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Track: New Technology and Technology Integration
Bruce Burger
Positive Systems
250 Second Street E
Whitefish, MT 59937
Telephone: 406-862-7745
Fax: 406-862-7759
E-mail: bburger@possys.com
Jim Friedley
Meeting Forestry Resource Data Needs with Digitally Captured Aerial Photo Imagery and GIS
Defining Issue: Cost effectively meeting a broad set of informational needs that require current aerial photography data in both hard-copy and digital form for use in the field and within an evolving GIS environment. GIS Solution: The BIA-Southern Ute Agency's Branch of Forestry, in conjunction with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, worked together with the BIA-GDSC and Positive Systems to evaluate commercially available digital aerial photo imaging technology for use in updating the tribeonment. GIS Solution: The BIA-Southern Ute Agency's Branch of Forestry, in conjunction with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, worked together with the BIA-GDSC and Positive Systems to evaluate commercially available digital aerial photo imaging technology for use in updating the Tribe's resource aerial photography. The subsequently defined project's deliverables included a true color digital aerial photo image mosaic for eventual use in ArcView and high-quality stereoscopic prints for use by foresters in the
field. Methodology: The entire Southern Ute Indian Reservation was flown with a commercial digital camera aerial photography system to capture true color aerial photographs with stereo overlap at 2 meter per pixel ground same distance. Each scene was printed at 1:24,000 scale for use with stereoscopes in the field to analyze both terrain and vegetative cover. The 615 digital scenes covering approximately 1,150 square miles were mosaicked through an automated, software-driven process into five separate "sub-mosaics" for ease of data file manipulation and handling. The individual mosaics were georeferenced via GPS ground control points and GIS vectors to create a "best fit" rectification with existing vector data layers. Software: The project was completed utilizing the ADAR Systems 3000 Digital Aerial Photography System. Each digital scene was printed and annotated with a Kodak XLS 8650 dye-sublimation printer. The digital image mosaics were completed via the ADAR AutoMosaic process, with
georeferencing of the image mosaics accomplished via ArcInfo and ERDAS Imagine. The purpose of this paper is to outline how digital camera technology was used to address the application, the challenges encountered in completing the project, and both current and planned uses of the image data within ArcView to meet timber management needs on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation.
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