ENVIRONMENTAL
SCIENCES 442/542:
INTRODUCTION
TO REMOTE SENSING
WINTER
QUARTER, 2025
Instructor:
Dr. David Wallin; Office: ES342
Phone: 650-7526; e-mail: david.wallin@wwu.edu
Teaching Assistants:
Nichole Ring; Office ES303; e-mail: : ringn@wwu.edu
Ella Hall; Office ES518A; e-mail: : halle27@wwu.edu
Text: Introduction
to Remote Sensing, 6th edition, by J.B. Campbell, R.H. Wynne & V.A. Thomas. I[DW1]
have been using this text for a number of years and older 2nd, 3rd,
4th &
5th editions may be available.
The 6th (2023) includes one brand new chapter and each of the
other chapters have been updated to varying degrees. You can probably get by with an older edition
if you can find it, however, if you do use an older edition, you are
responsible for the new material in the 6th edition. You can also access
the 5th and 6th edition for FREE by checking it out as an
ebook from the WWU library. This is a great option!
Additional readings as assigned: Books are on reserve in the Main library
and journal articles and book chapters are available online (see links below)
or on the Blackboard site.
Click
here for list of readings on reserve in the Main Library
Other useful links for this course:
List of useful Remote Sensing Links
Class Meeting Time: MWF 10:00-10:50, ES313
Lab Meeting, AH16
TR
3:00-4:50 (TA TBD)
WF 2:00-3:50 (TA TBD)
Office Hours:
Dr. Wallin: M 11:00-12:00 and TR 2:00-3:00 (sign-up on office door) and by
appointment.
Nichole Ring: TBD and by appointment
Ella Hall: TBD and by appointment
Prerequisites: Completion of a 300-level course in either
ESCI, ENVS, EGEO, BIOL, GEOL, ANTH or permission of instructor
Student Learning
Objectives: Upon completion of the course, students will be well versed in theoretical framework for
the field of remote sensing and be capable of using data from spaceborne and
airborne sensors to derive information about the earth’s land and water
features.
Academic Policies:
Western’s policies regarding academic honesty; disability and religious
accommodations; ethical conduct with technology; equal opportunity; finals;
medical excuse; and student conduct that are applicable to all students can be
found here: https://syllabi.wwu.edu/
Grades: 1. Midterm exam, 30%; Graduate Students, 25%
2. Final exam, 30% ;
Graduate Students, 25%
3. Lab Reports, 35% Click here for a list
of lab exercises and other information about the lab
4. Attendance, 5%.
5.
Projects; Graduate Students Only, 10%. Project results will be presented both
as a web page.
(Click here for information about the content of your
Graduate Project)
ATTENDANCE? Really? Yup…..Over the past year or so, I’ve noticed that many people don’t show up for class. And I’ve also noticed that this has an impact on people’s grades. So, six times over the quarter, I’ll take attendance. You can miss ONE of these for any reason (illness, overslept, travel, etc.) with no penalty. But you will lose 1% for any additional classes that you miss beyond this. Dates that I take attendance will NOT be announced. On days when I take attendance, I’ll have a sign in sheet that you can initial. And if I catch you trying to initial for a friend who is absent, you will lose the full 5%.
Late Assignments: grades reduced by 5%/day if turned in late without a
valid excuse (illness, family crisis, etc.). Assignments that are more than one week late will not be accepted
without a valid excuse (illness, family
crisis, etc.)
Grading: A =93; A- 90-92; B+ 88-89; B 83-87; B- 80-82; C+ 78-79; C
73-77; C- 70-72; D 60-69; F 0-59
For any exam or other assignment, any appeals or corrections must be done
within one week of receiving the graded assignment from me.
Academic Dishonesty: There has
been a substantial increase in the number of cases of Academic Dishonesty in
recent years. For this reason, all
faculty members have been instructed by the Registrar’s Office to provide
students with explicit information about Academic Dishonesty. Briefly stated, lying, cheating and stealing
will not be tolerated in any form.
Actions of this type will result in severe consequences that could
include a failing grade in the class and dismissal from the university. Hopefully, this does not come as a surprise
to anyone. All students should review
Appendix D, Academic Dishonesty Policy and Procedure Appendix D,
Academic Dishonesty Policy and Procedure in the back of the University Catalog for a more detailed discussion of what
constitutes academic dishonesty. For
more information see the WWU
Plagiarism Information Web Site.
