.
Progress and results of an integrated study of California's water resources are discussed. The investigation concerns itself primarily with the usefulness of remote sensing of relation to two categories of problems: (1) water supply; and (2) water demand. Also considered are its applicability to forest management and timber inventory. The cost effectiveness and utility of remote sensors such as the Earth Resources Technology Satellite for water and timber management are presented.
The potential and promise of observing the earth from the vantage point of space is discussed. The systematic surveying of processes and phenomena occurring on the surface of the earth by Landsat 1 and Nimbus 5 is considered to be useful in the following areas: assessment of water resources; mineral and petroleum exploration; land use planning; crop, forest, and rangeland inventory; assessment of flood, earthquake, and other environmental hazards; monitoring coastal processes; environmental effects of industrial effluents and of air pollution; mapping the distribution and types of ice covering the earth's polar caps and global soil moisture distributions.
The definition of facilities which will serve the research needs of a large group of users is given. These facilities (payloads) are derived by several combinations of items from a large inventory of modular, reusable, research equipment which enables ready response to many flight opportunities. Workable concepts were prepared and submitted to the Spacelab design activity. These designs permit the flying of either partial or dedicated payloads. The technical integrity of the modular approach to payload design/integration and the utility of commercial equipment technology are also discussed.
Aircraft and satellite remote sensing systems which are capable of contributing to watershed management are described and include: the multispectral scanner subsystem on LANDSAT and the basic multispectral camera array flown on high altitude aircraft such as the U-2. Various aspects of watershed management investigated by remote sensing systems are discussed. Major areas included are: snow mapping, surface water inventories, flood management, hydrologic land use monitoring, and watershed modeling. It is indicated that technological advances in remote sensing of hydrological data must be coupled with an expansion of awareness and training in remote sensing techniques of the watershed management community.
The potential of shuttle operations to contribute to atmospheric pollution is investigated. Presented in this interim report are results of the study to date on rocket exhaust inventory, exhaust interactions, dispersion of the ground cloud, detection and measurement of hydrochloric acid and aluminum oxide, environmental effects of hydrochloric acid and aluminum oxide, stratospheric effects of shuttle effluents, and mesospheric and ionospheric effects of orbiter reentry. The results indicate space shuttle operation will not result in adverse environmental effects if appropriate launch constraints are met.
An urban area was studied through the use of the inventory-by-surrogate method rather than by direct interpretation of photographic imagery. Prior uses of remote sensing in urban and public research are examined. The effects of crowding, poor housing conditions, air pollution, and street conditions on public health are considered. Color infrared photography was used to categorize land use features and the grid method was used in photo interpretation analysis. The incidence of shigella and salmonella, hepatitis, meningitis, tuberculosis, myocardial infarction and veneral disease were studied, together with mortality and morbidity rates. Sample census data were randomly collected and validated. The hypothesis that land use and residential quality are associated with and act as an influence upon health and physical well-being was studied and confirmed.
Documents related to the identification and evaluation by means of sensors in spacecraft and aircraft of vegetation, minerals, and other natural resources, and the techniques and potentialities of surveying and keeping up-to-date inventories of such riches are cited. These documents were announced in the NASA scientific and technical information system between March 1970 and December 1973.
The author has identified the following significant results. Preliminary results in Saginaw Bay show that processed LANDSAT data provides a synoptic view of turbidity and circulation patterns that no degree of ground monitoring can provide. Processed imagery was produced to show nine discrete categories of turbidity, as indicated by nine Secchi depths between 0.3 and 3.3 meters. Analysis of lakes near Madison, Wisconsin show that inland lake water can be categorized by LANDSAT as clear, tannin, algal, and red clay. LANDSAT's capability to inventory watershed land use was throughly demonstrated in the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana regional planning area. Computer tabulations providing area covered by each of 16 land use categories were rapidly and economically produced for each of the 225 watersheds and nine counties.
The author has identified the following significant results. LANDSAT was used as a basis for inventorying land use within each of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana regional commissions, 225 drainage areas, and nine counties. Computer tabulations were produced to obtain the area covered by each of 16 land use categories within 225 drainage areas. The 16 categories were merged into ten categories and mapped at a scale of 1 inch = 5,000 ft, with detail to 0.44 hectares for the 2,700 sq mi region. These products were produced in less than 90 days, at a cost of $20,000.
The author has identified the following significant results. The Earth Resources Technology Satellite data included the following successful applications: (1) general geologic mapping, (2) structural and tectonic studies, (3) landforms and surface processes, (4) mineral exploration, (5) land use inventories, (6) hydrologic studies, (7) investigations in agriculture and forestry, and (8) environmental quality and ecology. The chief advantages of ERTS-1 data for geologic studies are synoptic view, spectral information, and seasonal coverage. The spectral data and repetitive aspect are also important for land use and vegetation studies. Low resolution and lack of steoscopic coverage were found to be the main limitations of ERTS data.
The MIRADS is a generalized data management system. The feasibility of using MIRADS by the State of Alabama Air Pollution Control Commission is explored. The State's enforcement management system and the emission inventory system were implemented into MIRADS.
The author has identified the following significant results. Field observations and data collected by low flying aircraft were used to verify the accuracy of maps produced from the satellite data. Although areas of vegetation as small as six acres can accurately be detected, a white pine stand that was severely damaged by sulfur dioxide could not be differentiated from a healthy white pine stand because spectral differences were not large enough. When winter data were used to eliminate interference from herbaceous and deciduous vegetation, the damage was still undetectable. The analysis was able to produce a character map that accurately delineated areas of vegetative alteration due to high zinc levels accumulating in the soil. The map depicted a distinct gradient of less damage and alteration as the distance from the smelter increased. Although the satellite data will probably not be useful for detecting small acreages of damaged vegetation, it is concluded that the data may be very useful as an inventory tool to detect and delineate large vegetative areas possessing differing spectral signatures.