Remote Sensing & Geoscience Information Systems

Sedimentology involves the study of physical properties of particles/sediments that form sedimentary rocks. Physical characteristics of particles in terms of textures and composition form the basis of understanding the origin of the particles, sedimentation process, formation of different sedimentary rocks and the variations in sedimentary structures. This course is designed to teach the particle framework and processes that form different sedimentary rocks and sedimentary structures.

The course is structured to introduce students to the basic principles of acquisition of information about earth resources from space. Overview of remote sensing and historical aspecst of satellite launching will be covered including ownership and mission of satellite launching.. While it is a compulsory course for students in remote sensing, it also meets the needs of students in the earth sciences and other disciplines.

The course provides an insight to modes of acquiring remotely sensed data, the types of sensors involved and varying platforms adopted. It intimates the students with underlying radiometric and geometric characteristics of the sensors that to a large extent assist them to have a meaningful image interpretation. The course affords the students the opportunity of knowing how spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions of remotely sensed images are determined and offers them ways of improving on these resolutions to have a reliable result. The course introduces to the students the use of spectroradiometre, as a typical example of non-imaging sensor in order to develop in them the skill requires in utilizing the equipment to collect spectral reflectance of Earth objects of interest. This provides the students the opportunity of obtaining field information to validate the output of other

This course involves image data reception, processing and generation of data products. It provides the opportunity to explore principles of thermal remote sensing including its uses. It gives exposure to fundamentals of microwave remote sensing including imaging and non-imaging methods. As a computer based course, it provides hands-on experience in the use of some image processing softwares for geometric and radiometric corrections and sources of errors in satellite data – error correction techniques. It also introduces ground truth data collection techniques i.e. use of radiometers, spectrophotometers etc. Spectral reflectance and spectral signatures of different land covers will be evolved. The overall accomplishment is to prepare students for specialized fields such as Geosciences, Forestry, Ecology, Meteorology, Marine Science, etc.

The course is designed to teach students the principles of image interpretation, particularly in deriving geological and geomorphological information. It is a compulsory course for students in Remote Sensing, but it also meets the needs of students in the earth sciences especially Applied Geology, and other location-based disciplines. Students will also be exposed to hands-on training in the use of basic locational equipment like compass-clinometer and hand-held GPS.

Photogrammetry is a science based technology with more than a century of history and development. During this time, the techniques used to get information about objects represented in photos have changed dramatically from pure optic-mechanical equipment to a fully digital workflow in our days. Parallel to this, the handling became easier, and so its possible also for non-photogrammetrists to use these methods today. The focus is to impart useful skills on the students in order to prepare them for specialized fields such as Geosciences, Forestry, Ecology, Meteorology, Marine Science, etc. Topics to be covered include fundamentals of aerial photogrammetry, aerial cameras, processing of black/white infrared, colour infrared films, film density and characteristic curves, aerial flight planning, basic geometric characteristic of aerial photographs. Scale, ground coverage and resolution of aerial photos, tilt-and-relief displacement. Stereovision, stereomodel and stereoscopes. Measurement of height from aerial photos; parallax and its measurement. Satellite sensors for stereo coverage, along track/across track stereo scanning. General overview of hardwares and software packages available for processing.

Topics to be covered include: Hydrogeology and hydrology – definition and scope. Hydrological cycle; hydrological properties of rocks. Occurrence and movement of groundwater; groundwater and well hydraulics, fundamental hydrodynamic laws. Hydrometeorology – rainfall, overland flow; through flow interception etc; hydrographs; unit hydrograph, theory and the application. Explanation of the basic hydrological equation

This course is designed to teach students the geometrical features of main structural elements, the forces and processes involved in rock deformation, their resultant effects and how to appreciate and interpret the structural features and their evolution in time.

Configuration, choice and selection of images. Integrated image analysis. Image structure and processing; Procedure and processes involved on image restoration and enhancement. Information extraction strategies. Hardwares for image processing, types and characteristics. General overview of software packages available for processing.

This is an introductory course that intimates the students in Remote Sensing and GIS, and related disciplines with the principles of Geographic Information System. The course affords the students the basic understanding of different nomenclatures in use for the acronym ‘GIS’. As an application tool, the course equips the students in Remote Sensing and GIS, and allied disciplines the GIS analyses and geostatistical techniques embedded in GIS that are of great importance to achieving a result-oriented research. The course, hence, explicitly defines GIS based on its functions and applications, explores different data sources and variety of existing coordinate systems for effective transformation from one form to the other. It also meets the needs of students of other disciplines, as the course provides different data models, developing of database with possibility of generating query to bring out new pattern and relationship among the data. The course is practical oriented and so it aims to train the students on the use of GIS techniques in storing, retrieving, updating, analysis, manipulating and presenting of spatially referenced data. To accomplish this target, the students will be introduced to the use of raster and vector GIS softwares. Important topics such as GIS models, inputs to GIS, integration in GIS, GIS output and visualization accuracy of data and integration errors in GIS will be covered. Apparently most GIS outputs involve map production, thus, topics such as principles of cartography, maps and projections, types of scales and accuracy of map among others will be covered.

The course begins with a brief recall of the principles that underlies the acquisition of remotely sensed images. Emphasis will be placed on the importance of image processing as a tool for extracting thematic and quantitative information from raw image data. Hence, it is necessary to provide explanation on what constitute an image and its characteristics with particular emphasis on digital images. This will be followed with what digital image processing does. To achieve this, the students need to be acquainted with the fundamentals of computers and image processing systems. Since mathematical operations on digital images are called digital image processing, the need arises to provide information on the basic theory of probability, Bayesian theory and sampling techniques. The students will be further equipped with fundamentals of image analysis and digital data format, image rectification and registration, image enhancement techniques, contrast stretching, edge enhancements and filtering. This introductory course to digital image processing will be concluded with fourier space enhancement and spectral rationing.

The course is structured to introduce students to the basic principles of locating features on the Earth’s surface. While it is a compulsory course for students in remote sensing, it also meets the needs of students in the earth sciences and other location-based disciplines. It is also expected to expose to hands-on training in the use of locational equipment like compass-clinometer, hand-held GPS and GNSS.

This course is designed to expose the students to terrain mapping. This will take place during the long vacation. The first two weeks will be spent to train the students in the technicalities of mapping. The subsequent four weeks will be for the independent fieldwork during which the student is expected to carry out the terrain mapping of an area under minimal supervision. The student will produce a terrain map that will show all the terrain features and a comprehensive report will be written based on field data collected during the fieldwork.