Skip to content

In order to extend the Soil Geographical Database to the countries of Mediterranean Basin, the implementation of soil geographical database of Turkey at 1:1 million scale was done.

In the current report, you will be informed about the preparation of soil database of Turkey compatible with European database and how the Turkish soil data have been integrated the European Soil Database. A number of attributes have been transformed from local/national soil datasets while some attributes have been obtained from auxiliary datasets using remote sensing and GIS Techniques.

Did you know that every year soil organisms process an amount of organic matter equivalent in weight to 25 cars on a surface area as big as a soccer field? Or that one hectare of soil can contain the equivalent in weight of two cows of bacteria? Or that some fungi are extremely big and can reach a length of several hundred metres? If you are interested in all that, plus the relationship between worms and erosion, microbes and clean water, you will find a wealth of information in the report Soil biodiversity.

http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ESDB_Archive/eusoils_docs/other/EUR24295.pdf

A comparison of satellite imagery with aerial photogrammetry today must take into account advances in both approaches to the production of useful landscape and earth observation data today. Whereas most debate previously surrounded issues related to resolution and accuracy, the costs of purchasing satellite imagery have dropped substantially and satellites revisit the same location weekly or daily in some cases.

Inability to revisit sites regularly at short intervals has traditionally been an issue where applications involving up-to-date and shorter visitation times were needed.

Aerial photography, gathered through the use of airplanes flying over the landscape remains an important method for gathering remotely sensed imagery about the planet. Satellites cannot be in two places at the same time, but airplanes equipped with cameras can. Airplanes can wait for improved cloud cover – satellites can’t (they pass over locations and must cycle). And, we are probably nearing the day when aerial cameras will be combined with LiDAR into the same device to provide both kinds of data at the same time, something satellite imagery is likely not about to provide for some time to come.

Vexcel, for example, can provide aerial photography down to 6.50cm resolution today. But satellite imagery is not far off with GeoEye-1, for example, providing panchromatic imagery down to 0.41m resolution – although military customers may only be allowed to use this high-end product with consumers gaining access to 0.50m products. DigitalGlobe is also providing 0.50m resolution imagery through it’s WorldView-1 satellite. Bing Maps is continually releasing new and updated imagery for different locations around the world.

Resolution is only part of the value today. Advances in automated image extraction, GIS and even CAD connected to imagery workflows are shifting aerial photogrammetry from what was primarily oriented around hardware and stereoscopic interpretation toward advanced work flows that result in the development of 3D models, spatial databases with extended attribution and near real-time virtual reality.

When we used to compatr satellite images to aerial photogrammetry, our frame of reference seemed oriented toward ‘the map’ but today the very concept of a map is changing. Cloud services are providing new opportunities for services to be delivered to buyers who have both advanced professional capabilities and use needs while also meeting volunteer organisations and individuals who benefit from the information they provide, but who could care less how it is actually done.

Earlier I reported on BlomURBEX, a European based company that is offering a combination of integrated services online whose aerial imagery provides the basis for their development. Infoterra SKAPE is another product that I have worked with which integrates high-resolution satellite imagery with advanced markup capabilities right on the image using Cloud based services. The benefits of the connection of Vexcel images to Microsoft’s pipeline of Microsoft SQL Server for Spatial Data seems obvious.

While the GIS community has grasped the significance of imagery for Cloud services oriented toward advanced geoprocessing, the connection of aerial imagery to building design and architectural designs in CAD environments, through Cloud services, is not as yet obvious. Imagine designing a building within an imagery environment, crazy idea?

New innovations in computer technology, visualisation and Internet delivered services are stretching the benefits of satellite and aerial imagery away from resolution alone to include processing and delivery of information and ultimately new knowledge that businesses can differentiate upon. If I asked you today, “do you want 1 meter imagery without services or 5 meter imagery with services” which would you choose?

But the differences in revisitation are critically important. And these decisions are highly oriented to the application at hand. It is now hard to imagine agricultural producers accepting imagery of any kind only once a growing season. When earthquakes happen now, As both Chile and Haiti have recently proven, the expectation and demand is for immediate pictures to assess the situation.

A shift toward earth processes is underway that is related to high-resolution and timely imagery. Water movement, carbon dynamics, atmospheric aerosols, security applications and others are all resulting in applications that are ‘deepening’ as they seek to understand and monitor the processes that give rise to the spectral responses within imagery sources themselves. Do we have enough people to understand these processes, let alone how they are interpreted and expressed through imagery?

