Remote sensing data comes in two basic types, passively collected data. Passive data collection focuses on acquiring intensities of electromagnetic radiation generated by the sun and reflected off the surface of the planet. Active data collection is largely restricted to devices that send and generate a pulse of energy to that is reflected back to the satellite to be recorded.
Remote sensing data are playing a constantly increasing role in our daily lives, scientific research, and a wide variety of applications to monitor and study the earth. Thus, it is important for more non-specialists to be able to understand and use these data. It is possible to get started using remote sensing data with only modest thought and effort. We are dealing with electromagnetic energy (light, heat, radar), and we are all familiar with visible light. Much of the physical intuition needed comes naturally because we deal with light every day.
Remote sensing data are widely employed in landscape ecology research, their current and potential roles have not been evaluated critically. To provide an overview of current practice, 438 research papers published in the journal. For the years 2004-2008 were examined for information about use of remote sensing. Results indicated that only 36% of studies explicitly mentioned remote sensing. Of those that did so, aerial photographs and landsat satellite sensor images were most commonly used, accounting for 46% and 42% of studies, respectively. The predominant application of remote sensing data across these studies was for thematic mapping purposes. This suggests that landscape ecologists have been relatively slow to recognize the potential value of recent developments in remote sensing technologies and methods. The review also provided evidence of a frequent lack of key detail in studies recently published in. , with 75% failing to provide any assessment of uncertainty or error relating to image classification and mapping. It is suggested that the role of remote sensing in landscape ecology might be strengthened by closer collaboration between researchers in the two disciplines, by greater integration of diverse remote sensing data with ecological data, and by increased recognition of the value of remote sensing beyond land-cover mapping and pattern description. This is illustrated by case studies drawn from latin america (focusing on forest loss and fragmentation) and the uk (focusing on habitat quality for woodland birds). Such approaches might improve the analytical and theoretical rigour of landscape ecology, and be applied usefully to issues of outstanding societal interest, such as the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Remote sensing data are playing a constantly increasing role in our daily lives, scientific research, and a wide variety of applications to monitor and study the earth. Thus, it is important for more non-specialists to be able to understand and use these data. It is possible to get started using remote sensing data with only modest thought and effort. We are dealing with electromagnetic energy (light, heat, radar), and we are all familiar with visible light. Much of the physical intuition needed comes naturally because we deal with light every day.
ReplyDeleteRemote sensing data are widely employed in landscape ecology research, their current and potential roles have not been evaluated critically. To provide an overview of current practice, 438 research papers published in the journal. For the years 2004-2008 were examined for information about use of remote sensing. Results indicated that only 36% of studies explicitly mentioned remote sensing. Of those that did so, aerial photographs and landsat satellite sensor images were most commonly used, accounting for 46% and 42% of studies, respectively. The predominant application of remote sensing data across these studies was for thematic mapping purposes. This suggests that landscape ecologists have been relatively slow to recognize the potential value of recent developments in remote sensing technologies and methods. The review also provided evidence of a frequent lack of key detail in studies recently published in. , with 75% failing to provide any assessment of uncertainty or error relating to image classification and mapping. It is suggested that the role of remote sensing in landscape ecology might be strengthened by closer collaboration between researchers in the two disciplines, by greater integration of diverse remote sensing data with ecological data, and by increased recognition of the value of remote sensing beyond land-cover mapping and pattern description. This is illustrated by case studies drawn from latin america (focusing on forest loss and fragmentation) and the uk (focusing on habitat quality for woodland birds). Such approaches might improve the analytical and theoretical rigour of landscape ecology, and be applied usefully to issues of outstanding societal interest, such as the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
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