Enter records

ID: 51397
Title: Biodiversity, Environmental Change and Regional Cooperation in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas
Author: Bruno Messerli
Editor: A.Beatrice Murray
Year: 2009
Publisher: ICIMOD, No 55 Spring 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: Sustainable Mountain Development
Keywords: None
Abstract: None
Location: 231
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51396
Title: Jatropa: enery plant of the future
Author: None
Editor: Stefan Trojek
Year: 2009
Publisher: BVA Bielefelder Verlag GmbH & Co KG, May 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: Sun and Wind Energy
Keywords: Jatropa, farmers, fuel
Abstract: At the outcome of a worldwide discussion as to whether potential foodstuffs belong in fuel tanks, it is above all jatropha which is being acclaimed as the energy plant of the future. A number of major international companies have discovered a new role as plantation owners, while others favour cooperation with local farmers. The EU, for its part, has laid down clear rules on sustainabilty.
Location: 231
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51395
Title: Recycling: A second life
Author: Anke Muller
Editor: Stefan Trojek
Year: 2009
Publisher: BVA Bielefelder Verlag GmbH & Co KG, May 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: Sun and Wind Energy
Keywords: Green technology, Recycling
Abstract: Photovoltaics is considered the ' green ' technology. In order not to damage this reputation, the industry is already is working on a recycling process. It could improve the energy balance still further.
Location: 231
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51394
Title: Solar Fabs:Uniformity as a blessing?
Author: Jorn Iken
Editor: Stefan Trojek
Year: 2009
Publisher: BVA Bielefelder Verlag GmbH & Co KG, May 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: Sun and Wind Energy
Keywords: PV industry
Abstract: The PV industry is entering a new and decisive phase: Following the successful introduction of large-scale series production, process standardisation is the item at the top of the agenda.
Location: 231
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51393
Title: Flexible Cells and Modules
Author: Anke Muller
Editor: Stefan Trojek
Year: 2009
Publisher: BVA Bielefelder Verlag GmbH & Co KG, May 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: Sun and Wind Energy
Keywords: Solar cells, Electricity
Abstract: Want to use a car covered in solar cells as a mini mobile power plant? Or have a motorhome which uses its own roof to supply the travellers with electricity? Such ideas are no longer just dreams, they are well on the way towards becoming reality.
Location: 231
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51392
Title: New Solar Thermal Products
Author: None
Editor: Stefan Trojek
Year: 2009
Publisher: BVA Bielefelder Verlag GmbH & Co KG, May 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: Sun and Wind Energy
Keywords: Photovoltaics, Intersolar
Abstract: While photovoltaics once again dominate the exhibition this year, Intersolar in Munich is still one of the most important trade fairs worldwide for solar thermal. Thermal systems providers are displaying their latest developments in halls B1 and B2. On the following pages, S&WE gives you an overview of those developments.
Location: 231
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51391
Title: Hydrosol II - First successes for a visionary project
Author: Eva Augsten
Editor: Stefan Trojek
Year: 2009
Publisher: BVA Bielefelder Verlag GmbH & Co KG, May 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: Sun and Wind Energy
Keywords: Hydrogen, Solar energy, Electrolysis, redox reaction, sunlight
Abstract: A team of researchers in Spain has succeeded in producing hydrogen with the aid of solar energy - not through electrolysis, but by way of a redox reaction and concentrated sunlight.
Location: 231
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51390
Title: Little interest in CSP technology
Author: Joachim Berner
Editor: Stefan Trojek
Year: 2009
Publisher: BVA Bielefelder Verlag GmbH & Co KG, May 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: Sun and Wind Energy
Keywords: Solar thermal power plant, sunlight, Australia
Abstract: Australia offers the best conditions for solar thermal power plants. It receives more sunlight per year than any other continent and has a high level of scientific research and development. Nonetheless, there is a real risk that Australia will fall behind in the race for cost-effective technologies.