The comparison of satellite imagery to aerial photogrammetry today is not as simple as it once was. Advances on many fronts including computation, services, knowledge, hardware and software not to mention cost are all considerations. Perhaps the best comparison lies in the alignment of convergence for each of these toward usefulness. If your imagery is not pointing toward increased usefulness today, and in a speedy way, then it probably is not measuring up.

Additional Information:

“Photogrammetry Versus LiDAR: Clearing the Air”:

ISFEREA – Geo-Spatial Information Analysis for Global Security and Stability”:

“Object-Oriented Classification of High Resolution Satellite Image for Better Accuracy”:

“LiDAR and High Resolution Stereo Satellite images for – Map India 2010”:

“Report EuroSDR – State-of-the-art of automated generalisation in commercial software”:

“Towards Integration of Laser Scanning and Photogrammetry”

NASA Mission Bridges Satellite Gap; NSIDC Bridges Data Access”:

Written by Jeff Thurston.
Source V1

Inofterra news: Spring, ‘AssetMonitor’ service, Infoterra SGSA acquires Enifosa


01 April 2010. Spring, as you have never seen it before

Infoterra Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS Astrium, along with its partners Southampton University and INRA France, has successfully mapped the start of Spring using satellite technology.
Infoterra has developed the PHenology And Vegetation Earth Observation Service (PHAVEOS) to monitor seasonal changes in the state of vegetation and has produced a series of maps, which show the British Isles emerging from Winter.

View website
Read press release in english

10 March 2010 . New ‘AssetMonitor’ service launched to protect underwater cables and pipelines from shipping damage

Today Infoterra launched AssetMonitor, a new submarine asset protection service aimed at helping to protect valuable underwater assets – such as electricity & telecoms cables and oil & gas pipelines – from accidental damage by anchors and fishing activity. The company is also pleased to announce that Guernsey and Jersey Electricity’s Channel Islands Electricity Grid (CIEG) has become the first organisation to deploy AssetMonitor, and will use it to protect the two 90,000 Volt submarine cables that supply power and fibre optic communications from France to Jersey and on to Guernsey.

Read press release in english

09 March 2010. Infoterra SGSA acquires Enifosa

Infoterra SGSA, part of Spot Infoterra, the Earth observation division of Astrium Service, has acquired 100% of Enifosa’s (Enginyeria i Fotogrametria S.A.) shares, a leading Spanish firm in 3D urban atlas production and updating.

This purchase, which supports Spot Infoterra’s strategy of strengthening its position as a key player in the Earth observation market, is the first phase of a merging process that will culminate during the second quarter of the 2010, and make Infoterra SGSA one of the most important supplier and producer of geographical information in Spain.

Read press release in english

Source Infoterra Group

Company’s Industry-Leading ImageLibrary Offers Timely Access to Highly Accurate, Current Imagery from All Corners of the Earth

Longmont, Colo. and San Jose, Calif. (Where 2.0 Conference), March 31, 2010 – DigitalGlobe (NYSE: DGI), a leading global provider of commercial high-resolution world-imagery products and services for defense and intelligence, civil government, and commercial customers, today announced that its industry-leading content library now contains more than one billion square kilometers of earth imagery, 33 percent of which is less than one year old.

“The unrivaled quality and quantity contained in DigitalGlobe’s ImageLibrary is what allows us to deliver the imagery our customers need when they need it,” said Jill Smith, CEO of DigitalGlobe. “The power of our industry-leading constellation enables us to persistently break new ground for the industry and we strive to offer our customers the largest collection of accurate, current satellite imagery available.”

DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-1, QuickBird and recently launched WorldView-2 satellites combine to form the industry’s largest satellite constellation. These three satellites, together with DigitalGlobe’s aerial network, enable the company to offer the highest collection capacity of high-resolution earth imagery to customers around the world, adding roughly 1.5 million square kilometers of imagery every day or three times the Earth’s landmass annually. The result is DigitalGlobe’s highly complete ImageLibrary, containing imagery used to inform critical decisions across a range of industries.

To see samples of DigitalGlobe’s diverse imagery, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitalglobe-imagery/.

To learn more about DigitalGlobe and its ImageLibrary, please visit www.digitalglobe.com.

About DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe (http://www.digitalglobe.com) is a leading global provider of commercial high-resolution earth imagery products and services. Sourced from our own advanced satellite constellation, our imagery solutions support a wide variety of uses within defense and intelligence, civil agencies, mapping and analysis, environmental monitoring, oil and gas exploration, infrastructure management, internet portals and navigation technology. With our collection sources and comprehensive ImageLibrary (containing more than one billion square kilometers of earth imagery and imagery products) we offer a range of on- and off-line products and services designed to enable customers to easily access and integrate our imagery into their business operations and applications. For more information, please visit www.digitalglobe.com.

After several decades of research and development into hyperspectral imaging, which greatly enhances our ability to characterise the state of Earth, the technique has been embraced by the Earth-observation community and has entered the mainstream of remote sensing.

The idea behind hyperspectral imaging, also known as imaging spectroscopy, is simple. In the 1970s, multispectral remote sensors produced images with relatively few broad wavelength bands that allowed us to understand our environment better. If acquiring images in just a few spectral bands afforded this, wouldn’t a few hundred narrow spectral bands offer even more?

This thinking led to the birth of hyperspectral imaging in the early 1980s with the Airborne Visible-Infra Red Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Before AVIRIS, technological limitations prevented spectrometers from being used on moving platforms.

Only two such sensors are currently in orbit – Hyperion on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite and CHRIS on ESA’s Proba-1 – and none that enables the global mapping of Earth.

CHRIS is Europe’s only flying imaging spectrometer, with a spatial resolution of 17 m in up to 62 bands. Despite being designed for a one-year life, it is now operating in its ninth year and is serving more than 300 scientific groups in more than 50 countries. Its data support a wide range of applications, such as land surface, coastal zone and aerosol monitoring.

These hyperspectral instruments will not be alone in space for long: three missions are planned to join them within the next five years.

Italy’s ASI space agency plans to launch Prisma, a medium-resolution hyperspectral imaging mission, in 2012. Prisma’s hyperspectral camera will be able to acquire images in about 235 channels in the visible and near-infrared and short-wave infrared.

“Prisma is an Earth-observation system with innovative electro-optical instrumentation that combines a hyperspectral sensor with a panchromatic, medium-resolution camera,” said ASI’s Prisma System Manager Giancarlo Varacalli. “The advantages of this combination are that, in addition to the capabilities offered by hyperspectral sensors, which can determine the chemical-physical composition of the target, the panchromatic adds a higher spatial resolution and the recognition of the geometrical characteristics of the scene.”

“This offers the scientific community and users many applications in the field of environmental monitoring, resource management, crop classification, pollution control, etc. Further applications are possible even in the field of national security,” explained ASI’s Prisma Mission Manager Francesco Longo.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) are planning to launch the EnMAP hyperspectral satellite in 2014 to map Earth’s surface in over 200 narrow colour channels at the same time.

“The primary goal of EnMAP is to offer accurate, diagnostic information on the state and evolution of terrestrial ecosystems on a timely and frequent basis, and to allow for a detailed analysis of surface parameters with regard to the characterisation of vegetation canopies, rock/soil targets and coastal waters on a global scale,” explained EnMAP Project Scientist Prof. Herrmann Kaufmann of GFZ.

“EnMAP is designed to record bio-physical, biochemical and geo-chemical variables to increase our understanding of biospheric/geospheric processes and to ensure the sustainability of our resources.”

In 2015, NASA plans to launch the HyspIRI mission, which will acquire images with 210 spectral bands. It will study the processes that indicate volcanic eruption; analyse the nutrients and water status of vegetation; study deforestation; provide early warning of droughts; among others.

Nearly 200 scientists from Europe and North America gathered at ESA’s Earth Observation Centre in Frascati, Italy, last week to discuss the current and future hyperspectral/imaging spectroscopy capacity.

The 2010 Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Workshop, co-organised by ESA, DLR, GFZ and ASI, covered topics ranging from products and applications of hyperspectral data use in agriculture, geology, land surface, atmosphere, coastal zones, urban areas, etc. that have been built up and supported by ESA’s CHRIS Proba mission over the past eight years.

Source ESA

Scientists worldwide are impatiently awaiting critical data to be supplied by the Thales Alenia Space-designed SIRAL interferometric radar altimeter, which will help them assess the size and thickness of polar ice and how it changes over time. By more precisely measuring its surface and changes in elevation, scientists will be able to better understand the ice cycle and our changing climate.

