Book Review: Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation, 6th Edition

Book Review: Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation, 6th Edition by Lillesand, Kiefer, and Chipman

By Dr. Tariq Javid Ali Mughal 

As the book title, “Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation,” suggests; it primarily covers two areas which are remote sensing technologies and digital image interpretation. The authors view their book; can be used as a text as well as a reference for both students and practitioners in the field of remote sensing. The contents and in-depth coverage of wide range of topics confirm their claim is very correct. The authors believe to approach the subject in a “discipline neutral” manner is justified due rapidly emerging applications in almost every discipline. The following paragraphs provide a compact summary of topics appeared in the text and their usefulness to the readers.       

The main text in the book is organized in eight chapters and four appendices. The chapter 1 “Concepts and Foundations of Remote Sensing,” discusses basic principles underlying the remote sensing process. This chapter provides an exclusive coverage on electromagnetic remote sensing of earth resources with the help of line drawings, photographic illustrations, and color plates. The sections on Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) are well written at an introductory level for readers to familiarize them with these remote sensing kindred technologies. There are 11 references cited at the end of this chapter for interested readers.

The group of chapters 2, 3, and 4 covers topics which are related to acquisition of aerial photographs, photogrammetric measurements and mapping procedures, and visual image interpretation, respectively. This group cites 38 references and contains numerous worked-out examples along with related artwork to reinforce presented concepts. The chapter 2 describes tools used in acquisition of photographs from air and their derivation into digital images. These tools include films, filters, and aerial cameras. This chapter also emphasis on increasing use of digital cameras to replace film-based cameras. The chapter 3 introduces basic aspects of photogrammetry and provides references to comprehensive resources for interested readers. The objective of this chapter is to provide a fundamental understanding to the reader on how photographs can be used to measure and map earth surface features. The chapter 4 presents basics of visual image interpretation and illustrates potential applications with sample images. This chapter spans 137 pages containing 59 figures and 15 tables. The applications presented in this chapter are land use/land cover mapping, geologic and soil mapping, agricultural applications, forestry applications, rangeland applications, water resource applications, urban and regional planning applications, wetland mapping, wildlife ecology applications, archaeological applications, and natural disaster assessment.     

The group of chapters 5, 6, and 7 cover how to acquire images using multispectral, thermal, and hyperspectral scanners; and processing these images. The focus of chapters 5 and 6 is on airborne and spaceborne scanning systems, respectively. These two chapters cite 16 references and present the basic theory and operation of these scanning systems. The applications of scanning systems in each category are described with example images. The chapter 6 describes satellite systems used to collect reflected and emitted data. The chapter 7 describes how the data from these systems (discussed in chapters 5 and 6) are processed. This chapter spans 145 pages containing 23 sections and 67 figures. This chapter alone cites 41 references which mean the readers should expect a wider and generalized coverage of digital image interpretation and analysis procedures.

The chapter 8 presents collection and analysis of radar and lidar data. This is the last chapter of the book. This chapter discusses sensing systems which operate in the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and systems which use pulses of laser light to acquire remote data. This chapter presents various satellite families utilizing these sensing systems. The last section of this chapter, which is also the concluding section, introduces lidar and explains data acquisition and analysis procedures with examples. This chapter cites 18 references.

There are four appendices for readers to understand radiometric concepts, terminology, and units; remote sensing data and information resources; sample coordinate transformation and resampling procedures; and radar signal concepts, terminology, and units. These appendices are very useful as they provide a readily available reference to continue reading this valuable book.

In conclusion, this is a very useful and versatile text and reference book which provides coverage to almost all essential aspects of remote sensing systems for data acquisition and image interpretation for data analysis. This should be a must have resource for beginners and expert readers which are interested to use remote sensing technologies in making their day-to-day decisions now and in future.           

© 2012 Dr. Tariq Javid Ali Mughal