Location: 231
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51389
Title: Estimating the parameters of forest inventory using machine learning and the reduction of remote sensing features
Author: Tanel Tamm, Kalle Remm
Editor: Alfred Stein
Year: 2009
Publisher: Elsevier ,Vol. 11 , issue 4, August 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Keywords: Case-based reasoning, Machine learning, Local statistics, Remote sensing of forests
Abstract: Locally computed statistics of image texture and a case-based reasoning (CBR) system were evaluated for mapping of forest attributes. Cluster analysis was preferred to regression models, as a pre-selection method of features. The best stand-based accuracy using satellite sensor images was 74.64 m-3 ha-1(36%) RMSE for stand volume, 1.98 m-3 ha-1a-1 (49%) for annual increase in stand volume, where k = 0.23 for stand growth classes and k = 0.41 for dominant tree species in stands. The top pixel-based accuracy using orthophotos was 76.54 m-3 ha-1 (41%) RMSE for stand volume, 1.87 m-3 ha-1 a-1 (44%) for annual increase in stand volume, where K = 0.24 for stand growth classes and k = 0.38 for dominant tree species in stands. Mean saturation in 30 m radius was the most useful feature when orhophotos were used, and standard deviation of Landsat ETM 6.2 values in 80 m radius was the best when satellite sensor images were used. The most valuable feature components (radii, channels and local statistics) for orthophotos were: 30 m kernel radius, lightness and the mean of pixel values; for satellite sensor images: 80 m kernel radius, near-infrared channel (ETM 4) and the mean of pixel values. Locally computed statistics.
Location: 241
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51388
Title: Multi-scale solution for building extraction from LiDAR and image data
Author: T.Thuy Vu, Fumio Yamazaki, Masashi Matsuoka
Editor: Alfred Stein
Year: 2009
Publisher: Elsevier ,Vol. 11 , issue 4, August 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Keywords: Image analysis, Mathematical morphology, Information storage, Remote sensing
Abstract: This paper presents a multi-scale solution based on mathematical morphology for extracting the building features from remotely sensed elevation and spectral data. Elevation data are used as the primary data to delineate the structural information and are firstly represented on a morphological scale-space. The behaviors of elevation clusters across the scale-space are the cues for feature extraction. As a result, a complex structure can be extracted as a multi-part object in which each part is represented on a scale depending on its size. The building footprint is represented by the boundary of the largest part. Other object attributes include the area, height or number of stories. The spectral data is used as an additional source to remove vegetation and possibly classify the building roof material. Finally, the results can be stored in a multi-scale database introduced in this paper. The proposed solution is demonstrated using the data derived from a Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) surveying flight over Tokyo, Japan. The results show a reasonable match with reference data and prove the capability of the proposed approach in accommodation of diverse building shapes. Higher density LiDAR is expected to produce better accuracy in extraction, and more spectral sources are necessary for further classification of building roof material. It is also recommended that parallel processing should be implemented to reduce the computation time.
Location: 241
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51387
Title: Change detection and classification of land cover at Hustai National Park in Mongolia
Author: Uudus Bayasaikhan, Bazartseren Boldgiv, Kyung-Ryul Kim, Kyung-Ae Park, Donkoo Lee
Editor: Alfred Stein
Year: 2009
Publisher: Elsevier ,Vol. 11 , issue 4, August 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Keywords: Land cover, Change detection, Forest free-south slope, Landsat, Mongolia
Abstract: Land cover types of Hustai National Park (HNP) in Mongolia, a hotspot area with rare species, were classified and their temporal changes were evaluated using Landsat MSS TM/ETM data between 1994 and 2000. Maximum-likelihood classification analysis showed an overall accuracy of 88.0% and 85.0% for 1994 and 2000 images, respectively. Kappa coefficients associated with the classification were resulted to 0.85 for 1994 and 0.82 for 2000 image. Land cover types revealed significant temporal changes in the classification maps between 1994 and 2000. The area has increased considerably by 166.5 km2 for mountain steppe and by 12 km2 for a sand dune. By contrast, agricultural areas and degraded areas affected by human being activity were decreased by 46.1 km2 and 194.8 km2 over the 6- year span, respectively. These areas were replaced by mountain steppe area. Specifically, forest area was noticeably fragmented, accompanied by the decrease of ~ 400 ha. The forest area revealed a pattern with systematic gain and loss associated with the specific phenomenon called as ' forest free - south slope ' . We discussed the potential environmental conditions responsible for the systematic pattern and addressed other biological impacts by outbreaks of forest pests and ungulates.
