Microsoft Word - ENV506_Project_Grading_Criteria_2018.doc
ENV506 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND MODELLING
Monitoring challenge (Report) – Grading Criteria
Due: XXXXXXXXXXNov 2018, 11:59pm
Contribution to unit grade: 40%
Format: Scientific Report
Length: XXXXXXXXXXwords including references
Late penalty: 5% per day
Criteria Possible
Marks
Items to include in assignment to meet criteria
Abstract 15 - Short and succinct summary of the report that include problem
definition, methods, main findings, and implications
Introduction 25 - Definition / description of the problem you are tackling and its
importance.
- Explanation of the need for remote sensing and spatial
analysis to address the monitoring problem.
- Identification of the required spatial and temporal scales of
information.
- An overview of how remote sensing and spatial information is
used in your application area considering data sets used,
processing techniques, results, and limitations - students must
use at least five recent articles (last 5 years).
- Clearly defined aims and objectives.
Methodological
approach
20 - Detailed information on the data sets used including the spatial
(resolution, extent, location), spectral, temporal (image dates),
and radiometric characteristics.
- Overview map of study area location.
- Detailed description of processing stages and techniques used
including justification for the methods chosen.
Results 20 - Clearly presented results that address the aims and objectives
outlined in the introduction.
- Inclusion of relevant maps, tables, and graphs – all of which
should be co
ectly labelled and referenced in the text.
- Inclusion of some form of accuracy assessment reporting.
Discussion 20 - Explanation and critical assessment of results achieved with
eference to the literature.
- Identification of limitations to the work.
- Suggestions for improvement.
Conclusion 10 - Well summarised, concise, and succinct summary of the work
completed, major findings and implications (no new ideas
introduced)
References 5 - Co
ectly structured reference list for all cited books, journal
articles, conference papers, reports and web sites.
Presentation 10 - Co
ectly structured reference list for all cited books, journal
articles, conference papers, reports and web sites.
- Journal target is stated and appropriate for the work completed
- Submission conforms to editorial guidelines of selected journal
Total Marks 125
Note: Up to ten points will be deducted for poorly presented reports, including spelling or grammatical e
ors, and / or
poorly constructed paragraphs, sentences, or arguments. Any text past the word limit will be discarded.
Assessment Item 4
Assessment Item 4 – Environmental monitoring application (FINAL REPORT)
Due Date: 01 Dec 2018
Contribution to unit grade: 40%
Length: 3000 words (ENV306) or 5000 words (ENV506)
Complete the image processing and spatial analysis required to address the problem that you identified in your proposal, and construct a scientific report to communicate your findings. Your final report submission should be based on your project proposal. If your proposal is well written, then it can and should be incorporated directly into your final submission. This project is designed to showcase the skills that you have learnt in this class, so make sure that you choose a processing/analysis task that will appropriately demonstrate this.
Students will be required to complete this work outside of the hours that have been allocated for the intensive mode practical delivery.
Your final submission should be formatted as a scientific report and must include the following:
1. Introduction – including a
ief literature review on the application of spatial analysis in the selected topic area, your aims and objectives;
2. Methods - including description of data, processing stages and analysis applied;
3. Results - using appropriate maps, tables and charts to illustrate findings;
4. Discussion - of results and approach including any limitations of the study and suggestions for improvement;
5. Conclusion; and
6. References.
Students should also refer closely to the grading criteria when constructing this project.
The Monitoring Challenge can be found here: PDF
Environmental Monitoring Challenge
Assessment items 2 & 4
Background
The Tiwi Islands are an ecologically and culturally important region of northern Australia. The vegetation is dominated by tropical savanna woodland, interspersed with monsoon rainforest and mangrove swamps. The islands are still home to a number of small mammals which have gone extinct on the mainland. Small-scale plantation forestry operations have been running on the islands since the 1960s.
The impact of plantation forestry on natural ecosystem processes and biodiversity requires ongoing assessment. Conversion from natural tropical savanna to monoculture plantations alters vegetation composition and habitat structure - but does it hold any
oader-scale consequences, such as changes in local climate arising from alteration of surface reflectance? Establishment of forestry in tropical region scan also lead to alteration of natural fire regimes in remaining native vegetation patches. This arises from the tendency of land managers to burn the adjacent blocks at very frequent intervals to reduce the risk of fire spreading into the plantation.
Task
You have been hired by local government as an environmental consultant to monitor the extent of forestry operations on the island. Given the short time frame for this project, you will not be able to undertake fieldwork and will need to rely on satellite imagery for your analysis. Specifically, you are tasked with:
Determining the cu
ent land surface area covered by savanna woodland, monsoon forest, mangroves, plantation forest, and surface water.
