GIS remote sensing portfolio,11020965
- 1. University of the West of England, Bristol BSc Geography and Environmental Management GIS AND REMOTE SENSING APPLICATIONS PORTFOLIO (UBGMSU- 30-3) Tony Gregory
- 6. Reflective Diary: Description: The structure of thisreportis basedonGibbs’reflectivecycle (1988).It encouragesreflexive and reflectivethinkingaboutthe differentstagesof anactivityorexperience(Gibbs,1988). For the GIS Remote sensingapplicationsmodulethisyear,anew programwas introduced. The aim was to developanunderstandingandoperate ErdasImagine tocomplete twotasks.The firsttask was a landcoverchange analysisof Rondonia,Brazil.Anunsupervisedclassificationwasperformed for the dates1999-2013 to identifylandcoverchange,andaNormaliseddifference vegetationindex to recognise change invegetationquality. The secondtask wasa Burnt areaanalysisonUKhahlamba;an areain the SouthAfrican Drakensburg. ERDASimagine wasusedtoquantifythe extentof burntareabetweenApril –October 2013, andthe NormalisedBurnRatioacrossthe same dates. All maps createdwere transferredto Arc map to create aestheticallypleasingfiles. Feelings, evaluation and actions InitiallyIfeltworriedandanxiousafterdiscoveringthatwe wouldbe usinganew computer programme,havingpreviously become veryfamiliarandwithArcGIS. My initial feelingswere amplifiedonce Ibeganfollowingthe videosprovidedbyMichael. The structure wassimplisticwhich allowedme tofollowthe taskswithoutanissue,butthe unfamiliarityof the programme made me feel like Ihadnounderstandingof whatIwas tryingto achieve,andsofeltIwas followingeachtask withoutreallylearningalongthe way. Thisbecame evidentwhenperforminganunsupervised classificationforthe firsttime. Icreatedslightlyinaccurate landcovermapswithsome areasbeing represented asafforestationwhenitwasobvioustheywere not.The erroroccurredwhenassigning the spectral classes andperformingthe matrix union; Iexperiencedthison boththe landcover analysisandthe burn change analysis,causingme tohave to performthese tasksseveral times whichcreatedstressand I became disheartened.Ieventuallygotthe hangof themand produced representable maps. Ifeltthiswasanachievementandwouldbe able toperformthe taska lotmore efficientlynexttime round.If Iwasina positiontodo themagainI woulddoone of twothings.I wouldproduce computerised matrix unionsratherthana handdrawnone soas to avoid misunderstandingwhenIreferredbacktoit lateron,or if possible Iwouldperformasupervised classification(Richards,1993);thiswould increase the accuracyof my workand reduce confusion.
- 7. I feltveryself-assuredwhencompletingthe NDVIandNBRelementsof the portfolio. They wentalot more smoothlyforme than the othertasks;I feel thiswasbecause the lengthof eachtaskand the structure was slightlylesscomplex withfewerareastotrip up on.I wouldnotchange my approach if I was to tackle these tasksagain. At timesIfeltIwas gettingthe hangof the programme,especiallyaftercompletingthe Rondonia task,whichgrewmy confidence;howeverwithconfidencecame adegree of arrogance which causedme to make mistakes atthe recode stage onthe UKhahlambatask.Thisresultedin substantial setbacksinmyprogress,andontwo occasionsIhad to re start the entire change analysis.IfeltIwouldnevergraspthe Erdas imagine programat thispoint,butI perseveredwithit to create maps I waspleasedwith.InhindsightIwouldwrite downkey notesthroughoutthe taskso as to not confuse myself andtoavoidmakingsimpleerrors. I foundsome aspectsof the programme such as the swipe tool veryuseful andeasytouse,but differentiatingbetweenlandformsdue tomylackof knowledgemeantsome classeswere misrepresented.Ibecame impatientwiththispartof the task and rushedcertaindecisionsover assigningclasses.Iwouldtake longerover decisions andnotletimpatience getthe betterof me in the future. I feltrelieved aftereachrecode asitsignifiedthe endof usingErdasimagine andthe start of Arc GIS. My previousworkwiththisprogramme made me feel atease anda lotmore comfortable purely because of the familiarityIassociate withit.The resultof thiswasfinal mapsthatI feltexceptionally proudof. Conclusion Havinglearnedthatthe newprogram isnot as daunting touse as I originallyfearedand now Ifeel that I couldcarry out similarassessmentswithconsiderablylesstrouble. Ihave significantly improvedmyunderstandingof the ERDASsystem whichmakesme feel verysatisfiedwithmy developmentasan undergraduate. Thisunderstandingwill be essential tome forfuture prospectsif I decide totake GIS furtheras a potential carrierchoice.Asa nextstepIneed to take forwardwhatI have learntso farand employthatknowledgetothe restof the module. References: GibbsG (1988) Learning by Doing:A guide to teaching and learning methods.FurtherEducation Unit.OxfordPolytechnic:Oxford.
- 8. Richards,J. A.,(1993). Remote sensingdigitalimage analysis:anintroduction(secondedition)