digital imagery
Tampa Bay Water is taking an innovative approach to manage nuisance plants. Mapping Brazilian pepper trees at water supply facilities and conservation areas is an example. These plants are not native to Florida, and can be very damaging to the natural environment. Treating these areas to remove Brazilian pepper helps restore the landscape to more desirable native conditions.
Different plant types reflect different amounts of light (including ultraviolet and infrared light). In this way, plants have “signatures” that are not visible with the human eye. These light signatures are like fingerprints of the plants. Scientists can identify and locate specific plant types based on their light signatures. One approach to mapping plant types uses hyperspectral images captured with special digital cameras.
Taking pictures from airplanes or satellites is one way of “remote sensing” to study physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. To confirm what scientists see from the sky, information is gathered directly to compare against information gathered “remotely”. This process is called ground truthing—it takes place at ground level. A small amount of ground-level information can be used to understand a large amount of remote-level information. These techniques save both time and money.