Producing a classified map of the land cover classes listed above
Assessing how NDVI has changed in each landcover type from 2000 to present.
Quantifying how the area covered by plantation forest has changed since the year 2000.
Providing an assessment of the status of the mangrove swamps on the island (are there signs of die-back as seen in Gulf of Carpentaria?)
Available data
MODIS, Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery are freely available over the study region. Each sensor has it own strengths and weaknesses, and you will need to decide which one, or which combination of multiple sensors, is most suitable for your study. The full archive of MODIS, Landsat and Sentinel-2 is accessible through Google Earth Engine, and we will cover classification and time-series analysis of these products in the intensive week.
Report
You are required to present your findings in the form of a scientific report. The first stage of this involves the development of a short proposal outlining the problem, your specific objectives/questions, and your planned approach (Assessment 2 - grading criteria provided in
Learnline).
You will then complete your analysis independently and compile a final scientific research report (Assessment 4 - grading criteria provided in Learnline).
Running Head: Environmental Monitoring Challenge Proposal
Environmental Monitoring Challenge Proposal XXXXXXXXXX7
Assessment 2
Environmental Monitoring Challenge -Proposal
Scientific Report Proposal
Student Name: Kofi Adabo
Unit:ENV 506 Environmental Monitoring and Modelling
University: Charles Darwin University
ID: S298999
Introduction
Defining the Problem: The Environmental Monitoring involves addressing the problem of landscape change analysis, detecting the long-term changes to vegetation at Tiwi Islands since 2000 till date with help of Landsat Satellite Imaging Technique
The assessment monitors the impact of plantation forestry operations on biodiversity and natural ecosystem of the islands. The forestry operations transform the natural tropical savanna forests into monoculture plantation which alters the habitat of many endangered indigenous animal species and vegetation composition of the ecosystem. The land managers also burn the adjacent blocks of land at frequent intervals to minimize the risk of spreading the fire in the plantation areas. Alterations in surface reflectance may also potentially cause changes in local climate, meanwhile also altering the natural fire regime in the native vegetative areas.
The Tiwi islands are the home of several extinct and native mammal species that are found nowhere is North Te
itory. That’s why their monitoring and evaluation is necessary. There is observed a remarkable decline in the number of mammals in Northern Australia from 2000 to 2018 due to predation by feral animals, the absence of traditional practices of burning and grazing by large size cattle (Threatened Species Recovery Hub, 2018).
Overview
The remote sensing is a cost effective and time efficient way to monitor the land areas which are important for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem, evaluates the main indicators of ecological change (such as land covered, and distu
ances) in protected areas of Tiwi Islands.
The remote sensing and spatial techniques employ satellite imaging techniques to remotely sense the vegetation and land use and land cover change. Various operational programs in Australia are based on spatial information and remote sensing data extraction techniques. The techniques involve numerous datasets like Ecosystem indicators, Digital elevation Models, Climate data sets, Land cover data sets, Soil maps and Digital maps (Crabtree et al,2009). Sensing methods may detect measures of relevant vital signs like the occu
ence and intensity of fire, change in the pattern of land use, conversion of habitat type and detection of intruder species (Cameron et al,2006).
The Landsat products like Operational Land Imager and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus monitors the land covers at the historical and regional level. High spatial Resolution techniques like Quickbird are also used for detecting the land use and land cover areas. Landsat provides freely available data and is effective to measure the vegetation. Selection of appropriate temporal and spatial resolution provides effective change detection utilizing the binary comparison employed during the two different time periods.
Remote sensing and spatial detection are extremely useful in vegetation measurements, moisture, chlorophyll content, Nitrogen and Lignin Content, and stress in vegetation. Change Detection Applications such as Uniform Change Detection, Land Use and Land Cover Change, Continuous Change Detection are adopted to measure the rate of forestry operations in the islands.
Aims and Objectives
The proposal investigates the satellite images to monitor the extent of forestry operations in the tiwi islands, identify the flora and te
estrial environment of the Tiwi islands since 2000 till now. The report presents a short proposal outlining the problem at the islands and offers a planned approach to solve the problem.
Methodological Approach
The report is based on a literature review of islands by Satellite Imagery Review detecting the land use and landscape changes. The report explores authentic peer reviewed research journals, ecological reports produced to monitor operational remote sensing programs. The search was done for these academic resources through online exploration of the database with help