Internet teaching foundation for the Remote Sensing Core Curriculum program

The Remote Sensing Core Curriculum (RSCC) was initiated in 1993 to meet the demands for a college-level set of resources to enhance the quality of education across national and international campuses. The American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing adopted the RSCC in 1996 to sustain support of this educational initiative for its membership and collegiate community. A series of volumes, containing lectures, exercises, and data, is being created by expert contributors to address the different technical fields of remote sensing. The RSCC program is designed to operate on the Internet taking full advantage of the World Wide Web (WWW) technology for distance learning. The issues of curriculum development related to the educational setting, with demands on faculty, students, and facilities, is considered to understand the new paradigms for WW-influenced computer-aided learning. The WWW is shown to be especially appropriate for facilitating remote sensing education with requirements for addressing image data sets and multimedia learning tools. The RSCC is located at http://www.umbc.edu/rscc     

Web Use in Geographical and Environmental Education: An International Survey at the Primary and Secondary Level

This article aims to study Web use and Web-based co-operation and collaboration in geographical and environmental education at the primary and secondary level around the world. Recent trends and future opportunities and challenges are taken into account. The theoretical part of the study considers Web use and different forms of Web-based co-operation. Web use and co-operation in education are classified as co-operative learning, collaborative learning or communal learning. Web use in geographical and environmental education is noted to be growing in significance. Web-based co-operation at any level of intensity is associated with many opportunities and challenges. The empirical part of this study involves a survey of geographical and environmental education researchers in various countries about their views of Web use in education. The results of this survey indicate that the Web in general finds minimal use in geographical and environmental education. As access to the Web is limited and only some pupils can use it, co-operation, particularly collaborative learning on the Web, is still rare in geographical and environmental education. The most often used application is e-mail. Researchers recognise the potential of the Web to enhance local, national and international co-operation, and to facilitate a better understanding of geographical and environmental issues at the grass-root level. Web-based learning can also help to increase and deepen the pupils' cultural understanding. Before that, however, problems in access, costs and teacher training must be solved. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Centrifuge modelling of the influence of crustal fabrics on the development of transfer zones: insights into the mechanics of continental rifting architecture

Centrifuge analogue experiments are used to model the reactivation of pre-existing crustal fabrics during extension. The models reproduced a weakness zone in the lower crust whose geometry was varied in order to investigate its role in controlling the architecture of rift segments and related transfer zones. The typical rift system geometry was characterised by two offset rift segments connected by a major transfer zone in which boundary faults were oblique to the extension vector and displayed a significant transcurrent component of movement. The transfer zone was also characterised by cross-basin faults with both trend and strike-slip component of movement opposite to that displayed by the master faults. Typically, different structural patterns were obtained by changing the offset angle φ between the rift segments, supporting that the structural pattern at transfer zones is strongly influenced by the orientation of pre-existing discontinuities with respect to the stretching vector. In the models, the aspect ratio (ratio of length vs. width) of the transfer zone shows a positive correlation with the offset angle (i.e., the more the inherited fabric is parallel to the extension direction, the longer and narrower the transfer zones). In case of staircase offset of the rift segments (φ=90°), the structural pattern was characterised by two isolated rift depressions linked by a narrow transfer zone in which border faults with alternating polarity overlapped. Prominent rise of the ductile lower crust was also observed at the transfer zone. Many of these geometrical features display striking similarities with natural rift systems. The results of the current experiments provide useful insights into the mechanics of continental rift architecture, supporting that rift propagation, width and along-axis segmentation may be strongly controlled by the reactivation of pre-existing pervasive crustal fabrics.     

Lake-Sediment Records of Recent Environmental Change on Svalbard: Results of Diatom Analysis

Surface sediments from 23 lakes on Svalbard were analysed for diatoms. About 182 taxa were found but samples generally have a low richness, with the majority of sites dominated by benthic genera such as Fragilaria, Navicula, and Achnanthes. Centric Cyclotella species occur at only three sites. Modern relationships between diatom abundance and water chemistry and other environmental variables were explored numerically and a preliminary transfer function for pH was developed. Lakes fell into three groups on the basis of their diatom assemblages: (1) high pH, high cation, high conductivity sites characterised by Amphora libyca, (2) shallow sites with relatively high nutrient values characterised by Fragilaria species, and (3) more acid and dilute sites with high amounts of snow cover in the catchments characterised by small Achnanthes species and Navicula digitulus. Five sediment cores representing the recent past were also analysed for diatoms. Three shallow sites were dominated by Fragilaria species throughout the period represented by the cores and no shifts in inferred pH were found. At two deeper sites (Arresjøen, Birgervatnet) major assemblage shifts are found which are unrelated to independent evidence for atmospheric contamination. Early (ca. 1200 AD) changes found at both sites are possibly related to the onset of the ‘Little Ice Age’. Later changes are neither synchronous nor similar in nature and might be best explained as individual responses to the recovery from the ‘Little Ice Age’ and subsequent climatic warming.     

