School of Forest Resources and Conservation		UF / IFAS
	GEOMATICS AREAS OF STUDY
Areas of Study Geomatics Faculty Research Fall Courses Spring Courses Facilities The Colorado River Source: NASA	REMOTE SENSING is the science and art of obtaining information about Earth phenomenon without physical contact. This may be done through the photographic process, electro-optical sensors or other instruments. Platforms for these sensors may be on the ground, in the air or in space. In Geomatics, remote sensing is used a support tool for gathering data about a place.  It may be used to collect primary data or for updates. There are many things that can only be detected through remote sensing while in other cases, remote sensing is simply a more efficient way of collecting data than doing it from the ground. Sensors used include film-based cameras, digital cameras, multi-spectral scanners, thermal infrared radiometers, radar, sonar, LiDAR and IfSAR. Applications of remote sensing include: land use/land cover mapping, forest inventories, wildlife habitat mapping, soils mapping, wetland mapping, topographic mapping, deformation analysis, deforestation analysis, urban planning and geological mapping, to name a few examples.
	Last updated: 2/22/08 - Comments and suggestions welcome - webmaster