Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing (5 pts)Name______
(missing 3 questions = -1 pt)
Introduction:
You are a remote sensor. Your eyes see colors and light and send that information to your brain. A radar gun is also a remote sensor. Remote sensing is a measure of reflected or emitted energy from an object. Just as cameras and computer screens have different levels of resolution, so do satellite sensors.
Aerial photos or pairs of aerial photos can be used to interpret the landscape. A stereopair consists of two photos of the same object that allows it to appear in three dimensions. In black and white photos, tone and texture can be used to distinguish one type of land use or land cover from another. Forested areas are often medium to dark gray depending on the tree types while grasslands are lighter gray tones. Wet soils are darker than dry soils. Since the human eye cannot see ultraviolet or infrared radiation, those wavelengths can be displayed as a false color image. Green vegetation will be displayed as red, deserts, rock, and urban areas are light blue-gray, clear or deep water is black.
You are a Geographic Information System (GIS). Your brain stores information collected by your senses and allows you to search, manipulate, and analyze data. A geographic information system is more than a database of information and more than a stand-alone map. The GIS is designed to be queried and to assist in analyzing a situation or problem. It is interactive.
Objects can be displayed as points, lines, or polygons. The database in a GIS can contain many different layers of attribute information for a place such as:
locations for a point
type of road for a line
land use or population density for a polygon
A GIS can be thought of as an interactive map made of different layers of geographic data that can be queried; you can change what you see, ask different questions of a database, and display the maps or graphs that your question produced.
Section 1. Remote Sensing
1. Single aerial photo of Chase County, Kansas
What is the predominant land use for this region?
What are the light colored linear features that run along the right edge of the photo?
What sinuous physical features of the landscape do the tree locations follow?
2. Plate 7, Pilot Creek, Wyoming in the Stereoatlas Book and plastic stereoglasses
If you have two photos side by side of the same object, you can use the stereoglasses to see the image in three dimensions. Open the stereoatlas flat and turn to Plate 7, Pilot Creek, Wyoming. Place the stereoglasses so that each eyepiece is over the same object on two adjacent parts of the photos. Try the light colored ridge on the left side about three inches from the spiral binding. Notice that the stereoglasses swivel to adjust for differences in the distance between eyes. With your eyes about an inch away from the eyepieces, you should be able to see the ridge jump up.
Circle the land cover that occurs in the valleys (rocks, vegetation, parking lots, buildings).
Circle the land cover that occurs on the mountain tops (rocks, vegetation, parking lots, buildings).
What are the linear features carved into the sides of the slopes, kind of like a “tree branches” pattern?
3.
Select Natural Disasters and then Dam Breach at Mount Polley Mine, Canada
which occurred on August 4, 2014.
What happened to the water in the tailings pond and Hazeltine Creek from July 29 to August 6?
Why does it look different?
Go to Special Images and choose an example that is about change through time.
I chose______.
Explain the change that is displayed.
Section 2. GIS on the Internet
1.
Select Mount St. Helens and a topographic map of the area will be displayed. The cursor allows you to move around the map area.
What is the latitude/longitude for the upper right corner?
Click on the Spot Elevation tool under the Advanced Menu and go to the crater rim near the words “Mount St. Helens. Click on the rim. What is the elevation?
Go southwest to the Goat Marsh Research Area. What is the elevation at the lake?
Topographic relief is the difference in elevation between two places (high – low). What is the topographic relief?
What do the blue lines on the map represent?
What is the map scale?
Zoom in. What is the map scale now?
Do you see more or less detail?
Is the map scale larger or smaller now?
Zoom out.
Check the box for National Land Cover Database in the Base Layer Menu on the left side.
What do you think each color represents?
Select Imagery from the buttons aligned on the upper right side of the map.
What season does this imagery represent? Explain your answer.
What direction did the 1980 blast go?
What evidence suggests that Mount St. Helens has been active since that blast?
2.
This is the Automated Information Mapping System of Johnson County. In the products and service menu, select JoCoOn-line mapping. You will get a street map and may need to zoom in or out to see the entire county.
Expand (+) the box labeled AIMS Imagery. Check the box labeled Terrain Model. Slide the image transparency over to 0 %. You may need to Reset.
What do the different colors represent?
Uncheck the terrain model and choose the most recentAIMS Imagery. Reset.
Enter the address for JCCC, 12345 College Boulevard.
Pan east to Switzer and 117th. Check Flood Zone Box in the Layers Menu.
What is wrong with most of the buildings on Melrose?
3. or Google Enviromapper
Enter 66210 for the zip code for the area around JCCC and Search.
Select the Air button.
Click on a facility name from the table
What is the name of the business?
What is the street address?
Scroll down to Pollutant Data
What pollutants are released into the air from this location?
Scroll down to Plant Actions. Does this facility have any instances of non-compliance?
Clear the air layer and spend a few minutes exploring some of the other mapping features in the legend. Try your own zip code.
Describe what you found.