Remote Sensing - Module 1 - Visual Interpretation

In our first lab assignment for GIS5027/L Photo Interpretation and Remote Sensing, we were introduced to interpreting the tone and texture of aerial photographs and identifying land features based on various visual attributes such as shape and size, shadows, pattern, associating, and color. 

The first exercise focused on tone and texture. This involved creating polygon feature classes focused on light vs dark areas and areas that exemplified ranges of texture. Being that I was a student of art in both high school and college as well as being an amateur photographer, much of the vocabulary as well as the overall concepts introduced were familiar to me. Even so, I never thought of these concepts as applied to aerial photography and even found myself second guessing my choices as I completed this exercise. Initially, I did not have the course textbook Remote Sensing of the Environment - An Earth Resource Perspective - An Earth Perspective, so after I read the corresponding chapter I made a few changes to my initial choices but overall I was on the right track.

The second exercise included creating point feature classes for identifying features based on shape and size, shadow, pattern, and association. I really found this exercise to be interesting because I've never really taken into consideration identifying features in aerial photography using these criteria. I especially found considering shadows to be of great benefit as some features were a mystery to me until I considered their shadows to analyze them. Since I initially did not have access to the text for this exercise also, I revisited it after reading the corresponding chapter. The text really provided some imperative information that was very helpful in completing the exercise. 

In the final portion of the lab, we did an exercise based on interpreting color. We chose five features from a true-color aerial photo and compared the features with how they appear in a false-color infrared version of the photo. Take a look at the aerial images below. Pick out some features and compare the differences between the two. 

True Color

False Color Infrared