(Cannes, April 1st, 2010) Slated for launch on April 8th from the space centre in Baïkonur, Kazakhstan, the CryoSat – ESA’s Ice mission is part of the ESA’s Living Planet programme. The satellite was built by EADS Astrium as prime contractor, and features the SIRAL (SAR Interferometric Radar Altimeter) instrument, designed to study polar terrain elevations to provide a highly accurate topography of this shifting environment. The satellite will be placed in polar orbit at an inclination of 92°. It will fly over the poles at an altitude of 720 km, and will circle the Earth once every 100 minutes.

According to Laurent Rey, SIRAL project manager at Thales Alenia Space: “Thanks to SIRAL, scientists will be able to combine data on the size of polar ice sheets with elevation measurements. This will enable them to study not only the current state of this natural environment, but also how fast it is changing globally. The data gathered will give us additional information to help us better understand the Earth’s climate.”

SIRAL is an interferometric radar altimeter derived from the Poseidon altimeter on the Jason satellite. An innovative instrument in a compact package weighing just 90 kg, SIRAL combines three measurement modes:

* Low-resolution, used for conventional altimetric measurements of the relatively stable continental ice sheets in the Antarctic.

* Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mode, used for high-resolution measurement of floating sea ice, enabling the indirect measurement of the thickness of ice floes.

* Interferometric radar mode, to study more contrasted elevations, like the very active areas located at the junction between the ice floes and Antarctica, and Greenland.

SIRAL features very high resolution; using its two antennas, it can scan the ground in 250-meter swaths, enabling it to more precisely determine the transitions between sea and ice. The CryoSat satellite is fitted with a redundant SIRAL instrument, used as a backup if necessary to ensure the long-term success of this critical scientific mission.

“Our challenge was to develop and produce two high-precision SIRAL instruments for this CryoSat mission,” adds Laurent Rey. “This type of instrument demands an extensive effort to deliver the required performance. The adjustments needed are extremely delicate, and doing this successfully depends on real technological prowess.”

A 6-month in-orbit validation phase is scheduled to check all instrument configurations, and to analyse its in-orbit performance in relation to the highly variable terrain that it has to measure.

The importance of polar ice

The ice in our polar regions plays an essential role in our environment, in terms of climate stability, sea levels and the circulation of major ocean currents. Observing this ice is therefore a necessity if we are to study global warming, which is one of scientists’ leading concerns today.

Ice sheets, glaciers, ice caps and snow are all highly sensitive indicators of changes in our climate, some because they are subjected to new climatic conditions that affect their survival, and others because they are located in the Arctic, where the global warming phenomenon is at its most intense. For all these reasons, it is more important than ever to keep an eye on our planet’s changing ice.

Thales Alenia Space, more than 20 years of success in space altimetry

Thales Alenia Space has worked on radar altimetry for over 20 years, and our instruments are widely recognized as among the best in the field. From 1980’s with the first Topex/Poseidon mission to current CryoSat satellite, Thales Alenia Space has provided Earth Observation missions with state-of-the-art altimeters.

The company is also the prime contractor for Sentinel-3 satellites (Sentinel 3A & 3B), part of the GMES program, devoted to cover the topography of ocean surfaces near coastal zones and ice masses.

CryoSat will be the third of ESA’s Earth Explorer satellites in-orbit (in the past twelve months), following on from GOCE and SMOS, for which Thales Alenia Space was respectively the prime contractor and main industrial partner.

For further information see: www.siral-instrument.com

About Thales Alenia Space
The European leader in satellite systems and a major player in orbital infrastructures, Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Finmeccanica (33%). Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio embody the two groups’ “Space Alliance”. Thales Alenia Space sets the global standard in solutions for space telecoms, radar and optical Earth observation, defense and security, navigation and science. The company achieved revenues of Euro 2 billion in 2008 and has a total of 7,200 employees located in 11 industrial sites in France, Italy, Spain and Belgium.
www.thalesaleniaspace.com

Thales Alenia Space Press Contacts

Florence Pontieux – Tel: +33 (0)1 57 77 91 26
florence.pontieux@thalesaleniaspace.com

Sandrine Bielecki – Tel: +33 (0)4 92 92 70 94
sandrine.bielecki@thalesaleniaspace.com

Source Thales

ESA has awarded a contract worth €105 million to Astrium to build the second Sentinel-2 satellite. Once both are operational, this pair of satellites will provide global coverage every five days, delivering high-resolution optical imagery for GMES land and emergency services.

Marking another milestone in Europe’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative, this contract follows hot on the heels of the agreement between ESA and Thales Alenia Space to build the second, or ‘B units’, for Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3.

These contracts ensure that the first three Sentinel missions will fly as pairs to achieve fast coverage of Earth’s land surface, acquiring the systematic data needed for the GMES services.

Sentinel-2 carries a multispectral imager that uses 13 spectral bands from the visible and near-infrared to the shortwave infrared to reveal different features of the landscape. Together with its swath of 290 km, this mission will realise a new generation of imagery for land monitoring.

The data, for example, will be used to generate land-cover and land-use change maps, as well as to monitor geophysical variables such as the area, chlorophyll and water content of leaves. In addition, Sentinel-2 data will find applications in disaster management and humanitarian relief operations.

The contract to build Sentinel-2B was signed by ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Volker Liebig, and the CEO of Astrium Satellites, Evert Dudok, in the presence of DLR’s Chairman, Johann-Dietrich Wörner, and the Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg, Stefan Mappus.

“The Sentinel-2 satellites form an important element of the GMES initiative and will give Europe the ability to monitor environmental changes over an extended period of time,” said Volker Liebig.

GMES is a unique programme and with the Sentinel B units we can ensure global coverage as well as the availability of long-term data, as required by the users.”

The contract follows on from the deal to build Sentinel-2A, which was signed in 2008 with Astrium. Astrium heads a core team and is responsible for the overall design of the satellite, the multispectral instrument, the platform and satellite integration and testing.

This contract demonstrates Europe’s commitment to GMES, which, through the European Commission, will provide a wealth of services and information to understand and protect the environment.

In partnership with the European Commission, ESA’s role is, in part, to realise this dedicated family of Sentinel Earth observation missions to provide the essential data needed for the user services.

The status of the GMES initiative will be presented and discussed at the upcoming Living Planet Symposium, which will be held in Bergen, Norway, on 28 June – 2 July.

Source ESA

Fifty years ago, on April 1, 1960, the first weather satellite was launched from the United States. Called TIROS-1, the Earth observation satellite saw a typhoon forming east of Australia. Today, NASA and NOAA celebrate the milestone in the history of weather observation from space.

The April 1, 2010 NASA media release “NASA and NOAA mark 50 years of weather watching from space” states that “Fifty years ago, the world’s first weather satellite lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., opening a new and exciting dimension in weather forecasting.”

Leaders of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hail the event as the beginning of modern-day weather forecasting from space.

According to the NASA article “The first image from the Television Infrared Observation Satellite, known as TIROS-1, was a fuzzy picture of thick bands and clusters of clouds over America.”

And, “An image captured a few days later revealed a typhoon approximately 1,000 miles east of Australia.”

The TIROS-1 polar-orbiting satellite was launched at 6:40 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on April 1, 1960, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the United States.

Its nearly circular orbit ranged from 435.5 miles (700.9 kilometers ) to 468.3 miles (753.6 kilometers) above the surface of Earth.

Although TIROS-1, at only 270 pounds of mass, only was operational for less than three months, its ability to image atmospheric conditions (with two onboard cameras and two video recorders) from its perch in orbit above Earth proved that space-based satellites were excellent ways to make weather forecasting more accurate.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden stated in recognition of the historic TIROS-1 accomplishment: “TIROS-1 started the satellite observations and interagency collaborations that produced vast improvements in weather forecasts, which have strengthened the nation. It also laid the foundation for our current global view of Earth that underlies all of climate research and the field of Earth system science.”

Please read the NASA article, mentioned earlier, in more detail for additional information on TIROS-1 and the history of weather forecasting from space.

To learn more about the history of weather satellites, please go to the following websites: NASA’s Weather Satellites and NOAA’s NOAA’s Environmental Satellites: A History.

Source ITWIRE

RapidEye, the only geospatial solutions provider to own and operate a constellation of five identical Earth Observation satellites, announced that more than 6.5 Million square kilometers of its satellite imagery taken over North and South America is now available on the RapidEye Geodata Kiosk.

Over 4 Million square kilometers of the United States can be searched for, purchased and delivered entirely online including the states of Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas. The additional 2.5 Million km² are some of the larger states of Brazil including Bahia, Mato Grosso, Paŕa, Paraná and São Paulo.

