Self-calibration Applied in Converting Simulation Surveying

In the field of converting simulation surveying and traditional close range photogrammetry, it has been developed so far to survey objects by commercial digital camera and this technique is applied widely in every part of production. In order to get three-dimensional information of objects, commercial digital camera must be examined. For a long time, digital camera has been examined by DLT. Then there must be a high-precision control field. For realizing surveying without control points, a method for self-calibration is proposed.     

Classification of glacial lakes using integrated approach of DFPS technique and gradient analysis using Sentinel 2A data

It is important to identify and locate glacial lakes for assessing any potential hazard. This study presents a combination of semi-automatic method Double-Window Flexible Pace Search (DFPS) and edge detection technique to identify glacial lakes using Sentinel 2A satellite data. Initially, Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) has been used to identify water and non-water areas, while DFPS and Edge detection technique has been used to identify an optimum threshold value to distinguish between water and shadow areas. The optimal threshold from DFPS process is 0.21, while threshold value of gradient magnitude using edge detection process is 0.318. The number of glacial lakes identified using the above algorithm is in close agreement with previously published results on glacial lakes in Gangotri glacier using different techniques. Thus, a combination of DFPS and edge detection process has successfully segregated glacial lakes from other features present in Gangotri glacier.     

Study on the urban heat island effects and its relationship with surface biophysical characteristics using MODIS imageries

This study assesses surface urban heat island (UHI) and its associated surface physical characteristics using remote sensing approaches. TERRA/MODIS images acquired in 2005 in three different seasons were selected to generate land surface tem-perature and surface characteristics for the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan metropolitan area in China. The intensity of urban heat is-land effects and its seasonal variations were examined. The result showed that UHI effects were significant both in the summer and the spri...     

Integrating terrain and vegetation indices for identifying potential soil erosion risk area

The present paper offers an innovative method to monitor the change in soil erosion potential by integrating terrain and vegetation indices derived from remote sensing data. Three terrain indices namely, topographic wetness index (TWI), stream power index (SPI) and slope length factor (LS), were derived from the digital elevation model. Normalized vegetation index (NDVI) was derived for the year 1988 and 2004 using remote sensing images. K-mean clustering was performed on staked indices to categorize the study area into four soil erosion potential classes. The validation of derived erosion potential map using USLE model showed a good agreement. Results indicated that there was a significant change in the erosion potential of the watershed and a gradual shifting of lower erosion potential class to next higher erosion potential class over the study period.     

Use of service middleware based on ECHO with CSW for discovery and registry of MODIS data

Nowadays, NASA is producing several terabytes Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data everyday; how to find the data with criteria, such as specific times, locations, and scales using an international standard becomes more and more important. In this paper, a service-oriented architecture for use of the integration Earth Observation System Clearing-HOuse (ECHO) with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Catalogue Service—Web profile (CSW) is put forward. The architecture consists of three roles: a service requester (the user), a service provider (the ECHO metadata server), and a service broker (the GeoNetwork CSW and MODIS registry service middleware). The core component-MODIS registry service middleware includes three components: metadata fetcher, metadata transformer, and metadata register. The metadata fetcher is used to fetch metadata from ECHO metadata server; the metadata transformer is responsible for transform metadata from one form to another; the metadata register is in charge of registering ISO19139-based metadata to CSW. A prototype system is designed and implemented by using the service middleware technology and a standard interface and protocol. The feasibility and the response time of registry and retrieval of MODIS data are evaluated by means of a realistic LPDAAC_ECS MODIS data center. The implementation of this prototype system and the experiment show that the architecture and method is feasible and effective.     

Variability analysis of groundwater levels — AGIS-based case study

The present study has analyzed the variability in depth to water level below ground level (bgl) vis-à-vis groundwater development and rainfall from 1987 to 2007 in agriculture dominated Kaithal district of Haryana state in India. Spatial distribution of groundwater depth was mapped and classified into different zones using ILWIS 3.6 GIS tools. Change detection maps were prepared for 1987–1997 and 1997–2007. Groundwater depletion rates during successive decades were compared and critical areas with substantial fall in groundwater levels were identified. Further, block wise trends of change in groundwater levels were also analyzed. The water table in fresh belt areas of the district (Gulha, Pundri and Kaithal blocks) was observed to decline by a magnitude ranging from 10 m to 23 m. In Kalayat and Rajaund blocks, the levels were found fluctuating in a relatively narrow range of 4–9 m. During 1997–2007, the depletion has been faster compared to the preceding decade. Excessive groundwater depletion in major part of the district may be attributed to indiscriminate abstraction for irrigation and decrease in rainfall experienced since 1998. Changes in cropping pattern and irrigation methods are needed in the study area for sustainable management of the resource.     

