Mapping Urbanisation for Urban and Regional Governance Main Report Final Report: September 2003 - DFID Research

R8130 3. An Introduction to Remote Sensing

3.

An introduction to Remote Sensing and Basic Principles of GIS

Remote Sensing (RS) is the act of deriving data about the earths surface, from above it. Previously images were obtained through photography from aircraft for processing into maps. Now the term Remote Sensing is used most often specifically to satellite-mounted multispectral1 sensors, such as the Landsat series of satellites. This is normally available in digital format from one of the satellite agencies (see chapter 5). Some kind of RS or GIS software is required to be able to read the image, though once the basic map image has been produced, techniques other than GIS can be used to process or manipulate it (see chapter 4). Geographical Information Systems (GIS)2 are best described as software and techniques for displaying and analysing information about the earth in a digital form. GIS and RS software share many similar attributes and some software packages claim to be both RS and GIS software. They are similar fields in that they both are concerned with the digital representation of geographic phenomena and often both employ the same spatial analytical techniques to manipulate the data. Once the image (usually received as a set of layers) has been processed, there are a number of ways in which it can be used and manipulated, using manual and/or digital techniques. The research has established that a map useable for basic planning purposes can be produced with just three layers of a basic Landsat image or tile (approximately 1% of the data supplied).

Optical Remote Sensing

Remote sensing is simply the observation of an object from a distance. Various forms of aerial photography have been used to create maps of the earths surface since the eighteenth century. Satellite remote sensing can be traced back to the mid1940s and the launch of various rockets (the Viking series) from White Sands in New Mexico, and which contained cameras on board. The first satellite sensor dedicated to the multi-spectral remote sensing of earths surface was launched in 1972. Initially named the Earth Resources Technology Satellites (ERTS), this series was renamed Landsat in 1975, and is still in operation today. Over the last three decades earth observation has become increasingly sophisticated, with a large number of countries including those in the developing world recently launching their own remote sensing satellites, such as India, Brazil, China and Pakistan. Remote sensing data has proved invaluable in a wide range of research fields, from making maps of the earth surface, to monitoring renewable and
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Multispectral is the term used for recording images at various wavelengths, each as a separate layer related to a given defined image boundary. Singly or in combination they reveal much information about that portion of the earth's surface - what is on it, in it and what it is composed of. When combined and compared with adjoining images a much broader picture can be constructed of the earth's surface. 2 A GIS is a sophisticated database management system designed to acquire, image, visualise, and display spatially referenced (geographical) forms of data. John R Campbell - Interdisciplinary Research and GIS - ASA Monograph 39, Routeledge 2002. Max Lock Centre, University of Westminster
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Mapping Urbanisation for Urban and Regional Governance Main Report Final Report: September 2003 - DFID Research R8130 3. An Introduction to Remote Sensing non-renewable natural resources, to urban planning. Its success is due to its unique capability to provide near real-time information of the earths surface at a variety of scales. In addition, the continuous nature of the data acquisition, the regular revisit of the sensor to previously imaged areas of the earth, and the digital nature of the data have all added to its success and reliability.

The Electromagnetic Spectrum

The basic principle underlying remote sensing is the measurement of electromagnetic energy reflected or emitted by various features on the earths surface or in its atmosphere. The entire array of electromagnetic radiation at its various wavelengths is referred to as the electromagnetic spectrum. Wavelengths are measured in micrometers (1 micrometer (m) = 10 6 meters). Figure 3.1: Simple Diagram of the Electromagnetic Spectrum.

Source: http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/waves3.html

At one end of the spectrum are radio waves and microwaves that have very long wavelengths. At the shorter end of the spectrum are x-rays and gamma rays, and in the middle is the narrow range of optical wavelengths visible to human eyes. Various sections of the spectrum are of use in remote sensing. These are primarily atmospheric windows bands of wavelengths where the radiation passes easily through the atmosphere to the surface of the earth. The most commonly used are visible and infrared wavelengths: Visible portion, consisting of blue, green and red: 0.4m to 0.7m Infrared portion, consisting of near, short-wave, and thermal: 0.7m to 14m

A satellite sensing system will be designed to image a certain portion of the spectrum, i.e. to record the amount of radiation reflected or emitted at various wavelengths. In order to collect a sufficient amount of energy to provide a reliable measurement, satellite sensors will record the reflectance over an interval of wavelengths. These are referred to as channels or wavebands. The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) for example images at one visible channel (0.53 0.73m), one near infrared channel (0.73 1.1m), two short-wave infrared channels (1.58 1.64m and 3.5 3.9m), and two thermal infrared channels (10.3 11.3m and 11.5 12.5m). It is therefore a multispectral sensor, as it images over more than one waveband of the electromagnetic spectrum.

