By: Lwazi and Malusi
“Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things” First law of Geography
Introduction to GIS and Remote Sensing
After a long drive from Knysna we finally arrive in Bellville, where we had our final pit stop for our South African geology tour. Bright and early we departed for the CGS offices in Bellville, where we attended lectures on basics of GIS, remote sensing and marine, given by one of the best scientists in the CGS. Firstly Chiedza Musekiwa took us for an introduction of GIS, with emphasis on the Arc GIS software, showing us the different tools within it:Arc Catalog and Arc Map and their capabilities for mapping purposes. She also touched on the most crucial issue of map projections and datum which normally confuses young GIS users, explaining to us the difference between the two and lastly she showed us how to georeferencing images in Arc Map.
GIS and Remote sensing course in Bellville
Following her presentation it was Paul Macey, whom took us for modern geological techniques and how to conduct and manage geological mapping projects. With his vast amount of experience in the geological mapping and the forever evolving technologies, he reiterates that a good geologist still needs to write down field notes, rather than relying on modern technologies. One of the popular technologies which is being utilized for geological mapping is remote sensing, where we are able to retrieve the vital information without being in contact with them. With different mathematical manipulations embedded within it, such as band combination, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), band ratios and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index,etc embedded a user is able to extract useful information in the desktop stage of a mapping project. Various satellite data sets which are being used for geology are ASTER, LANDSAT, SPOT, etc. Showing us a glimpse of some of the work that he has done through the years it is evident that experience must be earned.
To cap off the long and knowledgeable day, we had Mac (Michael Machutchon), who’s a senior scientist in the marine geoscience unit (MGU). As expected, concentration spans were at a low, considering it was Friday afternoon. However, we had to pull ourselves together and brace ourselves for the last session of the day. The presentation kicked off with an intro into the various geophysical techniques utilized within the unit. These include single-beam, multi-beam surveys (for bathymetry), seismics (boomer and pinger) and side-scan sonar, to mention a few. This was followed by a series of videos and photos meant to demonstrate what the marines get up to on a typical day out to sea.
No comments:
Post a Comment