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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B7. Istanbul 2004 
  
in the project area, have to be agreed with land consolidation 
projects. After the completion of irrigation, drainage, road, 
grading and ownership etudes, blocks are formed on Standard 
Topographic Cadastral Maps by drawn irrigation, drainage and 
road plans. 
irrigation, grading state, rate of wide and length of plots must be 
known and taken into consideration. 
2.4 Determination Of Stationary Establishments 
Stationary establishments such as House, barn, hayloft, working 
well, vineyard, olive grove, pistachio grove, fruit grove, poplar 
grove, sandpit, stone yard, etc. are determined in the field and 
marked on maps. These stationary establishments must be 
described immediately at the time of classification by the 
classification commission. 
3. HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITES 
The strong improvement in space-borne data and consequently in 
the reference scale, can be evaluated by considering the following 
features: 
- from 1 (Ikonos) to 0,61 m (Quick Bird) of panchromatic 
resolution at nadir 
- from 4 (Ikonos) to 2,44 m (Quick Bird) of multi-spectral 
resolution at nadir 
- simultaneous panchromatic and multi-spectral acquisitions 
- radiometric range of 11 bits (2048 levels of grey) instead of the 
usual 8 
- panchromatic band ranging from blue to near infrared 
The two last characteristics in particular enable, through a proper 
spectral and radiometric enhancement (vs. analogical air photos 
e.g.), to reach a better contrast, visibility and information content 
and then a better target distinction (Rossi, 2003). 
3.1 QuickBird 
Main requirements to be satisfied in order to use QuickBird data 
as a source of information for land consolidation, agricultural and 
forestry applications can be identified as follows: 
- High geometrical resolution (for large scale projects) 
- Multispectral capabilities 
- Radiometric sensitivity 
- Good positioning accuracy 
- Revisit capabilities 
- Large image size 
Quickbird highlights can be summarized as follows: 
Good geometrical resolution - QuickBird data has a native 
resolution of 0.61-meters when collecting at nadir that become 
0.66- meters when collecting with an acquisition angle of 15°. 
Since 90% of the frames collected by QuickBird have a collection 
angle in the range 0°-15°, the geometrical resolution can be easily 
compared with the one resulting from an average scale aerial 
flight. 
Multispectrality — QuickBird collects the frame on a higher 
resolution panchromatic band extended also in the near-infrared, 
and on four multispectral bands (three in the visible, one in the 
While forming the blocks, length and direction of 
381 
near infrared). By using data fusion techniques, the multispectral 
bands can be merged with the panchromatic, in order to obtain the 
best high resolution pansharpened, but in natural or in false color. 
Radiometric sensitivity — QuickBird data has a 11-bit dynamic 
range (2048 levels of grey), therefore they can be stretched in 
specific data range in order to improve the visual information. 
This feature is very useful when dealing with urban shadowed 
areas. 
Good positioning accuracy — QuickBird data can be geometrically 
processed with different techniques: 
- Ortho-rectification with a rigorous sensor model 
- Ortho-rectification with the RPC (Rational 
Coefficients) 
The first approach is possible since the Basic QuickBird product 
packaging includes not only the image file, but also a list of 
ancillary data files, such as those containing the ephemeredes and 
the attitude parameters. These data, managed by a proper software 
that models the satellite sensor, enable the generation of accurate 
ortho-images. Software packages that can handle the rigorous 
QuickBird sensor model are already on the market. 
Polynomial 
Revisit capabilities - The satellite has a reviewing rate that 
depends on the off nadir angle. In any case, applications that 
require multitemporal observation with a seasonal frequency can 
be easily carried out with QuickBird data. 
Large image size — When collecting with an off nadir angle in the 
range 0°-15°, the QuickBird image covers approximately a swath 
in the range 16.5 — 18.0 km. Therefore, the extension of each 
frame is roughly 270 up to more then 300 sqkm. Given this frame 
extension, is possible to collect an image over municipality groups 
(useful for instance in subsidies control samples) 
For the above reasons, currently, using satellite data is possible to 
define the classical parameters usual for traditional interpretation 
such as in air-photos interpretation as follows: 
- tone and texture for single targets 
- shape (e.g. for trees, crown, pruning etc.) 
- distance and target geometry 
- context identification (through different human activities 
identification) 
- multi-spectral analysis of single objects instead of groups of 
pixel 
In addition it is possible: 
- updating of the data base when necessary; 
- date selection for the best period of acquisition, both from 
archive and through planning (e.g. based on phenological phases 
or natural events); 
- easy image processing in order to create image fusion 
(pansharpened) 
32 IKONOS 
The Ikonos-2 satellite was launched in September 1999 and has 
been delivering commercial data since early 2000. Ikonos is the 
first of the next generation of high spatial resolution satellites. 
Ikonos data records 4 channels of multispectral data at 4 metre 
resolution and one panchromatic channel with 1 metre resolution. 
This means that Ikonos was the first commercial satellite to