Document: DEN-3-35-37

Video imagery: A communication tool for ecological studies.

MCCRUMB, A.D.* ¹, M.B.COUGHENOUR ¹, D.S.OJIMA ¹, T.J.STOHLGREN ² and R.G.WOODMANSEE ¹

Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO USA ¹
USGS, Fort Collins, CO USA ²

Abstract:
Recent advances in technology have allowed the integration of local video imagery with desktop computers and geographic information systems. This development can be used to improve communication assisting scientists, natural resource managers, policy makers, and the general public in evaluating and managing natural resources. We tested the video system in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, and in the Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. The system allowed for easier analysis of landscape perspectives, temporal comparisons, integration of information outside ecology, and a method for easily conveying large amounts of information to land managers and the public on complex issues. Improved communication is achieved through providing a means to effectively and accurately incorporate highly abstract data, provide memory assistance, and to better understand perceptions of actual field conditions during data collection. The collected data provides a framework to interpret the imagery, while at the same time the imagery allows the data to be understood within context of actual field conditions. In this way people holding different viewpoints in collaborative group processes can see what specific landscapes look like, view key ecological data, and integrate it with information from other disciplines and then their own experiences. This system is a key component for integrating digital spectral information across scales with local imagery to improve multi-scale quantitative analysis of landscape condition.

Keywords: communication, local video, video, imagery, multi-scale analysis, remote sensing, GIS

This abstract is being presented at: 3:30 PM in session:
Poster Session #3: Education.