Simulation of site-scale water fluxes in desert and natural oasis ecosystems of the arid region in Northwest China

The study of water fluxes is important to better understand hydrological cycles in arid regions. Data-driven machine learning models have been recently applied to water flux simulation. Previous studies have built site-scale simulation models of water fluxes for individual sites separately, requiring a large amount of data from each site and significant computation time. For arid areas, there is no consensus as to the optimal model and variable selection method to simulate water fluxes. Using data from seven flux observation sites in the arid region of Northwest China, this study compared the performance of random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), back propagation neural network (BPNN), and multiple linear regression (MLR) models in simulating water fluxes. Additionally, the study investigated inter-annual and seasonal variation in water fluxes and the dominant drivers of this variation at different sites. A universal simulation model for water flux was built using the RF approach and key variables as determined by MLR, incorporating data from all sites. Model performance of the SVM algorithm (R² = 0.25–0.90) was slightly worse than that of the RF algorithm (R² = 0.41–0.91); the BPNN algorithm performed poorly in most cases (R² = 0.15–0.88). Similarly, the MLR results were limited and unreliable (R² = 0.00–0.66). Using the universal RF model, annual water fluxes were found to be much higher than the precipitation received at each site, and natural oases showed higher fluxes than desert ecosystems. Water fluxes were highest during the growing season (May–September) and lowest during the non-growing season (October–April). Furthermore, the dominant drivers of water flux variation were various among different sites, but the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), soil moisture and soil temperature were important at most sites. This study provides useful insights for simulating water fluxes in desert and oasis ecosystems, understanding patterns of variation and the underlying mechanisms. Besides, these results can make a contribution as the decision-making basis to the water management in desert and oasis ecosystems.     

Site characterization model using least‐square support vector machine and relevance vector machine based on corrected SPT data (Nc)

Statistical learning algorithms provide a viable framework for geotechnical engineering modeling. This paper describes two statistical learning algorithms applied for site characterization modeling based on standard penetration test (SPT) data. More than 2700 field SPT values (N) have been collected from 766 boreholes spread over an area of 220 sqkm area in Bangalore. To get N corrected value (N_c), N values have been corrected (N_c) for different parameters such as overburden stress, size of borehole, type of sampler, length of connecting rod, etc. In three‐dimensional site characterization model, the function N_c=N_c (X, Y, Z), where X, Y and Z are the coordinates of a point corresponding to N_c value, is to be approximated in which N_c value at any half‐space point in Bangalore can be determined. The first algorithm uses least‐square support vector machine (LSSVM), which is related to a ridge regression type of support vector machine. The second algorithm uses relevance vector machine (RVM), which combines the strengths of kernel‐based methods and Bayesian theory to establish the relationships between a set of input vectors and a desired output. The paper also presents the comparative study between the developed LSSVM and RVM model for site characterization. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

迁移学习支持下的高分影像山地滑坡灾害解译模型

无人机低空遥感是近年来新兴的一种快速获取灾情信息的手段,如何利用无人机高分影像构建滑坡灾害解译模型是实现快速自动解译滑坡的关键。针对该问题,对比了多种影像特征提取方法,将迁移学习(TL)特征和支持向量机(SVM)引入到构建滑坡灾害自动解译模型中,提出了一种TL支持下的高分影像滑坡灾害解译模型。选取5·12汶川地震及4·20芦山地震系列无人机影像构建了滑坡灾害样本库并进行了实验,TL特征方法整体分类准确度ACC为95%,ROC达到0.98,识别准确率达到97%。结果表明,所提方法可用于高分影像滑坡自动解译,同时可用于大面积高分影像中快速山地滑坡灾害定位及检测。     

利用多光谱卫星遥感和深度学习方法进行青藏高原积雪判识

青藏高原积雪对全球气候变化十分重要,针对已有积雪遥感判识方法中普遍采用的可见光与红外光谱数据易受复杂地形与高海拔影响,导致青藏高原地区积雪判识精度较低的问题,提出了一种基于多光谱遥感与地理信息数据特征级融合的积雪遥感判识方法:以风云三号卫星可见光与红外多光谱遥感资料与多要素地理信息作为数据源,由地面实测雪深数据与现有积雪产品交叉筛选出样本标签,构建并训练基于层叠去噪自编码器(SDAE)的特征融合与分类网络,从而有效辨识青藏高原遥感图像中的云、积雪以及无雪地表。经地面实测雪深数据验证,该方法分类精度显著高于使用相同数据源的FY-3A/MULSS积雪产品,略高于国际主流积雪产品MOD10A1与MYD10A1,并且年均云覆盖率最低。试验结果表明该方法可有效地减少云层对积雪判识的干扰,提升分类精度。     

历史数据和强化学习相结合的低频轨迹数据匹配算法

针对低频(采样间隔大于1min)轨迹数据匹配算法精度不高的问题,提出了一种基于强化学习和历史轨迹的匹配算法HMDP-Q,首先通过增量匹配算法提取历史路径作为历史参考经验库;根据历史参考经验库、最短路径和可达性筛选候选路径集;再将地图匹配过程建模成马尔科夫决策过程,利用轨迹点偏离道路距离和历史轨迹构建回报函数;然后借助强化学习算法求解马尔科夫决策过程的最大回报值,即轨迹与道路的最优匹配结果;最后应用某市浮动车轨迹数据进行试验。结果表明:本文算法能有效提高轨迹数据与道路匹配精度;本算法在1min低频采样间隔下轨迹匹配准确率达到了89.2%;采样频率为16min时,该算法匹配精度也能达到61.4%;与IVVM算法相比,HMDP-Q算法匹配精度和求解效率均优于IVVM算法,16min采样频率时本文算法轨迹匹配精度提高了26%。     

思维导图方法的教学实践

思维导图在国内外已有多项研究证明思维导图在促进学生创新思维发展上有作用。在测绘类学科的高校教学中引入思维导图这种学习和工作方法,用在测绘本科教学改革中的讲座责任制授课模式上,通过在测绘本科教学方法改革的需求分析、应用实践和学生调查统计,得出结论:思维导图用于测绘类高校教学中,有利于提高学生创新思辨和自主学习能力,有助于达到以"能力"为核心的测绘专业人才培养目标。