UB ERI Hosts Remote Sensing Workshop

During November 1-3, 2011, the ERI hosted a Remote Sensing training workshop in collaboration with CATHALAC (Centro del Agua del Trópico Humedo para America Latina y el Caribe) and the World Wildlife Fund. The 3-day training workshop was held with the main goal of training persons with basic GIS knowledge and skills to acquire and convert satellite imagery and to then utilize this imagery to develop validated GIS maps for key data layers such as forest cover, coral reefs and mangroves. Invitations were sent to key personnel from the ERI, the Science Department and other NGO and government partners. Of those in attendance, three (3) were from ERI, four (4) were from the Science Department, including one Natural Resource Management (NRM) student, and representatives from the Southern Environmental Association (SEA) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

The training was conducted by Mr. Emil Cherrington and Ms. Betsy Hernandez, from CATHALAC based in Panama. The first day was focused on image acquisition and pre-processing, followed by image classification and related processing on the second day. On the final day of training the focus was on data post-processing and validation. These general topics included several sub-topics such as: acquisition of satellite imagery and related data, atmospheric and radiometric corrections, acquisition of automated normalized difference vegetation index data and spectral mixture analysis. Feedback from the participants on the training was very positive. Seleni Cruz, a NRM Bachelor thesis student who participated, replied “It was definitely a good experience. It is good to see how the use of GIS has become widespread. I can see how the information shared in the workshop can be useful for me in completing my thesis”.

To view more picture of the workshop visit click HERE