Location: 241
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51386
Title: Predicting forest fire in the Brazilian Amazon using MODIS imagery and artificial neural networks
Author: Eduardo Eiji Maeda, Antonio Roberto Formaggio, Yosio Edemir Shimabukuro, Gustavo Felipe Balue Arcoverde, Matthew C.Hansen
Editor: Alfred Stein
Year: 2009
Publisher: Elsevier ,Vol. 11 , issue 4, August 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Keywords: Forest fire, Artificial Neural Networks, Amazon forest, MODIS
Abstract: The present work describes a methodology that employs artificial neural networks (ANN) and multi-temporal imagery from the MODIS/Terra-Aqua sensors to detect areas of high risk of forest fire in the Brazilian Amazon. The hypothesis of this work is that due ot characteristic land use and land cover change dynamics in the Amazon forest, forest areas likely to be burned can be separated from other land targets. A study case was carried out in three municipalities located in northern Mato Grosso State, Brazilian Amazon. Feedforward ANNs, with different architectures, were trained with a backpropagation algorithm, taking as inputs the NDVI values calculated from MODIS imagery acquired during five different periods preceding the 2005 fire season. Selected samples were extracted from areas where forest fires were detected in 2005 and from other non-burned forest and agricultural areas. These samples were used to train, validate and test the ANN. The results achieved a mean squared error of 0.07.In addition, the model was simulated for an entire municipality and its results were compared with hotspots detected by the MODIS sensor during the year. A histogram analysis showed that the spatial distribution of the areas with fire risk were consistent with the fire events observed from June to December 2005. The ANN model allowed a fast and relatively precise method to predict forest fire events in the study area. Hence, it offers an excellent alternative forest fire prevention policies, and in assisting the assessment of burned areas, reducing the uncertainty involved in currently used methods.
Location: 241
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51385
Title: Bi-temporal characterization of land surface temperature in relation to impervious surface area, NDVI and NDBI, using a sub-pixel image analysis
Author: Youshui Zhang, Inakwu O.A. Odeh, Chunfeng Han
Editor: Alfred Stein
Year: 2009
Publisher: Elsevier ,Vol. 11 , issue 4, August 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Keywords: Urban heat island, Land surface temperature, Impervious surface area, NDVI, NDBI
Abstract: As more than 50% if the human population are situated in cities of the world, urbanization has become an important contributor to global warming due to remarkable urban heat island (UHI) effect. UHI effect has been linked to the regional climate, environment, and socio-economic development. In this study, Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM +) imagery, respectively acqired in 1989 and 2001, were utilized to assess urban area thermal characteristics in Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian province in south-eastern China. As a key indicator for the assessment of urban environments, sub-pixel impervious surface area (ISA) was mapped to quantitatively determine urban land-use extents and urban surface thermal patterns. In order to accurately estimate urban surface types, high-resolution imagery was utilized to generate the proportion of impervious surface areas. Urban thermal characteristics was further analysed by investigating the relationships between the land surface temperature (LST), percent impervious surface area, and two indices, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI). The results show that correlations between NDVI and LST are rather weak, but there is a strong positive correlation between percent ISA, NDBI and LST. This suggests that percent ISA, combined with LST, and NDBI, can quantitatively describe the spatial distribution and temporal variation of urban thermal patterns and associated land-use/ land-cover (LULC) conditions.
