Public Lab Research note


Signature Development for Aerial Photo Classification: Louisiana Wetland Forest Mine Reclamation project

by eustatic | March 11, 2022 16:43 11 Mar 16:43 | #30119 | #30119

Here I archive the signature development for human classification of abandoned gravel mines on the Tangipahoa and Amite Rivers in Louisiana. This was published as part of Basics of the Basin in the years after the 2016 flood.

Federal Mine reclamation sidelines gravel mines, and the Louisiana Lege is structured to oppose wetland restoration on mining rivers--Senator Body White, in particular, district 6, commands a district that only includes these areas, and stonewalls any reclamation efforts via agnotological techniques.

Organizations like Nature Conservancy also oppose Mine Reclamation as "too difficult" and politically "impossible." Louisiana Wildlife Federation supports these efforts, but, because Senator Cassidy opposes them, cannot make progress.

And yet, Denham Springs flooded in the 2016 rains because of the loss of Floodplain Forests to gravel mines, costing Louisiana on the order of $10 Billion for that one event.

Gulf Restoration Network attempted to pick up where LDNR abandoned the abandoned mines. Our publications will be referenced in a future research note.

Using techniques developed for the NWI by the National Wetland Research Center in Lafayette, we created Signatures for Classification of Aerial Photography .

Those signatures are recorded here:

Floodplain Forest signaturedevelopment GRN worksheet (Rev August 2018)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15r8sB8WRAq2M3R1cmpm04jQH5FCYgv8fWnAG3eoxZUw/edit#gid=3

A Public Template is here:

Public Copy 2018 GRN Signature Development Assessment Summary for Aerial Photo Classification

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PgQ22RGVAKrYsI9OuSGQaGHOgprskS2jycPgQAuPm3A/edit#gid=143327483

The description is as follows:

Signature Development is the justification for Cognitive Delineation of Photography---
that is to say, it's a standardized accounting for the reasoning behind why we draw lines around shapes and colors in photographs.
There is much more information in photographs than color, and this sheet serves both
as a reminder to use that kind of information in the photograph
but also integrate information from outside the photography (especially field visits)
in order to make the most coherent delination of vegetation types we can.
Science strives to be repeatable
and so computer algorithms are in development to replace humans for aerial photo interpretation
but this is the documentation of the human algorithm being used to interpret a particular photo
RULES
use as much info as you can
make a new sheet in the workbook for each type of delineation you make. each mapknitter project, say, should have a workbook with multiple Signatures
draw your delineation line at a scale of 1:3000 or higher resolution, 4000ft
fear no subjectivity, but be able to defend all your decisions.
With any luck, other humans will be able to glean useful information about the landscape from your aerial photo interpretation.
Love and wisdom,

14 Comments


Here are the csvs that were to be put into a GIS.

No signature development was completed for the GIS fields by Montoya, or perhaps the file has been lost.

CSV

CSV

There are two csvs in the earlier post

One csv for Tangipahoa, one csv for Amite River.


Reply to this comment...


This is an awesome resource @eustatic , especially for our current RAR on mine reclamation! Really appreciate your explanation of the classification system. Any way you could share GIS screen grabs or any maps made from the csvs to help visualize?

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.

yes, but there are buried on a GIS Archive somewhere


Reply to this comment...


https://www.flickr.com/photos/healthygulf/tags/mines

these photos show a pit capture. the blue line is our canoe path 41439393571_18bf1571cf_o.jpg

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.

Reply to this comment...


Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.


Floodplain_Forest_lost_to_Mines_Comite_River_NM.png

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.


Floodplain_Forest_SOTC_poster.png

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.


Floodplain_Forest_lost_to_Mines_Florida_Parish_Rivers_NM__25k.png

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.



NS_MineHeatMap_FloodDepths_Oct19.jpeg

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.


La_MineLocations_Oct19.jpeg

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.


Reply to this comment...


Login to comment.