Development of a digital video system for remote sensing of coasts

The proliferation of low-cost multispectral CCD video technology in combination with the Global Positioning System (GPS) has progressed to the point where quantifiable and meaningful results can be derived from low-altitude aerial digital video systems. This low-cost technology will provide meaningful and sometimes critical data that will be required for regional and site-specific land and emergency management. Historically, video has not had the resolution or repeatability to be used for spatial processing, but newer digital systems have expanded the capabilities. Potential applications include the areas of precision farming, oil-spill clean-up, fire remediation and corridor mapping. In this article, we explain how we developed a low-altitude digital video system and compared it to a number of commercially available remote sensing platforms. Salient information such as color, texture, shape and orientation can be extracted from the images and used in a geographic information system for landscape and site-specific analysis.