Challenge
The challenges of planning, monitoring, and modeling water quality and managing land use practices in a watershed are formidable. The effective use of GIS and remote sensing technologies is a key ingredient in the success of modern watershed protection programs. PAR Government Systems Corporation (PGSC) supports watershed applications through:
- Collection of remotely sensed imagery
- Development of imagery-derived products
- GIS database development
- Design and development of semi-automated techniques for impervious surface extraction
Impervious surfaces (roads, roofs, tennis courts, etc.) are ground surfaces that do not absorb water. Quantifying impervious surfaces in a watershed is critical to the estimation of the sources of non-point source pollution, a key component for maintaining clean drinking water.
Solutions
PGSC has a long history of performing image classification and feature extraction using custom in-house software as well as various commercially available software packages. PGSC provides scalable solutions to meet customer needs in a variety of geospatial applications.
PGSC has developed a semi-automated process using customized machine learning techniques for extracting impervious surfaces from aerial digital orthoimagery. Other possible uses of the product include:
- Urban/suburban sprawl modeling
- Land use planning
- Transportation/emergency response planning
- Impervious surface quantification
Contact PGSC regarding the impervious surface feature extraction process as well as other remote sensing, GIS, and water resources applications and engineering solutions.
Image Collected by Emerge™
Extracted impervious surfaces in an ArcGIS® compatible format
