Abstract
The Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT) environmental division frequently uses spatial information to analyze and assess a variety of environmental resources. Environmental personnel are constantly looking for faster and more accurate means of collecting and managing these data. Digital multispectral videography (DMSV) is a data collection technology that has shown great potential in other areas in which remote sensing data are used. DMSV provides digital frame coverage in four spectral bands for color infrared imaging, allowing for the detection of soils, vegetation, water bodies, chemically contaminated areas, and various other resources. This type of remote sensing differs from traditional methods in that sensor bandpass or wavelengths are typically ⩽25 nm wide as opposed to the more typical 100+ nm wavelengths. Testing the feasibility of using DMSV for some of VDOT’s environmental data acquisition needs was the purpose of this research. It was accomplished by using the technology to capture imagery-based data sets and then developing a procedure for transforming the image data into georeferenced vector data sets. The vector data were analyzed spatially, and the advantages and shortcomings of the technology were documented during this process. DMSV was very effective in identifying and classifying major plant communities in VDOT’s wetland mitigation sites. Data were quickly collected, corrected, classified, and imported into an ArcView-based geographic information system. From there, the data sets could be analyzed and stored for further query and manipulation.
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