Basic Issues


Two classes of issues will be considered in this course:  Biological issues and RemoteSensing issues.  Themes will be chosen, based on the needs and interests of students in the course.  We will attempt to be as comprehensive as we can, but the first consideration will in any case to meet the needs of the students in the course as they interact with each other.

Biological Issues


Following is a list of biological issues to which we will attempt to apply remote sensing in a context that deals with students' needs

*   Identification of habitat for a particular species or community
*   Invasive species
*   Endangered species
*   Habitat disruption as a result of human activities such as agriculture, forestry, etc.
*   Habitat variability
*   Habitat fragmentation
*   Distribution of diseases that may have environmental significance
*   Distribution of gene frequency relative to environmental variables

Remote-Sensing Issues

Following is a list of the remote-sensing-relate issues that we will bring to bear on the biological issues mentioned above:

*   Registration and mosaicing data from different sources
*   Processing levels of remote-sensing imagery
*   Rectification and orthorectification
*   Different aspects of supervised classification
*   Different aspects of unsupervised classification
*   Classification alternatives:  quantitative vs. qualitative
*   Multi-temporal image formation and analysis
*   Multi-band multi-temporal image formation and analysis
*   Role of color to communicate information derived from satelites
*   Knowledge engineer and the application of artificial intelligence to the analysis of imagery
*   Data fusion and use of data of  very different spatial and/or spectral resolution
*   Application of fuzzy logic to remotely sensed imagery
*   Application of remotely sensed imagery to simulation modeling
*   Problems and potential of the range of satellites deriving remotely sensed imagery.

As indicated in the course syllabus, we will choose among foci based on the need and interests of students taking the course.