Aim and Objective The aim is to better understand methods of remote sensing and digital image analysis to map and analyse land cover in urban, suburban and rural areas in Warwickshire. Your objectives are to apply image processing techniques to map open space (grassland, woodland) and water bodies in Warwickshire, to analyse the output(s) and to critically evaluate the method. 10. Learning Outcomes On completing this exercise you will be able to Generate geographical information by implementing techniques of digital image processing. Critically evaluate modelbased methods to extract information from Earth observation data to study built and natural environments. Critically evaluate methods of integrating remote sensing and GIS.Access to ‘green’ open space is an important issue in urban design. Studies have shown that a 5% increase in tree cover reduces runoff by 2%, that a treeless street is 5.5 oC warmer than a treelined one in hot summers and that asthma rates in children fall 25% for every extra 350 trees per sq. km. Research from The Netherlands found that the annual rates of 15 out of 24 major physical diseases were significantly lower among those living within 1 km of a green space. And for three illnesses anxiety disorders, infectious diseases of the digestive system and medically unexplained physical symptoms the benefit of living near green spaces was evident even if it was within three kilometres of the home. For example, the annual prevalence of depression for those living in a residential area containing 10% of green space within a one kilometre radius of their home was 32 per 1000 whereas for those living in an area containing 90% of green space it was 24 per 1000. The researchers found the strongest relation was for under12s, who were 21% less likely to suffer from depression in the greener areas. On a more general note there is a desire to provide open spaces in our urban areas as they give opportunities for children to play outside that will benefit their physical health and social wellbeing. Before drawing up a policy on the provision of open space in Coventry it is important that policymakers have knowledge of the current location of green space. Is it evenly spread across the city? Complete the eLearning activities that are designed to strengthen your skills in and understanding of image processing. The practical exercises will also expose you to a range of image processing techniques and by reading about case studies you will learn how these techniques have been applied. Using your knowledge of remote sensing and image processing skills: 1. Develop an image processing schema specific to the case study, 2. Implement that schema to map land cover and water, 3. Analyse your output(s), 4. Assess the method using field observations. Your method should consider the properties of different EO data sets and include both preprocessing (data preparation) and image analysis (enhancement and extraction) stages. You can decide to use one or more image. The method should be clearly articulated so that another image analyst could follow your line of thinking and would be able to reproduce the outputs if given the same image extracts. Document key stages in the implementation, a comprehensive flow diagram would be helpful, and present information on the image processing and intermediate outputs in your report. Critically evaluate the method using specific examples from the output to exemplify your findings. Where possible give reasons for inaccuracies. You should also compare your findings to those of similar studies that have been published and use that comparison to support a discussion of your findings