Reasonable Accommodation: Reasonable
accommodation for persons with documented disabilities should be established
within the first week of class and arranged through Disability Resources for
Students: Telephone 650-3083; email drs@wwu.edu
and on the web at http://www.wwu.edu/depts/drs/
TENTATIVE LECTURE SCHEDULE:
This schedule will be revised and updated from time to time as the term
progresses. You should check this page periodically for updates. This page was
last updated on 12/14/2023.
|
|
Topic |
Chapters
from |
|
Week
1: 1/7- 10 |
PART I: FOUNDATIONS; History of Remote Sensing ; EM Radiation |
Chapter
1, 2 |
|
Week 2: 1/13-17 |
PART
II: IMAGE ACQUISITION; Image Classification,
|
Chapter
12, Verbyla Chapters 6 & 7 (Book on reserve in
main library and these chapters available on the Canvas site) |
|
Week 3: 1/20-24 |
Remote
Sensing Platforms, Digital Mapping Cameras, Digital Imagery Each graduate student should meet with D. Wallin NO LATER THAN 1/24 to come up with a topic for your graduate project. There is a 5% penalty/dayon your project grade for failure to meet this deadline.(Click here for details) |
Chapters
|
|
Week 4: 1/27-31 |
Graduate Student Project Outlines due by 1/31. These outlines will be graded and will
contribute 10% towards the grade for this project. .(Click
here for details) |
|
|
Week 5: 2/3-7 |
Land
Observation Satellites |
Chapters
7 Optional:
Irons et al. 2012. The next Landsat
satellite: The Landsat Data Continuity Mission. Rem. Sens. Env. 122:11-21 Irons
et al. 2012 And
see: http://ldcm.nasa.gov/index.html |
|
Week 6: 2/10-14 |
MID-TERM
EXAM tentatively
scheduled for Monday, Feb. 10 Change
Detection . |
Chapter 15, cohen_etal_1998.pdf |
|
Week 7: 2/17-21 |
Image
Resolution; Image Segmentation |
Image_res&Imaged_Segmentation.ppt |
|
Week 8: 2/24-28 |
Thermal
Radiation; PART
II: ANALYSIS; Statistics & Preprocessing Accuracy
Assessment, Graduate
Student Project Preliminary Results due by 2/28. These results will be graded and will
contribute 10% towards the grade for this project. (Click here for
details) |
Chapter
10, 11 Changes
in Spatial Ref Systems in 2022 Chapter 13 |
|
Week 9: 3/3-7 |
Active
Microwave and LIDAR
|
Chapters
8, 9 LIDAR
Readings: Lefsky_etal_2002_LIDAR_Remote_Sensing_Ecosystems Chase_etal_2011_Lidar_Archaeology_Mayan_landscape_Belize_J_Archaeology Chapter 15, 19 |
|
Week 10: 3/10-14 |
Odd and ends
Graduate Student
Final Projects due by 3/14. (Click here for details) |
SATELLITE IMAGERY FOR REGIONAL FOREST ASSESSMENT |
|
Finals week 3/17-21 |
Check University’s Timetable of Classes for date and time of final exam Click here for the WWU Online Final Exam Schedule |
|
Links to papers that I will discuss in class:
Cohen, W.B., M. Fiorella, J. Gray, E. Helmer and K. Anderson. 1998. An efficient and accurate method for mapping forest clearcuts in the Pacific Northwest using Landsat imagery. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 64(4):293-300. cohen_etal_1998_apr_293-300.pdf
Cohen, W.B., T.A. Spies, R.J. Alig, D.R. Otter, T.K. Maiersperger and M. Fiorella. 2002. Characterizing 23 years (1972-95) of stand replacement disturbance in western Oregon forests with Landsat imagery. Ecosystems 5:122-137. cohen_etal_2002.pdf
He, H.S., D.J. Mladenoff, V.C. Radeloff and T.R. Crow. 1998. Integration of GIS and Satellite Data. Ecological Applications 8(4):1072-1083 http://ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/login?url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1051-0761%28199811%298%3A4%3C1072%3AIOGDAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5
Imhoff, M.L., W.T. Lawrence, C.D. Elvidge, T.
Paul, E. Levine, M.V. Privalsky and V. Brown.
1997. Using nighttime DMSP/OLS
images of city lights to estimate the impact of urban land use on soil
resources in the United States. Remote Sensing of Environment
59:105-117. http://ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0034-4257(97)00046-1
Impervious surface mapping using CIR Imagery COB_ColorIR2004_Processing.pdf
Kennedy, R.E., W.B. Cohen and T.A. Schroeder. 2007. Trajectory-based change detection for automated characterization of forest disturbance dynamics. Remote Sensing of Environment 110:370-386. kennedy_etal_2007_rse.pdf
Potter, C., P.-N. Tan, V. Kumar,
C. Kucharik, S. Klooster, V. Genovese, W. Cohen and S. Healey. 2005.
Recent history of large-scale ecosystem disturbances in North America
derived from the AVHRR satellite record.
Ecosystems 8:808-824. http://www.springerlink.com/content/ln7135j19qhm8530/
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