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Remote Sensing GIS Research Group The School of Science & Technology has a strong established research program in remote sensing and GIS with staff also supporting projects in freshwater and catchment ecology, another key research program within the school. Central to our research activities is the university’s airborne video system (ABVS)- a four camera digital multispectral imaging device managed and supported by Charles Sturt University’s Spatial Analysis Unit (CSU-SPAN). Staff engaged in Remote Sensing & GIS research projects are also members of the newly formed Remote Sensing GIS Research Group (RSGISRG) a university-wide focal group comprising all staff interested in the development and applications of remote sensing and GIS. Research projects fall into three categories: (i) Design and construction and calibration of remote sensing instrumentation, (ii) Development of correction procedures for airborne remote sensing instruments, and (iii) the use of airborne remote sensing for a range of environmental and agricultural applications.
(i) Design and construction and calibration of remote sensing instrumentation
Dr David Lamb:
- Developing a low cost airborne radiometer for assessing algal biomass in the riverine environment
- Investigating the durability, restoration and re-characterisation of aged calibration panels commonly used in field spectroscopy and remote sensing
(ii) Development of correction procedures for airborne remote sensing instruments
Dr. Gordon Chapman:
- Investigating the interaction of light with the atmosphere and the Earth's surface
- Characterising target reflectance (BRF etc), and its dependence on the nature of the target and the view angle and sun angle
- Developing calibration procedures of airborne imaging systems to enable remote measurements of reflectance and radiance
Postgraduate student: Asoka Edirisinghe (Ph D student) Development of Radiometric and Geometric Correction Procedures for Low Cost Airborne Video Image Processing Systems
(iii) The use of airborne remote sensing for a range of environmental and agricultural applications.
Ms. Laurie Chisholm: My primary research interests are related to Geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing applications to environmental science; integration of GIS and remote sensing; investigation of multispectral techniques using remotely-sensed data for forest management; and environmental monitoring using airborne video systems.
- Forest stress indicator mapping in the Barmah Forest, NSW, using imaging spectrometer data (Dr John Louis, co-researcher). This study deals with ecosystem management issues, focusing on the use of high spectral resolution imagery (casi) and airborne video to forestry, in particular the investigation of multispectral techniques to detect forest moisture stress in the Barmah Forest, NSW. This project is funded by a CSU Seed Grant in collaboration with NSW Forests, Deniliquin Regional Office.
- Assessment of environmental flows for the Murrumbidgee River (Dr R. Watts, Principal Investigator). This project will undertake investigations into the benefits of environmental flows and collect baseline data within the catchment on indicators of river health. It is expected that several research objectives will be formed into sub-projects including the formation of a monitoring program using remotely-sensed data incorporated into a geographic information system (GIS) to assess the effects of flow strategies on the environment, whether degradation or rehabilitation.
Postgraduate student projects:
- Evaluation of forest stress using airborne video data. (Dr D Lamb as co-supervisor)
- Determination of corridor connectivity for remnant vegetation using GIS and remote sensing techniques
Paul Frazier: My research interests include the application of remotely sensed and GIS data for mapping and monitoring land resources. This broad statement is focused particularly on two areas:
- The use of airborne video data for various agricultural and environmental applications. An honours student, Ken Watts, has commenced a project to map blackberry infestation in the Kosciusko NP, using airborne video. Of particular interest in this project will be the development of classification techniques which can be applied to a mosaic of images.
- The use of a large range of remotely sensed data (Satellite, Radar, Airborne video, Gamma ray imagery etc) and digital elevation models for land resource evaluation.
David Lamb: Specific projects include
- Developing an airborne video system for large scale assessment of water quality in Australian inland rivers".
- Using airborne video to map winter weeds in emerging crops
- Evaluating the effectiveness of current airborne video imagery of dryland crops as an aid to field agronomists
- Conducting an evaluation of paddock monitoring and an airborne video system to detect and interpret responses of pastures to fertilizer
- Evaluating forest stress using airborne video data
Postgraduate student projects:
- Evaluation of forest stress using airborne video data.
- Assessment of airborne video for mapping weeds in emerging winter cereal crops
- An evaluation of paddock monitoring and an airborne video system to detect and interpret responses of pastures to fertilizer
- The role of objective monitoring in attaining yield potential