Location: 241
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51384
Title: Remote sensing of spider mite damage in California peach orchards
Author: Eike Luedeling, Adam Hale, Minghua Zhang, Walter J.Bentley, L.Cecil Dharmasri
Editor: Alfred Stein
Year: 2009
Publisher: Elsevier ,Vol. 11 , issue 4, August 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Keywords: Aerial imagery, Integrated pest management, Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression, Prunus persica, Remote sensing, Spectral reflectance, Spectroradiometer
Abstract: Remote sensing techniques can decrease pest monitoring costs in orchards. To evaluate the feasibility of detecting spider mite damage in orchards, we measured visible and near infrared reflectance of 1153 leaves and 392 canopies in 11 peach orchards in California. Paris of significant wavelength, identified by Partial Least Squares regression, were combined into normalized difference indices. These and 9 previously published indices were evaluated for correlation with mite damage. Eight spectral regions for leaves and two regions for canopies (at blue and red wavelengths) were significantly correlated with mite damage. These findings were tested by calculating normalized difference indices from the Red and Blue bands of six multispectral aerial images. Index values were linearly correlated with mite damage (R2 = 0.47), allowing identification of mite hotspots in orchards. However, better standardization of aerial imagery and accounting for perturbing environmental factors will be necessary for making this technique applicable for early mite detection.
Location: 241
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None

ID: 51383
Title: Identification of hyperspectral vegetation indices for Mediterranean pasture characterization
Author: F.Fava, R.Colombo, S. Bocchi, M.Meroni, M.Sitzia, N.Fois, C. Zucca
Editor: Alfred Stein
Year: 2009
Publisher: Elsevier ,Vol. 11 , issue 4, August 2009
Source: Centre for Ecological Science,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-12
Reference: None
Subject: International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Keywords: Pasture, Remote sensing, Hyperspectral indices, Biomass, Leaf area index, Nitrogen
Abstract: A field experiment was carried out to assess biomass and nitrogen status in Mediterranean pastures by means of hyperspectral high resolution field radiometric data. Spectral and agronomic measurements were collected at three different pasture growth stages and in grazed-ungrazed plots distributed over an area of 14 ha. Reflectance-based vegetation indices such as simple ratio indices (SR[ij]) and normalized difference vegetation indices (NDVI[ij]) were calculated using all combinations of two wavelengths i and j in the spectral range 400-1000nm. The performances of these indices in predicting green biomass (GBM, t ha-1), leaf area index (LAI, m2 m-2), nitrogen content (N, kg ha-1) and nitrogen concentration (Nc,%) were evaluated by linear regression analysis using the cross validated coefficient of determination (R2cv ) and root mean squared error (RMSEcv) . SR involving bands in near-infrared (i = 770-930 nm) and in the red edge (j = 720-740 nm) yielded the best performance for GBM (R2cv = 0.73, RMSEcv= 2.35 t ha-1 ), LAI (R2cv = 0.73, RMSEcv= 0.37 m2 m-2), and N (R2cv = 0.73, RMSEcv= 7.36 kg ha-1 ). The best model performances for Nc (R2cv = 0.54, RMSEcv= 0.35% ) were obtained using SR involving near-infrared bands (i = 775-820 nm) and longer wavelengths of the red edge (j = 740-77-nm). The defined indices lead to significant improvements in model predictive capability compared to the traditional SR [near-infrared, red] and NDVI [near-infrared, red] and to broad-band indices. The possibility of exploiting these results gathered at field level with high resolution spectral data (FWHM 3.5 nm) also at landscape level by means of hyperspectral airborne or satellite sensors was explored. Model performances resulted extremely sensitive to band position, suggesting the importance of using hyperspectral sensors with contiguous spectral bands.
Location: 241
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None