MSc Remote Sensing

Vegetation Science Option

Lewis
Room 205
RSU, Dept. Geography
University College London
Chandler House
2 Wakefield St.
London WC1N 1PG

email: plewis@geog.ucl.ac.uk
phone: (+44) 2071 504 4285

[Aims] [Assessment] [Structure of the course]

Course Purpose and Structure

Information about the course is available on: http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/~plewis/teaching.html (this page).

aims:

The MSc Remote Sensing second-term option in Vegetation Science has two main purposes:

(i) To enable the student to gain an understanding of the factors affecting the signal received at a remote sensing instrument.

(ii) To enable the student to learn about and explore ways in which we are and will, in the near future, be able to infer information about the nature of vegetated surfaces from remote sening instruments.

Subsidiary aims include

(i) To enable the student to learn about and gain experience in computer-based modelling.

(ii) To enable the student to gain access to and an understanding of the research literature in the field of vegetation science/canopy reflectance/scattering modelling at optical and microwave wavelengths.

(iii) To allow the students practice in presenting the results of research/experimentation in both written and oral form.

The course concentrates on the use of remote sensing measurements at visible, near infrared, and microwave wavelengths, although reference to material dealing with other parts of the EM spectrum is given.

It is hoped that the course will be stimulating, useful, and informative, but (constructive!) comments on the material/structure are welcome at any time.

Assessment:

The assessed practical content of the course will account for 50% of the marks for the course. A written examination will count for the remaining 50%. Each session has associated with it a practical exercise. NB -ONLY the full writeup is assessed.

Laboratory notebook

You should keep a laboratory notebook describing the experiments you have run in brief, presenting results with some relevant comment, and a small section on any conclusions drawn. You should include relevant material such as programs written and graphs/images in the lab. notebook. The notebokk does NOT form a formal part of the assessment, but is intended for you to keep track of the computer experiments you are performing. The notebook can be a book or loose leaf folder. Written work in a notebook does not need to be typed. Alternatively, you may find it convenient to make use of the computer to present your notebook (e.g., putting relevant graphs and images into an html document). In the notebook, you should try to demonstrate:

(i) that you have completed the assigned task

(ii) that you have an understanding of the results

(iii) that you can produce a relevant set of conclusions from each experiment

Full writeup

In addition to the lab notebook, you are required to write one of the practicals (of your choice) up in full. This writeup must be typed, and should include an in-depth analysis of the experimental results and conclusions, backed up by reference to relevant literature. This writeup should take the form of a journal article,- you should follow the style of Remote Sensing of Environment. This piece of work should be of 2500 words length. Programs should be given in appendices (unlike a standard journal article). You are expected to reference any literature cited correctly and provide a reference list..

Structure of the course:

The course runs over a 5 week period - from friday 18 February to friday 18 March in 2005. Friday mornings will be 'formal' lectures, with the final friday morning as a discussion session. Lectures will begin at 9:00 am, with half an hour on feedback/comments from the previous session's work. The rest of the day will be taken-up by a short lecture, followed by a practical session (until around 4:30). At or around 4:30, students will make a short presentation/discussion on the day's work. Students are encouraged to work in small groups in completing the practical exercises, although all written work must be completed individually. Students are expected to complete practical work and reading on the days not allocated as 'formal lectures'. Staff time will be made available over the period of the course for further discussions outside of the formal lectures.

Students are required to attend all sessions. If a student is unable to attend a particular session, s/he should contact the supervisor, before the event (if at all possible).