Georeferencing oblique imagery for vegetation analysis

To responsibly manage forest resources in southwestern Alberta, it is important to understand the disturbance regimes they have experienced in the past, are experiencing now, and are likely to experience in the future. The Mountain Legacy Project has several thousand repeat photographs which show areas of the mountains and foothills of the Rockies a century ago and today. This project will develop methods to georectify those photographs (i.e. flatten the pictures onto a map) in order to analyze them in a spatially relevant way. Then it will be possible for the Foothills Research Institute to study the vegetation patterns in their area of interest using the photos. The interns will benefit by developing technical skills and networking beyond academia. The partner organization will benefit by having better tools to analyze a relatively untapped data set, which will help with evidence-based decision making regarding the management of the forests of southwestern Alberta.

Faculty Supervisor:

Eric Higgs

Student:

Julie Fortin

Partner:

Foothills Research Institute

Discipline:

Environmental sciences

Sector:

Forestry

University:

Program: