Planning a Remote Sensing Project

9. In Summary

Before embarking on a remote sensing project, it is good practice to:

• Have clearly stated, and carefully considered, aims for the project;

• Be familiar with the habitats and permanent features on your site before you let a contract;

• Use a DGPS to record the grid co-ordinates for a scatter of the permanent features that will be visible on the image;

• Provide unequivocal definitions for every distinct habitat and habitat state in the survey area;

• Take photographs of every distinct habitat and habitat state;

• Use a DGPS to record the location of several homogeneous stands of each distinct habitat and habitat state;

• Make sure that each DGPS point is situated within a stand of homogeneous vegetation that is at least larger than the width of two pixels, and that some points in each habitat class are located within homogeneous stands more than three or four pixel diameters in area; and

• Obtain DGPS co-ordinates from stands of habitat across as much of the survey area as possible.

Finally, we should ensure that we have access to remote sensing and GIS specialists from the outset.