“This is the next step in expanding our Geodata Kiosk with global imagery. We are excited about having these new large areas of North and South America available with low percentages of cloud cover, which is quite an achievement, especially in much of Brazil,” commented Wolfgang G. Biedermann, CEO of RapidEye. “Now, anyone globally that needs imagery over these areas will have a quick online source for some beautiful terrain in high resolution. We are planning on having more and more imagery over the U.S., Europe and additional countries available in quick succession over the next few months, which will please many customers on both sides of the Atlantic.”

The RapidEye Geodata Kiosk, RapidEye’s online source for satellite imagery, became available in early December 2009, and was introduced with the entire country of Germany available for purchase. This became the foundation of RapidEye’s commitment to making a selection of its ever-growing catalog of data from around the globe available online to anyone at anytime. Over the course of 2010, its online source for RapidEye imagery will continue to expand on a daily basis. To obtain regular updates on the progress of the kiosk, follow RapidEye on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rapideye_kiosk or email newsletter@rapideye.de and ask to subscribe.|

The RapidEye Geodata Kiosk can be accessed through www.geodatakiosk.com, or through the company’s website at www.rapideye.de. RapidEye values customer feedback and requests that any comments regarding the Kiosk be sent to the email address kioskfeedback@rapideye.de.

If you are interested in RapidEye imagery from other parts of the world that are not currently available on the Kiosk, the RapidEye Library can be accessed by contacting a local distributor (for a full list, visit RapidEye’s website at www.rapideye.de/home/about-us/distributors/index.html; or by contacting RapidEye’s Customer Service department at sales@rapideye.de.

About RapidEye AG

RapidEye is an ISO-certified geospatial information provider focused on integrating customized and industry specific solutions into the workflow of global customers in agriculture, forestry, energy, infrastructure, government, security and emergency. RapidEye experts and the satellite system – a constellation of five satellites capable of downloading over 4 million km² of high resolution, multi-spectral imagery per day, and a ground segment for processing and archiving data – allow for cost-effective customized services. The unique combination of large area coverage, high spatial resolution and the possibility of daily revisit to an area provide for superior management information solutions. Currently, more than 120 experts from more than 20 countries are employed by RapidEye, with plans to grow the team to 130 in 2010.

RapidEye benefits from a public-private partnership with the Space Agency of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which is supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. RapidEye is also co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the State of Brandenburg in Germany. For more information on ERDF please contact efreinfo@mw.brandenburg.de.

For more information about RapidEye, please visit www.rapideye.de.

RapidEye Contact
RapidEye AG
Molkenmarkt 30
14776 Brandenburg a. d. Havel, Germany
press@rapideye.de
(4,547 characters)

A GIFTSS Implementation Test

In 2009 the Scottish Government launched its Soil Framework for Scotland which highlighted the need for a monitoring scheme to identify trends in soil condition. A central theme for this framework concerns the link between soil erosion and climate change and the large soil carbon reserves that exist in the soils of Scotland.

Environment Systems were commissioned by the Scottish Government, working with the British National Space Centre (BNSC) under the GIFTSS programme (Government Information from the Space Sector), to evaluate satellite earth observation as a cost-effective method for assessing the extent and severity of erosion in the upland organic soils of Scotland.

Environment Systems specialise in the development and use of geographic information in the environment, agriculture, land and property sectors. The company has a strong track record with government and corporate organisations across the UK and the rest of Europe. This has been developed through delivering independent, professional and cost effective services and solutions with the use of geographical information systems (GIS), remote sensing, database and internet technologies.

The GIFTSS study was set up to deliver an implementation test of the mapping of peat erosion using earth observation. The study was based on the Monadhliath Mountains which are located within the westernmost range of the Grampian Mountains in the highlands of Scotland.

Peatlands are one of the most important ecosystems in terms of carbon retention. The spatial extent and mosaic of exposed peat, vegetated bog surfaces and pools is a highly important component in regards to the potential modelling of the carbon budget of peatlands and related climate change phenomena. As long as the erosion rates of organic matter within the peat bog are lower than the rates of accumulation, it functions as a carbon sink.

Peat erosion features range in scale from local events to the extensive degradation of plant cover and associated exposure of bare peat. This exposure leads to the surface layers of the peat mass becoming less structurally cohesive through the action of frost and desiccation. Rain may then penetrate down these desiccation cracks leading to the development of gully systems (Figure 1). Other erosion features prevalent in peatland environments include rills and sheet features, peat slips and peat bursts.

