Our Spatial Planet

The SPAA conference (Southern Precision Agriculture Association http://spaa.com.au) held in Clare, South Australia this year attracted a wide range of growers and consultants involved in Precision Agriculture.

Apogee Imaging International was present at this event and John Douglas, Managing Director, as well as several of Apogee’s staff presented and demonstrated FarmImage®, a new online spatial management system for agribusiness, in association with Landmark.

 A number of national and international speakers representing all agribusiness industries presented a highly interesting program focused on soil moisture monitoring, integrated precision Viticulture, and practical use of ground and remote-sensed sensors.

John Douglas presenting FARMIMAGE(R) at the SPAA conference in Clare

The event was sponsored by leading companies involved in precision farming in Australia and booths from each sponsor gave visitors an impressive overview of products and services. Many leading companies were sponsoring this event with new guidance, flow & application control devices available for demonstration purposes.

It was great to have such a diversified group of people sharing their knowledge, experience and skills in precision agriculture and we are looking forward to the next SPAA conference.

Remote sensing has been extensively used geology, mining exploration, oil, gas and pipeline planning. Recent introduction of new sensors and techniques to improve accuracy and efficiency are allowing planners to perfom virtual field trips to gather accurate information before arriving on site. From the first assessment of a project to the logistical operation, and on going monitoring, remote-sensing is an indispensable tool for all stages of any major mining project. Time and cost as well as risks can be greatly reduced through the use of Remote sensing technologies.

A range of sensors and resolutions are available for the mining industry and an accurate assessment of the most suitable data for a specific task should to be conducted to get the greatest benefit. The following list gives an overview of which data and sensors are currently used:

· Optical imagery for vegetation classification, environmental impact assessments, site rehabilitation, and operation monitoring:

o  ALOS PRISM and Spot which offer relatively large coverage with a resolution around 2.5m and very soon the Rapideye constellation with its daily coverage and 5m multispectral resolution.

o    High resolution satellites such as IKONOS, QuickBird, EROS-A/B which offer a narrow swath but 1-m and sub-metre resolution

o     Digital airborne imagery up to 5cm resolution

o    Airborne Hyper-spectral sensors with some systems collecting up to 220 bands.

Fast monitoring over a mining site

· All weather Radar data for mine subsidence, stock pile, pipeline monitoring and gold exploration:

o  TerraSAR-X, Radarsat-2, Cosmo-Skymed, for a resolution range from 100m up to 1m

o    Airborne IFSAR with sub-meter resolution (ORI from Intermap)

· Digital elevation model for planning, modelling and quantitative structural mapping:

o Spaceborne Radar interferometry data for centimetre-scale changes measurements.

o   Stereo imagery from Airborne sensors

o Stereo imagery from Spaceborne sensors such as ALOS PRISM, Spot, IKONOS, QuickBird, EROS-A/B

o   IFSAR DEM form airborne IFSAR systems such as Intermap, Fugro.

o   LiDAR

Advanced processing methodology also allows for the manipulation of basic data sets revealing features that may be of interest in geological interpretation such as the surface benath sand dunes.

ALOS PRISM DEM

Digital Elevation Model after dune removal process

All these data are usually integrated into modeling software, GIS systems and 3D-visualisation tools in addition to ground information and thus present invaluable decision level information.

This video clip shows 36cm resolution aerial imagery draped over an IFSAR 1m z absolute accuracy Digital elevation model over Murray River, South Australia. The clip has been made with Apogee’s NEXTIMAGE.

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