Scientific Uncertainty and Biodiversity Inventory

All sciences, including biological science, have uncertainty, and they complicate theoretical questions. Uncertainty essentially is a mark of good science, and its efficacious communication is even essential for better decisions. Explaining the research work uncertainties indicates that the scientists are aware of the vital difference between the known and the unknown. Uncertainty is equally significant in biodiversity studies. Species composition of any area can’t be predicted with certainty because of interwoven relationships between species diversity and climatic and anthropogenic factors. Good survey planning with acceptable animal welfare practices could lead to asymptote for inventory of any particular area. Scientists can handle uncertainty in their studies by sensible statistics and reasonably large sample size.

Assessment of the impact of current weather forecasts in the task of space survey planning

The article is devoted to the actual task of planning the work of a group of different types of spacecraft for remote sensing of the Earth. An enlarged algorithm for solving the planning problem for different types of spacecraft is described. The result of the enlarged algorithm is sought in the form of a set of reference plans for groups of similar spacecraft, thinned out by removing some of the conflicting operations of resetting the sensing data. The characteristics of the developed plans largely depend on the methodology used to account for the impact of cloud cover. The possibility of implementing a methodology based on the use of files of current weather forecasts of hydrometeorological centers downloaded from the Internet in the form of a special application is investigated. The created application is being tested on the real data of the hydrometeorological center downloaded from the American server, which covers a large region, including the European part of Eurasia and part of Africa. An application that simulates the distribution of points within a region estimates the number of points covered by weak cloud cover (20% or less). Based on the results of the simulation, it was found that the proportion of points available for shooting lies in the range from about a quarter to a third. Based on the obtained quantitative estimates, it is concluded that taking into account the influence of cloud cover radically changes the reference plans calculated taking into account only illumination, and affects the structure of the enlarged planning algorithm.

Research on the hydrographic survey cycle for updating navigational charts

Due to the vast ocean area and limited human and material resources, hydrographic survey must be carried out in a selective and well-planned way. Therefore, scientific planning of hydrographic surveys to ensure the effectiveness of navigational charts has become an urgent issue to be addressed by the hydrographic office of each coastal state. In this study, a reasonable calculation model of hydrographic survey cycle is established, which can be used to make the plan of navigational chart updating. The paper takes 493 navigational charts of Chinese coastal ports and fairways as the research object, analyses the fundamental factors affecting the hydrographic survey cycle and gives them weights, proposes to use the BP neural network to construct the relationship between the cycle and the impact factors, and finally establishes a calculation model of the hydrographic survey cycle. It has been verified that the calculation cycle of the model is effective, and it can provide reference for hydrographic survey planning and chart updating, as well as suggestions for navigation safety.

Probabilistic Cover-Basement Interface Characterization in Cloncurry, Australia, using Magnetotelluric Soundings

<p>Cloncurry is located in the Mount Isa province in Queensland, NE Australia. The Mount Isa Province is a well-known metallogenic province in Australia which hosts many IOCG deposits. One of them is the Ernest Henry IOCG deposit, which was found below cover in the 90’s. The cover in this area comprises of regolith and the Jurassic-Cretaceous sediments of Eromanga and Carpentaria Basins. This deposit appears to belong to a complex mineral system which extend over the entire Cloncurry District.</p><p>A magnetotelluric (MT) survey was conducted in 2016 by Geoscience Australia and The Geological Survey of Queensland in the vicinity of the Ernest Henry IOCG deposit, in order to characterize the electrical properties of the mineral system beneath it. The derived 3D electrical conductivity model highlights the variable cover thickness over the area, and a correlation between conductors located in the upper crust and known mineral occurrences such as the Ernest Henry mine.</p><p>The use of 3D deterministic inversions of MT data is very powerful to image the electrical structure of the mineral system at the crustal scale but lacks resolution to image a realistic sharp cover-basement interface and precludes quantitative assessment of uncertainty around the results.</p><p>In this work we propose a workflow to image a geologically realistic cover-basement interface and bring insights on the reliability and robustness of different parts of the model using a probabilistic inversion approach.</p><p>We selected a subset of the MT survey and for each site we ran a probabilistic 1D trans-dimensional Markov chain Monte Carlo sampler for estimating subsurface conductivity and its associated uncertainty. These inversions are designed to be robust to non-1D effects present in the data. Next, we performed a petrophysical analysis using available down hole measurements to derive constraints on the electrical conductivities of the different lithologies found in the area. Then these petrophysical constraints, coupled to spatial lateral constraints, are used to fuse the 1D probabilistic ensembles into a 3D posterior ensemble.</p><p>The pseudo 3D model obtained is compared to a 3D model derived from a conventional 3D deterministic inversion using the same data to assess the value and validity of the workflow. Preliminary interpretation of the results is performed using petrophysical data and established local geology knowledge. Conclusions around the benefits of this workflow to give a different perspective on the characterization of a mineral system located under cover and to provide basis for future survey planning are presented.</p>

