supporting forestry restoration activities with satellite imagery
CASE STUDY
Having used satellite imagery for the last 20 years, Jimmy Wilson, a forester from Scotland, wanted to explore how Geocento could assist him with his most recent project – mapping a former opencast mine over a densely forested area in Scotland. That's what he said about his experience.
“I was asked to survey the ‘site and soil types’ over an extensive area of former opencast working following its ‘restoration from surface coal mining’. A basic tool for almost any field survey is a good aerial image at a workable resolution and one that can also be used in GIS applications. In this instance the most recent image was almost 5 years old and showed the actual workings when the site was abandoned. No airborne images were available of its present structure and this made surveying/mapping very difficult and inaccurate.
Using a drone was a possibility but would be expensive. On approaching Geocento I was informed that satellites passed over the country every day and depending on the weather and cloud would give me the required image. A sample was provided and I selected the image area. This covered 125 sq.km and could be zoomed to at least 1:7000. The image was only 2 days old and provided the best mapping tool possible.
Looking at the wider forestry picture this would be an ideal tool/source for all survey work e.g. recent storm damage, areas of clear fell, crop health surveys etc. A forest is a dynamic, growing and ever changing environment and images of even one year old often do not clearly illustrate routes for crop access, etc”.
What helped Jimmy to satisfy his project requirements so quickly and easily – our EarthImages serfvice, the industry platform of choice for discovery and ordering of imagery from a market-leading range of image suppliers. Currently, it provides access to data from more than 100 satellite sensors, or even more than 250 if we add Planet’s fleet to that number!
With EarthImages, the customers can access a broad range of imagery products of a wide range of commercial optical, starting with ultra-high-resolution 15 cm HD, SAR, hyperspectral, night and video to non-commercial data sources – all you need to access off-the-shelf imagery in one place.
Please, do get in touch if this use case resonates with your forestry project needs. Our imagery experts are always happy to help you find an optimal solution.
“I was asked to survey the ‘site and soil types’ over an extensive area of former opencast working following its ‘restoration from surface coal mining’. A basic tool for almost any field survey is a good aerial image at a workable resolution and one that can also be used in GIS applications. In this instance the most recent image was almost 5 years old and showed the actual workings when the site was abandoned. No airborne images were available of its present structure and this made surveying/mapping very difficult and inaccurate.
Using a drone was a possibility but would be expensive. On approaching Geocento I was informed that satellites passed over the country every day and depending on the weather and cloud would give me the required image. A sample was provided and I selected the image area. This covered 125 sq.km and could be zoomed to at least 1:7000. The image was only 2 days old and provided the best mapping tool possible.
Looking at the wider forestry picture this would be an ideal tool/source for all survey work e.g. recent storm damage, areas of clear fell, crop health surveys etc. A forest is a dynamic, growing and ever changing environment and images of even one year old often do not clearly illustrate routes for crop access, etc”.
What helped Jimmy to satisfy his project requirements so quickly and easily – our EarthImages serfvice, the industry platform of choice for discovery and ordering of imagery from a market-leading range of image suppliers. Currently, it provides access to data from more than 100 satellite sensors, or even more than 250 if we add Planet’s fleet to that number!
With EarthImages, the customers can access a broad range of imagery products of a wide range of commercial optical, starting with ultra-high-resolution 15 cm HD, SAR, hyperspectral, night and video to non-commercial data sources – all you need to access off-the-shelf imagery in one place.
Please, do get in touch if this use case resonates with your forestry project needs. Our imagery experts are always happy to help you find an optimal solution.
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