Photo-interpretation and remote sensing at the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, UNB

Abstract

Classically, remote sensing has been used as input data for land cover mapping. Through remote sensing studies at the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, broader applications have been developed. These include: 1) fuel moisture mapping using optical and thermal infrared NOAA-AVHRR and MODIS images, as well as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images (single-polarized images from ERS-1 and RADARSAT-1 and polarimetric images from RADARSAT-2); 2) determination of plant nitrogen and chlorophyll content using narrow-band hyperspectral data; and 3) imaging system applications in the wood industry. The third type of applications include: 1) mapping of internal wood features using X-ray computer tomography images, 2) monitoring of wood deformations using digital images acquired in the visible band, and 3) use of near-infrared spectroscopy to identify and sort wood by species, colour, physical properties, and surfacing/aging history. This last technology will also be used to determine lignin, cellulose and hemi-cellulose contents of wood products for value-added applications. Key words: optical, thermal infrared, radar, fuel moisture, crop nitrogen, X-ray CT images, image correlation, wood scanning, NOAA-AVHRR, MODIS, ERS-1, RADARSAT-1, radar polarimetry, RADARSAT-2