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Mapping Urbanisation for Urban and Regional Governance Main Report Final Report: September 2003 - DFID Research R8130 3. An Introduction to Remote Sensing

Picture Elements or Pixels

A remote sensing image is made up of an array of square picture elements or pixels. In an optical image the size of the ground area represented by a single pixel is determined by the spatial resolution of the satellite. The spatial resolution can be described simply as the smallest object that can be distinguished from its surroundings. Thus for images produced by the AVHRR sensor, the pixel size is 1km by 1km. In comparison the Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) onboard Landsat 7 has a resolution of 15m. A pixel in this case thus represents an area of 15m by 15m (or 225m2).

The Principles of GIS

A GIS (Geographical Information System) can be described as a computer mapping and data storage system, in which data is tied to points, lines, polygons or pixels on a computer display. Rather than just a 'dumb map', in which colours and symbols represent geographical features, the user can interact to varying levels with a GIS. For example, click the mouse on a line and discover the name of the road it represents, its length, the last time it was surfaced, who carried out the surfacing work, when it will need surfacing again, statistics about the number of road traffic offences committed there in the last year. The possibilities are almost endless. Additionally, a GIS can use the spatial information it contains in combination with attribute data to perform spatial analysis. For example we may want to know, how many Korean restaurants there are within a twenty-mile radius of a hotel, or how far you could get in a car along a certain route. You could ask what could I see if looked in this direction, stood at this point or where could you see me from?

Data Structures
The way a GIS does this is to use data structures to represent geographical object. It does so in two main ways called 'raster' and 'vector'. Raster Data Structure In a raster data structure, reality is divided into an array of square pixels each of which has a value. For example, 1 may be road, 2 pasture, 3 water, etc. The image on the left below shows a raster depiction of a house, by a river with a road serving the house and continuing on past. Each pixel has a code that represents its land type. The advantage of this is that another layer can be placed showing property value, for example, over this map and a calculation can then be made pixel to pixel through the layers. This can be done with as many layers as needed.

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Mapping Urbanisation for Urban and Regional Governance Main Report Final Report: September 2003 - DFID Research R8130 3. An Introduction to Remote Sensing Figure 3.2: Raster Versus Vector Data Structure

Raster Data Structure

Vector Data Structure

Vector Data Structure The other (and most common) form of GIS data structure is the vector data structure or object approach. Geographical objects are constructed of point, lines and polygons. In the view above the house is a polygon, constructed of lines that change direction at points. Figure 3.3: Vector Depiction of an Imaginary Area

In figure 3.3, an imaginary vector depiction shows the three components used together to depict geographic objects. The points could represent cities, or oil wells any discreet location or area that can be represented as a single point on a map, depending on the scale of the map. The line could represent a road, a river, the route of an exploration or advance any linear feature. The line is constructed of a series of points, known as vertices. Each vertex defines the point at which the line changes direction. In a GIS some
Max Lock Centre, University of Westminster
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Mapping Urbanisation for Urban and Regional Governance Main Report Final Report: September 2003 - DFID Research R8130 3. An Introduction to Remote Sensing knowledge is built into these lines, so for example the GIS can tell which direction along each line is 'forward' or 'backwards', known as the 'to' and 'from' nodes, or which county, zone is on each side of the line. The polygonal theme which could be counties, property parcels, electoral zone etcis constructed of lines (in turn defined by points) that join up to create a closed area.

