•  
  •  
 

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

hyperspactral bands, remotely sensed imagery, urban leaf area index

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Geography

Abstract

As the world’s urban population continues to grow, more and more attention is being given to the environment in which humans live – urban areas. Unfortunately, urban expansion often leads to considerable loss of urban forest and its associated amenities. When studying the urban forest, a critical biophysical variable to consider is leaf area index (LAI) which is defined as the ratio of leaf surface area divided by ground area. Due to the importance of this variable, efficient methods have been sought for estimating LAI in urban areas. Potential has been found in measuring LAI with a hyperspectral sensor using many small portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. These narrow hyperspectral bands are sensitive to slight variations in reflectance. Hyperspectral imagery was flown over Terre Haute, Indiana on 24 July 2006 and in situ leaf area measurements were taken in June 2007. Geographic coordinates obtained using a GPS were used to extract reflectance values from the hyperspectral imagery in ERDAS IMAGINE. This resulted in reflectance values for each point from each band.

Download

Included in

Geography Commons

Share

COinS