Vulnerability Assessment and Earthquake Risk Mapping in Part of North Iran Using Geospatial Techniques

Earthquakes cause huge loss of lives and infrastructure every year in Iran. Many settlement areas (urban & rural) as well as Tehran, the capital city of Iran are located in the hazardous area. This research deals with the earthquake risk assessment and mapping based on recent remote sensing information on a GIS platform. The study area is part of Central Alborz in southern Caspian Sea and north of capital city of Tehran called Marzanabad area. It is a potentially high-risk zone as several earthquakes have occurred in the past. The study’s main objective is to develop an Earthquake Risk Map at the scale of 1:25,000 to identify high-risk zone and vulnerability areas to the settlements and infrastructure of area. Digital lineaments wear extraction and analysis for identification the faults using several RADAR and optical images with spatial analysis techniques. The probable faults were detected by superimposition of the lithological and geomorphologic features and their variance over the lineaments in a GIS environment. This research work involved fault identification on the remote sensed dataset as well as field studies and the risky areas were classified in the vicinity of the faults by applying different buffer with specifying distance of the source/site of risk to fault location. Statistical analysis of Earthquake Risk Map (ERM) by GIS indicated that 32% of the total area with about 66% of settlements and 52% of population is located in strongly high-risk and high-risk zone. Moderately low risk and low risk zones cover 38.67% of total area, which is free of settlements as well as population. The Earthquake map elaborated in this research work will be a useful tool for disaster management as well as urban and regional planning of future activities in the area.     

Entropy-based fuzzy classification parameter optimization using uncertainty variation across spatial resolution

In the past researchers have suggested hard classification approaches for pure pixel remote sensing data and to handle mixed pixels soft classification approaches have been studied for land cover mapping. In this research work, while selecting fuzzy c-means (FCM) as a base soft classifier entropy parameter has been added. For this research work Resourcesat-1 (IRS-P6) datasets from AWIFS, LISSIII and LISS-IV sensors of same date have been used. AWIFS and LISS-III datasets have been used for classification and LISS-III and LISS-IV data were used for reference data generation, respectively. Soft classified outputs from entropy based FCM classifiers for AWIFS and LISS-III datasets have been evaluated using sub-pixel confusion uncertainty matrix (SCM). It has been observed that output from FCM classifier has higher classification accuracy with higher uncertainty but entropy-based classifier with optimum value of regularizing parameter generates classified output with minimum uncertainty.     

Sustainable Utilisation of Water Resource in Watershed Perspective - A Case Study in Alaunja Watershed, Hazaribagh, Bihar

Alaunja watershed, located on ‘Chotanagpur’ plateau of Bihar, is mainly under single cropping. The area receives more than 1000 mm of rainfall but it has not been utilised properly to increase the agricultural output. The remote sensing, geophysical, DBTM (Digital Basement Terrain Model) and GIS (Geographic information System) techniques were used for providing scientific database for sustainable utilisation of water resources in watershed perspective. The landuse, soil and surface water body maps have been prepared using remotely sensed data. DBTM has been generated based on depth of basement information derived from geophysical data to provide information regarding aquifer geometry, fracture zones and sub-surface basins. Analysis indicated that surface and groundwater resources have potential to irrigate 53 per cent of geographical area of the watershed. But at present, this available potential has been utilised only to irrigate 7.03 per cent area of the watershed. Feasibility for large scale development of groundwater through dugwell is possible only in 2 per cent area of the watershed. The available groundwater potential to irrigate 28 per cent area of watershed can not be utilised through dugwells. The surface water potential is also poorly utilised. The present study also helped in prioritising the water resource development activities.