Mission and Goals

The mission of the Center for Remote Sensing is the application of remote sensing and related technologies such as geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) to projects in agriculture, hydrology, and natural resources. Its primary objectives are to enhance the graduate education, research, and training of students in the areas of remote sensing, GIS, image processing, visualization and GPS. The Center gathers and analyzes image data from satellite and airborne sources and shares this data with the Florida Department of Agriculture and growers throughout the state, with the goal of improving production agriculture and conserving natural resources.

Graduate Education Goals:

The Center teaches courses on the subjects of remote sensing and GIS, and their application in agriculture, hydrology and natural resources.

           AOM5431 "Remote Sensing and GIS in Agriculture and Natural Resources" is intended as an
                                introductory course in remote sensing and GIS.

           ABE6262  "Remote Sensing in Hydrology" is an advanced course in remote sensing applications.

           ABE6035  "GIS in Hydrology" is an advanced course in GIS applications.

All three courses are included within the University of Florida Interdisciplinary Concentration in Geographic Information Systems (ICGIS) program.

Continuing Education Objective:

The Center teaches a summer shortcourse "Four Week Course in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems", which is intended for unit manager training in remote sensing, GIS and GPS.

Research Objectives:

The Center develops joint research projects with state and federal institutions, as well as other university departments and researchers, and investigates new methodologies for improving the application of remote sensing and GIS in production agriculture, hydrology and natural resources.  Topics of interest include land-
cover identification and change assessment, monitoring of crop stress type and severity, surface temperature and soil moisture estimation and runoff coefficient mapping.  Technologies employed consist of multispectral and hyperspectral imagery from airborne and satellite missions, ground based radiometry and imagery, and ground penetrating radar.  Analytical tools include several GIS and image processing software packages running on Windows/LINUX/UNIX computer systems..