Integrating Faculty Led Service Learning Training to Quantify Height of Natural Resources from a Spatial Science Perspective

Abstract

Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture (ATCOFA) faculty members were trained how to integrate service learning activities within senior level classes at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) in Nacogdoches, Texas. The service learning training, taught under the acronym Mentored Undergraduate Scholarship (MUGS), involved meeting with fellow faculty members over the course of an academic year during the fall semester to first learn how to incorporate service learning activities in a senior level class followed by its incorporation into a class the following spring semester. The service learning model was applied to students in GIS 420, a senior level Landscape Modeling, Spatial Analysis, and Quantitative Assessment course within ATCOFA. The students were instructed within a hands-on interactive environment on how to use geospatial analysis to quantify natural resources. The overall goal was for a student to demonstrate proficiency in understanding how to apply aerial photo interpretation, satellite remote sensing, global positioning system and geographic information systems technology to quantify, qualify, map, monitor and manage natural and environmental resources at the local and landscape scales. Students applied this concept within a quantitative resource assessment, whereby students compared the conventional methodology of measuring height of vertical features within a landscape using a clinometer with the newer ways of measuring height using Pictometry hyperspatial imagery and drone acquired digital imagery. Conventional results were compared to newer technological methodologies to determine the most efficient and accurate way to quantify vertical resources from a spatial perspective.

Integrating Unmanned Aircraft Systems to Measure Linear and Areal Features into Undergraduate Forestry Education

“…Courses, students, and faculty within ATCOFA focus on hands-on instruction, field exercises, and real-world applications using the most current geospatial technology, most recently through the introduction of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), or drones into forestry education to quantify natural resources (Unger, Kulhavy, Hung, & Zhang, 2014). To begin the use of UAS, students review the Mentored Undergraduate Scholarship (MUGS) rubric on use of UAS to gain confidence in understanding of UAS for teaching and research and service (Unger, Kulhavy, Busch-Petersen, & Hung, 2016). This promotes critical thinking, technical knowledge and skill, hands-on engagement, and construction of new concepts for use of UAS in education (Sattar, Tamatea, & Nawaz, 2017).…”

Measuring Building Height Using Point Cloud Data Derived from Unmanned Aerial System Imagery in an Undergraduate Geospatial Science Course

“…The use of a UAS to capture remotely sensed images at the user's discretion in natural resources add to the advantages in teaching and research (Unger, Kulhavy, Hung, Zhang & Stephens Williams, 2019). Students are trained in the safe use of UAS by a team of four geospatial science faculty members including safe operation, flying the UAS for individual images, video and orthophoto missions using a four-step training process of UAS assembly, completing a controlled flight, capturing imagery and videos, and synthesizing UAS information to quantify and qualify natural resource missions (Unger, Kulhavy, Busch-Petersen & Hung, 2016;Unger, Kulhavy, Hung, Zhang & Stephens Williams, 2019). Once students are trained, they complete a self-designed project with the supervision of one of the faculty members involving collecting and processing data.…”

“…The accuracy of height estimates using a UAS, is an alternative depending on the internal GPS or/and internal barometer onboard a drone that is user controlled (Khanna et al, 2015;Themistocleous, 2014;Unger, Kulhavy, Busch-Petersen, & Hung, 2016). For accuracy with height measurements, landing the UAS DJI Phantom 3 between each flight increased the accuracy of the measurement even with the GPS turned off (Unger, Hung, Kulhavy, Zhang, & Busch-Petersen, 2018).…”

Positional Precision Analysis of Orthomosaics Derived from Drone Captured Aerial Imagery

“…While traditional aerial photography from a manned airplane continues to serve projects of large areas, especially when acquiring aerial photography at a small scale, drone acquired imagery is suitable for smaller and inaccessible areas with the drone user controlling the spatial, spectral, radiometric, and temporal resolution of the product [6][7][8][9]. With limited capital investment, the process from setting up a drone flight to the output of a rectified orthomosaic image for a specific area can be achieved within hours [5,10], providing timely cost-effective monitoring of the forest environment [11,12]. Advantages of a UAS for mapping of small areas include high spatial resolution, the ability to complete time series imagery, potentials for 3D imagery to produce both orthomosaics and 3D models, and the integration into community-based forest monitoring (CBFM) or habitat monitoring [13].…”