Showing papers by "The Cyprus Institute published in 2007"

The use of satellite remote sensing and GIS for assisting flood risk assessment: a case study of the Agriokalamin Catchment area in Paphos-Cyprus

Abstract: The main aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing satellite remote sensing and GIS tools to assist the technical flooding aspects of the catchment area of Agriakalamin River located in Kissonerga Village in Paphos-Cyprus. The remote sensing technique has been used to quantify the actual increase in urban area over the past forty three years. The Agriokalamin River area in Kissonerga Village in Paphos-Cyprus has been chosen as the study area. By analyzing the temporal satellite imageries and the observed meteorological and hydrologic data of the catchment, the local authorities can use the proposed methodology to investigate and assessing all the catchment areas versus the urbanization. The results of this study will encourage decision makers or the local authorities to consider land use planning as an effective non-structural measure for flood risk mitigation. Remotely sensed data such as aerial photos, Landsat-5 TM and Quickbird image data have been used to track the urbanization i.e. building activities near the catchment area (urbanization factor for the years 1963-2006: 0.9 % - 27.0 %). GPS measurements have been used to locate in-situ the boundaries of the catchment area. Indicative flood risk assessment study was applied.

The application of the covariance matrix statistical method for removing atmospheric effects from satellite remotely sensed data intended for environmental applications

Abstract: The Covariance Matrix Method (CMM) uses the statistical relationship between all the selected bands of a satellite sensor simultaneously, rather than one at a time as in the regression method. It examines the set of variances and covariance between all band pairs in the image data and CMM provides an average pixel correction for a specified part of a satellite image. It is necessary to know a priori a value for the atmospheric path radiance on one spectral band. From this, CMM enables the estimation of the atmospheric path radiances in all the other bands. Dark pixels must be present in the CMM technique. Indeed, the authors suggest an improved CMM atmospheric correction algorithm. This methodology has been presented as an improved revised version of the CMM atmospheric approach. The authors provide a critical assessment of the suitability of the CMM atmospheric correction using Landsat TM image data of an area consisting low reflectance targets that have been used for several environmental monitoring applications. The proposed improved method produces retrieved surface reflectance within the range of the ground measurements.