GEO 427 / EVS 527, Cleveland State University
Advanced Topics in Remote Sensing and GIS,
Concentrating on Biological Issues
Spring Semester, 2005
W. B. Clapham, Jr.; Professor of Biological,
Geological, and Environmental Sciences; Cleveland State University
Office Science and Research Bldg, Room G-70
Office Telephone [216] 687-4820
Cell Telephone [440] 669-9530
Email address: w.clapham@csuohio.edu
PURPOSE: The purpose of
this course is to introduce students to some significant topics in
Remote
Sensing and Geographic Information Systems, concentrating on biological
issues. This course will
attempt to concentrate on a range of imagery and techniques beyond
those commonly encountered in
introductory remote-sensing courses. In concentrating on biological
issues, it represents an experiment,
as this course has been more general in the past. However, the
development of multi-university
programming in OhioView universities enables us to specialize on issues
to a degree that was not
practicable previously.
The course will be run as a laboratory-seminar. That is, there will be
discussions of students’ needs in
dealing with specific biological problems, use of specific imagery, and
other issues. When appropriate, I
will present a short lecture designed to present an overview of the
issues to be dealt with. The core of
the course will be laboratory exercises designed to provide hands-on
experience with the course
material. We will also discuss our results (and the problems we
encounter as we get results) as we
generate them in the laboratory. Students will be encouraged to use
images of different areas of
greatest interest to them, to treat their images differently as
appropriate to their interests, and to orient
their analytical techniques toward their career goals wherever
practical. Doing so will provide a more
intense and meaningful discussion in the seminar. The precise
list of exercises, techniques, and images to be used in this course
will be developed through discussions with students and faculty as to
their needs and interests.
This course will be offered to students at all OhioView universities.
This does not necessarily mean that
we will have students from all 12 universities, but it may mean that
students from several universities will
join us in the course and that they may have a broad range of
experiences with techniques and software. We hope to take advantage of
these differences and learn from each other in the process. However,
all
students must be aware that this approach is experimental, and it is
reasonable to expect some
problems in the process.
The issues to be chosen for this course are summarized in the Issue Page.
MATERIALS: Because of the
experimental nature of this course offering, there will be no textbook
for
this course. However, you should retain the texts you used in
introductory courses, because they will
serve as references when you encounter problems or when we need to
consult references in basic
remote sensing. The primary software used in the course at CSU will be
ERDAS Imagine, although we
hope that students at other universities who are proficient with other
software products will be able to
use those products. There will be times when we will need to use
image-processing/analysis software
rather than the primary software product. All materials required for
this course are available at CSU in
the Environmental Remote Sensing Laboratory of the Department of
Biological, Geological, and
Environmental Sciences (SR G-71). This laboratory will also provide
connection with similar laboratories
at other universities with students taking this course. All files which
students at CSU or at other
universities will need will be available either on the BGES
department’s computer network or on the
WorldWide Web.
GRADING: Grades will be based
on three separate parts: The hard copies of images you bring to the
class meetings will count 35% of your final grade. Your contribution to
discussion in the seminar will
count for 35% of your grade. Your final examination will count for 30%
of your grade. This formula is
subject to change.
As you can see, the laboratory exercises in this course are
important. They are the core of the course.
Remote Sensing and GIS are very much hands-on activities, and you
need to do it in order to learn it. We will discuss each exercise,
including its purpose, execution, database, and required techniques. We
may sometimes have step-by-step instructions for carrying out the
exercise, but this will not always be
the case. Most of the exercises will involve techniques you covered in
introductory courses, but we
should be able to learn a great deal from students across OhioView.
We will have only one examination in this course. The final examination
will a practical exercise that will
deal both with those aspects of remote sensing and its application to
biology that are introduced in the
course that have not been covered in the practical laboratory work and
with those issues that have been
considered in laboratories in detail. Its purpose is to integrate the
laboratory and the lecture materials. This will be a take-home
examination, for which you will have one week.
LOGISTICS: The intent of this
course is that we will concentrate on biological issues of interest to
students and the biological community in general. This will work most
effectively if students can relate to
this course with issues raised through their dissertations, theses, or
coursework in other courses in
biology or related fields. For this reason, students planning to enroll
in this course should contact me
prior to the beginning of the Spring Semester and discuss the issues
that interest them most intensely. These issues will be posted on an
internet bulletin board, and the issues raised there will constitute a
significant proportion of the issues to be considered in the course. We
may also invite faculty from
universities with students in the course to discuss specific desires or
needs they have for the application
of remotely sensed imagery to their research projects.
Undergraduate students from CSU will register for GEO 427; graduate
students from CSU will register
for EVS 527. Students from other OhioView universities will register
for whatever course is held to be
most appropriate by the OhioView principal investigator at that
university (e.g. independent study). That
faculty member will be the instructor of record for the course for all
non-CSU students at his or her
university. Students at other OhioView universities do not need to make
any formal arrangements with
Cleveland State University other than to discuss their needs and
interests with me prior to the beginning
of the semester and to attend and participate in the course. All
students will have the opportunity to indicate their needs and
interests. The issue list for the course will be chosen from
those on the Issues page, based on the needs
and interests of students in the course.
We will meet twice weekly, on Tuesday and Thursday. The structure of
our meeting will be relatively
informal. When new material is being presented, I will orient you to
it, and we will discuss what you
need to do in order to carry out assignments. We will then make a
specific assignment. These
assignments may be quite short (e.g. assignment made on Tuesday with a
product due on the following
Thursday or an assignment made on Thursday with a product due on the
following Tuesday. You may
also get longer tasks, in which an assignment made in one class period
will have a product due two or
even three class periods later.
GEO 427 / EVS 527 is a laboratory-seminar course. The basic structure
of the class meetings will be as
follows:
1. Discussion
of the current assignment. If a product is due at the class period, we
will compare
the results that all of you have. We will discuss any problems that
have been raised by the
assignment, any extensions of the assignment that you may have thought
of, and any issues
raised by the books regarding the assignment. The purpose of this
recitation will be to tie up any
loose ends identified in the laboratory and to insure that everybody is
ready for the next week's
assignment.
2. If
no product is due at the meeting in question, we will work together in
a more-or-less standard
laboratory mode to deal with problems, get data, or meet any other
needs raised in the class
discussion. If a product is due at the meeting and there are problems
that require class work in
order to complete the assignment, we will work together to complete the
assignment so that you
can turn in your results.
3. If
a product is due at the meeting, you will turn in your printouts. I
shall then describe the next
assignment and present a verbal orientation to the task. We shall then
discuss the details of the
exercise.
Each assignment will have at least one product that should be turned in
at the class meeting at the
conclusion of the exercise. Since the discussion at that meeting will
be based on what you produce,
your carrying out and completing each assignment in a timely fashion
will be quite important.
GRADUATE STUDENTS: Students
registered in EVS 527 will be required, in addition to the laboratory
and seminar work and the final examination, to prepare a project design
for an application of Geographic
Information Systems or remote sensing that would be applicable to a
research project in their field. Where possible, this should be an
application relevant to their thesis or dissertation.