GEOS1701 - Remote Sensing and Environmental Change Lab
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GEOS1701 ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS, PROCESSES, AND ISSUES (T2 2025)
REMOTE SENSING AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE LAB
Aims and learning outcomes
This lab is designed to test your ability to use some websites that give access to satellite
imagery and image products, focusing on interpreting images and data for identifying
environmental change due to bush fires, tree clearing, drought, and floods. You need a basic
understanding of how to interpret different false colour composites and NDVI from
multispectral satellite imagery, and how to interpret changes in imagery over time.
Assessment
The concepts explored in this Lab will be assessed through Lab Test 2. This will be an online
quiz that will be open between 19:00 Friday 1st August and 23:59 Monday 4th August. You
will have 75 minutes to complete the questions, which will cover the material from the
climate (week 7), soils (week 8) and remote sensing (week 9) labs.
Materials
As you will use different websites that give access to satellite imagery, you will need a
computer connected to the internet and a web browser. You also need to download some
KML files from the Moodle page.
GEOS1701 - Remote Sensing and Environmental Change Lab
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Introduction
This lab will use two websites that show and analyse multispectral satellite imagery. The
following pages show the key features that you will need to use in the lab.
Copernicus Browser
• Go to https://dataspace.copernicus.eu/ and click
on the top right.
• Sign-up with your email when it asks or login if you have already used the website.
You need to login to use the tools available for analysis. It should look like below:
• Search for locations using the “Go to Place” tool on the top right
• Click on
to see the latest Sentinel-2 MSI Level 2A satellite
image for the area you have zoomed in on.
• The left arrow will display earlier images or click the
date to change to a specific day. The dates in
grey have images available for the area. If the
day has a blue border, it is a good image,
if not it has some cloud.
GEOS1701 - Remote Sensing and Environmental Change Lab
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• Change the image to a false colour composite:
Display
Red Band 8 (NIR) Band 12 (SWIR)
Green Band 4 (Red) Band 8A (Narrow NIR)
Blue Band 3 (Green) Band 4 (Red)
• Change to an NDVI image
• Create an analysis area
• Create an NDVI time series for an area
using the “Statistical Info” button
Note:
• Sometimes, clouds can remain as single points of low NDVI in the time series, even
when you have set cloud cover to 0%.
Upload a KML
file containing a
single polygon
Draw a rectangle
Draw a polygon
Change the
time period
Remove cloudy images
from the time series
Get the date and NDVI
value for any point
Vegetation is red
Water is black or blue
Vegetation is green,
Water is black or blue
GEOS1701 - Remote Sensing and Environmental Change Lab
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Digital Earth Australia Maps
• https://maps.dea.ga.gov.au/
• Search for locations using the “Search
for locations” tool in the top left.
• Add imagery by clicking “Explore map data”
• Select “Baseline satellite data” > “DEA Surface Reflectance (Landsat)” and then click
the “Add to the map” button on the right
• Use the
button on the left to find images for an area. You can
remove or change this filter to another area using the options that appear.
• Change the image to a false colour composite or NDVI using the “Styles” menu on
the lower left.
• Add the DEA Waterbodies dataset using the “Explore map data” button again, and
choose Inland Water > DEA Waterbodies > DEA Waterbodies (version 3.0.0) and
click
• Click on a water body to bring up the time series and click the
button to
add the graph to the bottom of the page.
• You can add multiple water body graphs by repeating the procedure.
GEOS1701 - Remote Sensing and Environmental Change Lab
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Group exercises
• You will be assigned to a group based on the lab bench you are sitting at.
• Each group will be assigned a question from Part 1 and Part 2.
• You will need to download KML files from Moodle for the Part 1 questions.
• Use the websites to view and analyse data to answer your questions.
• Make screen shots of the imagery and graphs which help answer each question and
add them to a slide on the shared PowerPoint document listed below.
• We will go through the PowerPoint document and discuss the questions and answers
as a class.
• Here are the links to the shared PowerPoint documents for each lab time:
GEOS1701_Remote_Sensing_Lab_Thursday_Morning.pptx
GEOS1701_Remote_Sensing_Lab_Thursday_Afternoon.pptx
GEOS1701_Remote_Sensing_Lab_Friday_Morning.pptx
GEOS1701_Remote_Sensing_Lab_Friday_Afternoon.pptx
Get the date and water area
(percent or pixels) for any point
Display datasets
Get more information
or remove a dataset
Display percent or
pixels on the graph
Download the time
series as a CSV file
GEOS1701 - Remote Sensing and Environmental Change Lab
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Part 1. Vegetation change
Groups Questions KML files
1
Investigate a bushfire that occurred southeast of
Grafton, on the NSW north coast, in 2019.
• When did the fire occur?
• How much did NDVI drop due to the fire?
• Explain the spatial variation in the severity of
the fire and the recovery of the vegetation for
the first year after the fire, using NDVI time
series for the three KML files.
grafton_a.kml
grafton_b.kml
grafton_c.kml
2
Examine some tree clearing that occurred just
north of Nyngan in central NSW, in 2018.
• When did the clearing occur?
• How much did NDVI drop due to the
clearing?
