Remote sensing for resources development and environmental management: Remote sensing for resources development and environmental management

damen, m. c. j.

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Multivolume work

Persistent identifier:: 856342815

Title:: Remote sensing for resources development and environmental management

Sub title:: proceedings of the 7th international Symposium, Enschede, 25 - 29 August 1986

Year of publication:: 1986

Place of publication:: Rotterdam; Boston

Publisher of the original:: A. A. Balkema

Identifier (digital):: 856342815

Language:: English

Additional Notes:: Volume 1-3 erschienen von 1986-1988

Editor:: Damen, M. C. J.

Document type:: Multivolume work

Volume

Persistent identifier:: 856641294

Title:: Remote sensing for resources development and environmental management

Sub title:: proceedings of the 7th international Symposium, Enschede, 25 - 29 August 1986

Scope:: IX Seiten, Seiten 551-956

Year of publication:: 1986

Place of publication:: Rotterdam; Boston

Publisher of the original:: A,. A. Balkema

Identifier (digital):: 856641294

Illustration:: Illustrationen, Diagramme

Signature of the source:: ZS 312(26,7,2)

Language:: English

Usage licence:: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Editor:: Damen, M. C. J.

Editor:: International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Commission of Photographic and Remote Sensing Data

Publisher of the digital copy:: Technische Informationsbibliothek Hannover

Place of publication of the digital copy:: Hannover

Year of publication of the original:: 2016

Document type:: Volume

Collection:: Earth sciences

Chapter

Title:: 7 Human settlements: Urban surveys, human settlement analysis and archaeology. Chairman: W. G. Collins, Co-chairman: B. C. Forster, Liaison: P. Hofstee

Write comment:: Wegen zu enger Bindung kommt es teilweise im Original zu Textverlust.

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Chapter

Title:: Human settlement analysis using Shuttle Imaging Radar-A data: An evaluation. C. P. Lo

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

841 enth inter- ng of envirnment. n cultural o the archaeo- udy of world re (ed. ) . Symposium on Remote Sensing for Resources Development and Environmental Management / Enschede / August 1986 Human settlement analysis using Shuttle Imaging Radar-A data: An evaluation apes: rural park system, erior. ial atlas of C.P.Lo University of Georgia, Athens, USA ockholm: Widlunds, ce-borne remote of Arizona c of Germany, eological orld cultural eere (ed.). graphy in anthro- e: Harvard ABSTRACT: The detectability of human settlements from Shuttle Imaging Radar-A images was determined with reference to the radar system geometry and physical and cultural characteristics of the environment in four specific geographic regions of the United States represented in five strips of images. The usefulness of the settlement area data directly measured from the images for population estimation was also evaluated. It was concluded that Shuttle Imaging Radar-A data could produce accurate population estimates of individual settlements and complement other forms of high-resolution space data in human settlement analysis. 1 INTRODUCTION In recent years, high-resolution imagery obtained from space platforms which can be usefully employed in human settlement study becomes available. The most notable examples are Thematic Mapper data (ground resolution 30 m/pixel), SPOT data (ground resolution 20 m/pixel in the multi- spectral mode and 10 m/pixel in the panchromatic mode), NASA Large Format Camera photography (resolution 80 lp/mm), the Metric Camera Photography of the European Space Agency (resolution 40 lp/mm), and the Shuttle Imaging Radar-A data (ground resolution 40 m/pixel) (Doyle, 1984; Cimino and Elachi, 1982). Despite the relatively poorer spatial resolution of the Shuttle Imaging Radar-A (SIR-A) data, its employment in human settlement analysis is invaluable because of its all weather imaging capability which makes it suitable for use to monitor changes of the environment at any time and in different parts of the world. However, the interpretation of these radar image data is more complicated than that of photography or imagery obtained within the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum (0.4-0.7 ,um) . Research is required to examine problems associated with this type of space data and to evaluate objectively their utility in human settlement analysis. Human settlement analysis is taken here to refer to the identification of the shapes and sizes of individual settlements and their pattern of spatial distribution. This paper reports on some preliminary findings of such a research. 2 NATURE OF THE SIR-A DATA The SIR-A data were acquired by the Space Shuttle Columbia on 12 November, 1981 with a side-looking synthetic aperture radar using horizontally polarized microwave radiation transmitted at L-band (1.278 GHz) from an altitude of 259 km (Cimino and Elachi, 1982; Ford et al., 1983). The depression angle of the antenna varied from 46° for the near range (southward edge of the film) to 40° for the far range (northward edge), which produced a swath width of 50 km on the earth surface. The SIR-A data employed for human settlement analysis were optically processed and tilt corrected two-dimensional image film which was amenable to visual interpretation. The scale of the image was 1:500,000. Preliminary investigations carried out by the author in connection with settlement pattern analysis in the North China Plain has confirmed good planimetric accuracy of the SIR-A data as compared with 1:250,000 scale topographic map (Lo, 1984). The quality of these radar data was rated excellent. 3 OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY The application of remotely sensed data to human settlement analysis involves a study of the following points: (a) the detectability of individual settlements, (b) the accuracy with which the shape of each settlement can be determined, (c) the accuracy with which the areal extent of each settlement can be delineated, and (d) the accuracy with which the population size of each settlement can be estimated. In the case of synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data, the answers to these questions are clearly related to the nature of backscatter from the terrain, which is affected by the following factors: (a) the depression angle of the antenna, (b) the incidence angle of illumination, (c) the terrain slope, (d) the properties of the structures, (e) the orientation of the structures in relation to the illumination, and (f) the spatial resolution of the imaging system. In order to evaluate the significance of these various factors, five strips of the SIR-A imagery covering four distinct regions of the United States of America were selected. These were: (1) St. Joseph, Missouri, (2) Mobile, Alabama Hattiesburg, Mississippi, (3) Tallulah, Louisiana, (4) Louisville, Kentucky, and (5) Sterling, Colorado, which represented Interior Plains, Gulf Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Appalachian Plateau, and Great Plains in morphological regions (Fig. 1). The settlements were visually detected and their areas measured using 1-mm square grids directly from the images. These results were then compared with those obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey 1:250,000 scale topographic maps. Visual comparison was also made on the shapes of these settlements. In addition, the areas of these settlements as measured from the imagery were correlated with the population data obtained from the 1980 census. Apart from these observations and measurements, the effects of depression angle, land-surface forms, soil types, vegetation cover, and land use on the detectability and size determination accuracy of these settlements from the SIR-A data were also investigated.

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