For the study area SPOT5, IRS P6 and ASTER satellite imagery were prepared; including full geometric and atmospheric correction. Critical to the success of the project was the availability and full integration (into the automated processing chain) of current digital aerial photography. This image data was then complemented by GIS datasets that, whilst often historical and at differing scales and nomenclatures, provided a set of core topographic and thematic information.

Definiens eCognition object orientated rule-based classification software was used to classify the imagery into a set of ‘core level’ data, which in turn was used to produce ‘application level’ data; in this case peat erosion maps. eCognition was chosen due to its ability to take into account both the spatial and spectral information in high-resolution remote sensing imagery, its relative ease in realising the processing of a large remote sensing dataset, its ability to include ancillary information in the segmentation process, and its fast execution Outputs include standard vector and raster formats which can be easily used as inputs within future analyses.

The segmentation procedure involved the creation of three levels, which were used to classify object features at different scales. Within the upper level (Integration Level), all external datasets (i.e. OS MasterMap) were synchronised within a chessboard segmentation procedure and excluded from further classification. The multi-resolution segmentation algorithm was then used to segment the remaining areas of the image to aid in the removal of all other areas not associated with peat erosion features (i.e. Woodland, Non Peat vegetation) to separate the areas of blanket bog.

This segmentation was subsequently carried down to create an Earth Observation (EO) level A finer multi-resolution segmentation within the SPOT data applied to areas of blanket bog to aid in the classification of smaller peat features within the EO data.

Finally, within the lowest level (Air Photo Level), a very fine multi-resolution segmentation using the aerial photography was performed to delineate peat erosion features present within the aerial photography (Figure 2). This segmentation was applied within the areas previously classified to be potential peat erosion regions within the EO layer. The integration, of EO and Air Photo levels forms the basic data building blocks for the production of a range of maps at the level of detail required. Figure 3 shows how the classifications could be incorporated into an assessment of erosion risk.

Specific small scale peat erosion features could not be identified through only the use of moderate EO data such as SPOT and ASTER. It was however possible to establish the larger areas of bare peat which are present.

The use of aerial photography enabled the smaller scale peat erosion features to be delineated with features such as peat gullies classified to a high level of detail. The use of aerial photography alone though did not enable the discrimination between areas of bare peat, and dark, vegetated areas dominated by species such as Calluna vulgaris. Therefore it was necessary to utilise the greater spectral information of satellite based EO data to initially target areas, within which the finer resolution aerial imagery could be applied.


Figure 2 – Air photo level classification


Figure 3 – Erosion risk level classification

Overall map accuracy was calculated at over 84%. The classified map and both the in-situ field data and aerial imagery clearly coincided with one another. Within the accuracy assessment for the land cover maps several layers of uncertainty exist. The primary layer of uncertainty was found in the field and consists of ecotones between one land cover type and another e.g., where a degraded bog becomes a peat erosion feature is not necessarily a ‘hard’ line on the ground. In many cases, the slump at the end of a peat hag has resulted in clumps of bog vegetation within the bare peat area. Where these are frequent, the area is eroding bog; where they are infrequent the area would be considered ‘bare peat’, but the land in-between has a degree of uncertainty.

The success of the project is based on not simply considering this as an ecological project, or as a remote sensing project. Rather, the coupling ecological knowledge with remote sensing expertise and EO information content provided a solution to a complex mapping challenge. EO, and in particular the combination of airborne and spaceborne imagery, offers the opportunity for consistent, objective mapping over a range of mapping scales.

It is proposed that the Scottish Government should adopt the use of EO for mapping and monitoring peat erosion across Scotland, initially through a short project to confirm the transferability of the approach to a second area of Scotland. This could take the form of a ‘rapid implementation’ to assess and confirm the biogeographical effect on erosion processes. A project of this nature would also provide an additional short term output for the Scottish Government, including further examination of additional ‘application levels’ that could usefully be generated from the ‘’core levels’ in support of policy delivery, whilst full funding is being considered.

The full report and downloadable PDF can be found here
Environment Systems Ltd
Address: 8G Cefn Llan Science Park, Aberystwyth, SY23 3AH
Phone: +44 (0) 1970 626688
E-mail: mark.jarman@envsys.co.uk
Website: www.envsys.co.uk