• Explain the spatial variation in the changes to
the vegetation for the year following the
clearing, using NDVI time series for the three
KML files.
nyngan_a.kml
nyngan_b.kml
nyngan_c.kml
3
Investigate a bushfire that occurred east of
Yathong Nature Reserve, central NSW, in 2021.
• When did the fire occur?
• How much did NDVI drop due to the fire?
• Explain the spatial variation in growth of
vegetation for the first year after the fire,
using NDVI time series for the three KML
files.
yathong_a.kml
yathong_b.kml
yathong_c.kml
4
Examine some tree clearing that occurred just
north of Cobar in central NSW, in 2018.
• When did the clearing occur?
• How much did NDVI drop due to the
clearing?
• Explain the spatial variation in the changes to
the vegetation for the year following the
clearing, using NDVI time series for the three
KML files.
cobar_a.kml
cobar_b.kml
cobar_c.kml
GEOS1701 - Remote Sensing and Environmental Change Lab
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Groups Questions KML files
5
Investigate a bushfire that occurred northeast of
Taree, on the NSW north coast, in 2019.
• When did the fire occur?
• How much did NDVI drop due to the fire?
• Explain the spatial variation in the severity of
the fire and the recovery of the vegetation for
the first year after the fire, using NDVI time
series for the three KML files.
taree_a.kml
taree_b.kml
taree_c.kml
6
Examine some tree clearing that occurred just
west of Mungo National Park in western NSW, in
2017.
• When did the clearing occur?
• How much did NDVI drop due to the
clearing?
• Explain the spatial variation in the changes to
the vegetation for the year following the
clearing, using NDVI time series for the three
KML files.
mungo_a.kml
mungo_b.kml
mungo_c.kml
7
Investigate a bushfire that occurred just west of
Lake Burrendong, in central NSW, in 2023.
• When did the fire occur?
• How much did NDVI drop due to the fire?
• Explain the spatial variation in the severity of
the fire and the recovery of the vegetation for
the first year after the fire, using NDVI time
series for the three KML files.
burrendong_a.kml
burrendong_b.kml
burrendong_c.kml
8
Examine some tree clearing that occurred just east
of Byrock in northwestern NSW, in 2019.
• When did the clearing occur?
• How much did NDVI drop due to the
clearing?
• Explain the spatial variation in the changes to
the vegetation for the year following the
clearing, using NDVI time series for the three
KML files.
byrock_a.kml
byrock_b.kml
byrock_c.kml
GEOS1701 - Remote Sensing and Environmental Change Lab
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Part 2. Water dynamics
Groups Questions
1
Examine the water dynamics of Narran Lake in northern NSW.
• What is the longest that the waterbody has been dry (<20% water area)?
• How many times has the water body been full (>80% water area)?
• What colour is the water in the lake, and does it change?
• What does the lake get used for when it is dry?
• What is the approximate area of the lake in square kilometres?
2
Examine the water dynamics of Nialia Lake in western NSW.
• What is the longest that the waterbody has been dry (<20% water area)?
• How many times has the water body been full (>80% water area)?
• What colour is the water in the lake, and does it change?
• What does the lake get used for when it is dry?
• What is the approximate area of the lake in square kilometres?
3
Examine the water dynamics of Tala Lake in southwestern NSW.
• What is the longest that the waterbody has been full (>80% water area)?
• How many times has the water body been dry (<20% water area)?
• What colour is the water in the lake, and does it change?
• What does the lake get used for when it is dry?
• What is the approximate area of the lake in square kilometres?
4
Examine the water dynamics of Lake George, NSW, northeast of Canberra.
• What is the longest that the waterbody has been full (>80% water area)?
• How many times has the water body been dry (<20% water area)?
• What colour is the water in the lake, and does it change?
• What does the lake get used for when it is dry?
• What is the approximate area of the lake in square kilometres?
GEOS1701 - Remote Sensing and Environmental Change Lab
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Groups Questions
5
Examine the water dynamics of Lake Eyre (South) in South Australia.
• What is the longest that the waterbody has been dry (<20% water area)?
• How many times has the water body been full (>80% water area)?
• What colour is the water in the lake, and does it change?
• What is covering the lake when it is dry?
• What is the approximate area of the lake in square kilometres?
6
Examine the water dynamics of Lake Goran, NSW, in northern NSW.
• What is the longest that the waterbody has been full (>80% water area)?
• How many times has the water body been dry (<20% water area)?
• What colour is the water in the lake, and does it change?
• What does the lake get used for when it is dry?
• What is the approximate area of the lake in square kilometres?
7
Examine the water dynamics of Lake Copeton, NSW, in northern NSW.
• What is the longest that the waterbody has been full (>80% water area)?
• How many times has the water body been dry (<20% water area)?
• What colour is the water in the lake, and does it change?
• What is covering the lake when it is dry?
• What is the approximate area of the lake in square kilometres?
8
Examine the water dynamics of Lake Callabonna in South Australia.
• What is the longest that the waterbody has been dry (<20% water area)?
• How many times has the water body been full (>80% water area)?
• What colour is the water in the lake, and does it change?
• What is covering the lake when it is dry?
• What is the approximate area of the lake in square kilometres?
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