Interoperability and Availability

Although most GIS packages use a combination of raster and vector data structure, they often call the same things by different names, or, even worse, use the same name to describe different things. Worse than that, GIS software manufacturers often produce GIS outputs in forms that are not compatible with other software types. This is supposed to have stopped happening. In 1994 the Open GIS Consortium (OGC) was formed with a view to standardising (or at least making interoperable) all geospatial data. Great strides have been made to achieve this aim by the OGC and advances have been made by the OGC. However, although steps were made toward interoperability, it still isn't a reality. Data still cannot be opened in forms from one GIS in another. For example, a MapInfo tab file cannot be opened in an ESRI product and vice versa; an ESRI shp file cannot be opened in MapInfo. The problem is that it does not seem to be seen to as truly in the GIS industrys interest (or nature) to be open or interoperable. As the GIS market continues to grow, competition continues and GIS companies individually think they need the 'edge' of some kind to ensure their survival or success.

Uncertainty and Metadata

The problem with the digital representation of reality in this way is that there will always be some kind of abstraction. Reality is immensely complex and maps are generally very simple models of it. A whole sub-discipline of GIS has arisen to discuss the nature of and potential solutions to the uncertainty that arises from this fact and the uncertainty associated with the data upon which GIS maps are based. The problem is that uncertainty is the only really certain thing in cartography / GIS. And the only true strategy for dealing with it is to acknowledge its existence and make some attempt to quantify the level of error or uncertainty in an image. The best way of doing this is through metadata roughly speaking, data about data.3 The idea is that when you create a map or an annotated image, you create a file that goes with it the metadata file which explains, for example, where the image / map came from, what was done to it and when. This allows anyone who uses the image after you to quantify the error or uncertainty associated with the image. Figure 3.4 shows a metadata file for a Landsat image from ESDI.

metadata n., a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. OED

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Mapping Urbanisation for Urban and Regional Governance Main Report Final Report: September 2003 - DFID Research R8130 3. An Introduction to Remote Sensing Figure 3.4: Metadata File for Landsat Image

However, some metadata standards can be extremely exhaustive. For example, the document shown in figure 3.5 shows a file created to describe a GIS layer of wells created by the University of Wyomings Water resources Centre (http://www.wygisc.uwyo.edu/metadata/wells.html). Figure 3.5: Metadata File for Well Head GIS Layer (University of Wyoming).

Classifying the Data

A primary use of remote sensing data is in classifying various features within a scene into classes, thereby creating a thematic map. In a certain waveband or channel a road, for example, will reflect less energy than the surrounding vegetation, whereas in other wavebands it will reflect or emit more. Therefore, theoretically, it should be possible to distinguish between different types of surface features based on their spectral responses or spectral signatures. The more wavebands that are used, the easier it should be to separate different features, as the more detailed their spectral signatures will be. This is the theoretical basis underlying multispectral classification procedures. Although a classification may be performed on a multitemporal (as opposed to multispectral) dataset, this is

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Mapping Urbanisation for Urban and Regional Governance Main Report Final Report: September 2003 - DFID Research R8130 3. An Introduction to Remote Sensing only of relevance if distinct spectral changes are expected to take place over time, for example in agricultural seasons and crop rotation or rapidly developing or changing urban areas. The theory of classification allows us to perform two types of classification unsupervised or supervised. The main difference between the two is that, during an unsupervised classification, it is the computer that develops the spectral signatures that will be used in the classification process, not the user. In addition, with an unsupervised classification, pixels are assigned to a class based on their spectral characteristics alone. During the unsupervised classification, pixels will be clustered based on the natural spectral groupings present in the dataset. Exactly how the assignment of a pixel to a cluster takes place will depend on the software used. The most commonly used is the Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Technique (ISODATA) algorithm. Pixels are assigned to classes based on their spectral distance from a class mean. This is an iterative process, with the class means shifting after each iteration. The process ends when either a maximum number of iterations have been performed, or a maximum percentage of unchanged pixels has been reached between iterations. The various clusters created will then need to be compared to in situ data, in order to assign meaningful values to them. In contrast, a supervised classification requires some prior knowledge of the classes present within the scene, in order to create a set of training data from which the spectral characteristics of each class will be determined. The first stage is thus the training stage. This involves the identification of areas representative of each class within the image. The DN values of each area are then used to create spectral signatures for each cover type. As the classification will be based on these training sets, it is imperative that they represent the full spectral variation of each cover class. The accuracy of the final classification is determined by the quality of these training sets, so it is important to spend some time creating these as accurately as possible. Once the training sets have been identified, the image can be classified. Numerous supervised classification algorithms exist. Some of the most common ones that are typically found in image processing software are described briefly in Boxes 3.1 and 3.2.

