Environmental Sensing And Monitoring Using Digital Camera

This monograph is the outcome of 15 years experience of working with satellite images with the funding from IRPA RM7, ESCAP NASDA, Science Fund and several short term grants. It introduces a new methodology and algorithms for water and air quality monitoring by using conventional digital camera as a sensor to provide multi-spectral remote sensing data. The image is either captured by a digital camera mounted in an unman aircraft vehicle (UAV) or directly captured from a light air-craft. New algorithms were developed to correlate the pollutant concentration with the digital images. The algorithms can also generate a map of the pollutant concentration of the studied area. Pollutant information is very important for survey information, tourism information, development assessment, coastal preservation and area development planning. This new methodology allows images to be captured below the cloud level. Thus, with this method and the algorithms, cloud cover problem of satellite and airborne images can be overcome. They also overcome the problems of time, money, and resources wasted in collecting in-situ data for algorithm calibration of cloud cover satellite images. Furthermore, they provide real-time, high accuracy information. Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia

Emphasizes real-time monitoring as an emerging area for environmental assessment and compliance and covers the fundamentals on how to develop sensors and systems Presents several entirely new topics not featured in the first edition, including remote sensing and GIS, machine learning, weather radar and satellites, groundwater monitoring, spatial analysis, and habitat monitoring Includes applications to many environmental and ecological systems Uses a practical, hands-on approach with the addition of an accompanying lab manual, which students can use to deepen their understanding, based on the author’s 40 years of academic experience

This book gathers contributions on modern irrigation environments in Egypt from an environmental and agricultural perspective. Written by leading experts in the field, it discusses a wide variety of modern irrigation problems. In the context of water resources management in Egypt, one fundamental problem is the gap between growing water demand and limited supply. As such, improving irrigation systems and providing farmers with better control over water are crucial to increasing productivity. The book presents state-of-the-art technologies and techniques that can be effectively used to address a range of problems in modern irrigation, as well as the latest research advances. Focusing on water sensing and information technologies, automated irrigation technologies, and improved irrigation efficiency. It brings together a team of experts who share their personal experiences, describe the various applications, present recent advances, and discuss possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration and implementing the techniques covered

Developing an improved understanding of emerging flood risk management and urban water management was the goal set for research presented at the 6th International Conference on Flood and Urban Water Management, held in A Coruña, Spain. The published papers look to solve various challenges in this field by drawing on the expertise of numerous disciplines and considering a range of responses. Flooding is a global phenomenon that claims numerous lives worldwide each year. When flooding occurs in urban areas, it can cause substantial damage to property as well as threaten human life. In addition, many more people must endure the homelessness, upset and disruption that are left in the wake of floods. The increased frequency of flooding in the last few years, coupled with climate change predictions and urban development, suggest that these impacts are set to worsen in the future. How we respond and importantly, adapt to these challenges is key to developing our long-term resilience at the property, community and city scale. Apart from the physical damage to buildings, contents and loss of life, which are the most obvious, impacts of floods upon households, other more indirect losses are often overlooked. These indirect and intangible impacts are generally associated with disruption to normal life as well as long-term health issues including community displacements and stress-related illnesses. Flooding represents a major barrier to the alleviation of poverty in many parts of the developing world, where vulnerable communities are often exposed to sudden and life-threatening events. As our cities continue to expand, their urban infrastructures need to be re-evaluated and adapted to new requirements related to the increase in population and the growing areas under urbanization. The papers contained in this book consider these problems and deals with two main urban water topics: water supply systems and urban drainage.

The change in climatic conditions has resulted in a series of events from the melting of polar ice to the rising of sea levels. This has affected low-lying coastal areas by endangering plants and animals, agriculture and livelihood patterns in general, not to mention causing the outbreak of diseases like dengue, malaria, etc. It is, thus, imperative that mitigation measures to stabilize or reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide is brought about. A key step is the bio-fixation of carbon from the atmosphere. This book attempts to bring forth the role of vegetation in carbon sequestration. The introductory chapters of the book deal with the understanding of the physical attributes governing climate on earth, historical account of climate change, impacts of climate change on different environs and eco-strategies to combat climate change. Detailed account of mechanism of carbon sources and sinks, carbon credits and REDD+ are also discussed. A sizeable portion of the book is dedicated to the climate change and phonological variability, clean development mechanism and economic stability through natural resource management. Academicians, researchers, policy makers and environmental stakeholders will find it a useful and comprehensive guide in the floristic and arboreal potential to sequester carbon dioxide and will suffice the diverse needs of teaching and research.

Sensors are everywhere. Small, flexible, economical, and computationally powerful, they operate ubiquitously in environments. They compile massive amounts of data, including information about air, water, and climate. Never before has such a volume of environmental data been so broadly collected or so widely available. Grappling with the consequences of wiring our world, Program Earth examines how sensor technologies are programming our environments. As Jennifer Gabrys points out, sensors do not merely record information about an environment. Rather, they generate new environments and environmental relations. At the same time, they give a voice to the entities they monitor: to animals, plants, people, and inanimate objects. This book looks at the ways in which sensors converge with environments to map ecological processes, to track the migration of animals, to check pollutants, to facilitate citizen participation, and to program infrastructure. Through discussing particular instances where sensors are deployed for environmental study and citizen engagement across three areas of environmental sensing, from wild sensing to pollution sensing and urban sensing, Program Earth asks how sensor technologies specifically contribute to new environmental conditions. What are the implications for wiring up environments? How do sensor applications not only program environments, but also program the sorts of citizens and collectives we might become? Program Earth suggests that the sensor-based monitoring of Earth offers the prospect of making new environments not simply as an extension of the human but rather as new “technogeographies” that connect technology, nature, and people.

The 35 papers in this volume were presented at the Industrial and Environmental Monitors and Biosensors Symposium, January 1999. They are divided into nine sessions addressing subjects such as: sensors for energy industry; sensors for engine industry; and sensors for materials evaluation.