Terrestrial-Aerial-SfM and TLS data fusion for agricultural terrace surveys in complex topographic and land cover conditions

<p>In the last two decades, important developments in High-Resolution Topographic (HRT) techniques, methods, sensors, and platforms has greatly improved our ability and opportunities for the characterization of landscapes through sub-metric DTMs (Digital Terrain Models). The choice of the most appropriate platform for HRT surveys must consider the required resolution, the spatial extent, and the features present in the analysed area. In complex topography, inaccessible areas and vegetated environments, the use of a single HRT technique is constrained by several factors. Therefore, data fusion from different acquisition platforms can be a useful solution if we design appropriate workflows for survey planning, data acquisition, post-processing, and uncertainty assessment. We tested this approach in the production of detailed DTMs of ancient agricultural terracing on two sites, Soave (North-east of Italy) and Martelberg in Saint-Martens-Voeren (East Belgium); case study sites for the TerrACE archaeological research project (ERC-2017-ADG: 787790, 2018-2023; https://www.terrace.no/). Both sites presented complex topographic and landcover conditions: the presence of vegetation (common in ancient, often abandoned, terraces) that cover parts of the sub-vertical surfaces (e.g., vertical walls of terraces), steep slopes and large survey areas. Therefore, we carefully designed the data fusion of HRT techniques in order to overcome all these constraints and thereby represent detailed 3D-views of the study sites. An integrated approach employing ground-based and UAV Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry was used to preserve fine-grained topographic detail (via ground-based photos) and capture flat terrace zones at large spatial scale (via UAV images); while terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) permitted the accurate survey of the highly vegetated areas and vertical terrace walls. In order to create the point-cloud fusion, a key aspect for consideration when planning the survey planning was the location and distribution of the Ground Control Points (GCPs) for SfM and TLS targets. These are essential for georeferencing and co-registering of the aggregate data during the final merge. In the inaccessible zones of the studied areas, where was impossible to locate the GCPs, we tested the direct georeferencing of the UAV images with differential GNSS, such as PPK (post-processing kinematic). The SfM-TLS technologies allowed us to accurately recognize the topographic features of the entire terrace areas. This point-clouds merge was impossible to obtain without post-processing steps as co-registration process and uncertainty analysis. Even if several studies highlight how co-registration is essential in order to correctly merge HRT data, it is often not addressed in post-processing workflows. In this study, we demonstrated how survey planning and co-registration were fundamental phases for data fusion and allowed us to obtained proper and reliable DTMs. These high-resolution DTMs provided a high level of detail of landscape that was useful to extract valuable information about ancient terrace complexes: morphological features, profiles, sections and scaled plans, simplifying and speeding the archaeologist's field and laboratory work.</p>

Internet Role in Remote Sensing and Geo Informatics System

Remote sensing and geo informatics system (GIS) are difficult to find the source and accessibility of various applications by end users such as students, scholars, scientists and professionals. The overall objective of the learning is to compare as well as analyze the various applications of remote sensing by end users particularly in Tamilnadu. In this technical survey, total 114 people have participated, among them males and females are about 61.2% and 38.8% respectively, most of the people are at age group of 17-27. It is observed that students are the highest of about 36.9%, professional are 31.1%, research scholars are 26.2% and finally professors by 5.8% took the survey. Remote sensing and GIS applications are mostly used in the fields of survey/planning (51.5%), disaster management (49.5%), climate change (43.7%) and followed by agriculture/forestry (45.6 %.). The most generally used software’s are identified as ArcGIS, ENVI, ERDAS and QGIS in remote sensing and GIS users. It is revealed that, 37% of people have moderate usage of cloud mapping and 21% of people have never used of cloud mapping. From ANOVA results, there is no significant difference in remote sensing and GIS role among location, educational qualification, type of sector, type of data and web GIS. There is a significant difference in remote sensing and GIS role among the age, gender, occupation, experience and software groups. The survey leads to the conclusion that the above groups have an effect on internet role in remote sensing and GIS. It is concluded that Internet plays a major role in geographic information systems and remote sensing by 95.1% of people and only 4.9% said internet have insignificant role