TELERILEVAMENTO GEOLOGICO-AMBIENTALE E SISTEMI INFORMATIVI (GIS)
Knowledge of physics and geology is an essential requirement and, possibly, statistics. English language knowledge is a requisite as well. It would be useful to have attended before a basic GIS introduction.
The student will learn to manage and analyze satellite imagery, from both passive and active sensors, will be able to calculate band ratios and radiometric indices, will learn to build interferometric images from RADAR imagery. The student will also learn to manage and analyse raster and vector datasets on a GIS platform, including interpolation techniques.
Student evaluation will be based on a written test followed by an oral examination. The written test will be based on the theoretical content of the course. During the oral examination a hypothetical case study will be discussed with the student.
The slide talk, as well, will be part of the student evaluation. An examination held in this way offers both the opportunity to test student’s knowledge of the course content and to drive the student to develop specific skills on a) analysis of complex problems, b) the development of new and original research approach and c) good communications.
The final mark will be obtained from the weighted sum of the three parts, according to the following:
Written test: 40%
Oral exam: 40%
Talk: 20%
This course includes an introduction to the main techniques of remotely-sensed data acquisition and interpretation, in particular focusing on environmental sciences applications. An introduction to GIS conceptual model as well as methods for spatial data representation and analysis will be offered during the course.
Main topics are:
PART I – REMOTE SENSING
01. Course Introduction (2h)
02. Remote sensing basics (2h)
03. Optical physics 101 (2h)
04. Sensors and satellite missions (2h)
05. Applications: Botanics, vegetation and landuse (2h)
06. Applications: Hydrology (2h)
07. Applications: Geology (2h)
08. Active sensors (8h)
09. Classification techniques: (supervised e unsupervised) (8h)
10. Structure From Motion techniques (SFM) (4h)
11. Geological photointerpretation (6h)
PART II – GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM - GIS
01. Introduction to GIS (2h)
02. Data management and representation (2h)
03. Data analysis– DB & querying (4h)
04. Spatial analysis (6h)
05. Introduction to geostatistics – interpolation techniques (6h)
06. 3D data viasualization and analysis (2h)
07. Map layout building (2h)
The slides of the course will be uploaded on the University e-learning website as well as all the sample data and SW used during the course.
The following textbooks are strongly suggested:
James B. CAMPBELL Ph.D. – INTRODUCTION TO REMOTE SENSING – Third Ed. – Guilford Press. – course textbook
Ravi P. GUPTA - REMOTE SENSING GEOLOGY – Spinger, Second Edition. – suggested additional reading.
The slides of the course and any additional texts, will be made available on the on-line course platform.
Lessons are basically active lectures, held in one University seat and broadcasted on the other one. Some lectures include some practice on sample data (LANDSAT, SAR scenery and hyperspectral images, stereopaired aerial photographs etc.), using open source software (QGIS, MULTISPEC (Purdue Univ.), MESHLAB, ESA -SENTINEL2 TOOLBOX , GIMP)
Students are also invited to read and analyze a short peer-review paper (in english language and selected by the lecturer) that will be briefly presented to the class through a short slide talk (max. 5 minutes), followed by a discussion on methods and main results