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Mapping Urbanisation for Urban and Regional Governance Main Report Final Report: September 2003 - DFID Research R8130 3. An Introduction to Remote Sensing

Box 3.1 Types of Classifier

The Minimum-distance-to-means classifier is one of the simplest classification algorithms. The mean spectral value for each waveband, for each cover class is computed. The distance between the value of an unknown pixel is then compared to the mean values for each cover class. Finally, the pixel is assigned to the class to which it is closest. If the pixel value is further from all of the mean values than a user-defined distance, it is classified as unknown. In contrast, the Parallelepiped classifier examines the range of the values in each of the training sets. A parallelepiped (a rectangular area) is defined surrounding the mean value of each class if the pixel value lies within the parallelepiped it is assigned to that class. If the pixel falls within more than one class, it is assigned to an overlap class, and if it falls in none, it is assigned to unknown. Finally, the Maximum likelihood classifier examines both the variance and covariance of the spectral signatures for each cover class in order to classify a pixel. The probability that a pixel belongs to a certain class is calculated, with the pixel being assigned to the most likely class or labelled unknown if all the probability values are below a user-defined threshold.

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Mapping Urbanisation for Urban and Regional Governance Main Report Final Report: September 2003 - DFID Research R8130 3. An Introduction to Remote Sensing

Box 3.2 Automatic Extraction of Features from Satellite Imagery is not always Practicable
In remote sensing technology, the use of algorithms to automatically extract features from satellite imagery in order to create maps, is still reasonably new and cutting edge. Armin Gruen in Switzerland and Ian Dowman in the UK have worked extensively with algorithms that can follow linear features or extract features based on their shape and / or spectral characteristics. This represents a great advantage for the cartographic industry and national mapping agencies (NMAs) have been very interested in their development. The drawback is that it is extremely expensive. The effort required in terms of images, processing, hardware, training make this a very specialised operation and so not really appropriate at present for the developing world. However, there is a reference section at the end of the report giving the key references on automatic feature extraction for mapping. In practice, Landsat imagery, for instance, either printed out or viewed on a screen can be generally and well interpreted at 1:25,000 to 1:50,000 scale by an operative trained in aerial photography and who has a local ground knowledge of the area covered. Areas of uncertain classification such as water, rock, building, road, railway, new grown grass, recently tilled land, bare earth, and so forth will still need to be identified as a query and checked on the ground. The process can be iterative and self correcting if clear records are kept. There is a need to keep field checking of general topographical 'map' classification separate from the collection of detailed 'quality' and 'quantity' land use classification. The latter should be a separate exercise once the topographical base has been verified.

The advantages and disadvantages of the RS approach

Advantages
It is relatively Inexpensive. The cost of software and data (which often represents a one-off cost) is less expensive than sending teams of surveyors out into the field. Current (within reason). One particular problem that the developing world faces is that data is old or out of date. Satellite imagery can be acquired for free from the last decade and contemporary data can be acquired fairly inexpensively Provides data about large areas

Disadvantages
There will be doubtful and uncertainties of classification related to pixel size. A full field check will be necessary to resolve ground use in these areas. Datasets from multiple sources are sometimes difficult to georeference. Using images and maps that are drawn in different scales and projections can lead to difficulty combining them. The sensor performs a sweep and as such can create errors. i.e., only some of the image is directly below the sensor and so pixels toward the edge of the image may be distorted. Objects in the image can be confused or misclassified. For example, shadows may look like metalled roads. To get any level of detailed, current data and to buy specialist RS software can be expensive In some active sensing systems (such as lidar) the sensor and source are moving relative to each other distortions can creep to the image. This is a form of Doppler effect (the visual equivalent of a police siren changing pitch as it moves closer or further away from you).

Provides data about inaccessible areas - or even if theyre not inaccessible, then at least you dont have to go there. Rapid production of maps possible Easy to manipulate (relatively!) with computers and derive information for map production.

Rapid collection of data much more efficient that ground survey!

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