EVS-Islands

Palmyra Atoll, owned and operated by the Nature Conservancy (NC), is considered one of the least disturbed coral atoll located in the Pacific Ocean. The NC paid $37 million to take control of this atoll. Never permanently inhabited, except during WW-II, the motus are visited by the occassional yacht crew. It was during onc such visit back in the 1970's that a couple was murdered and the murdering pirate is now in prison.

This mapping project was relatively fast and uncomplicated. The various layers of information were determined using Landsat ETM+ imagery. Consequently, the layers are "fairly well "determined. "Fairly well" is what you get working off of Landsat. "Fairly well" is what EVS (Enhanced Vector Shorelines) is. Compared to much of the mapping currently available on a global scale, "fairly well" is a major improvement.

Enjoy!

Labels: atoll, EVS, island, Landsat, Line Islands, map, Marplot, Pacific

Posted by Mr Minton at 2/17/2007 10:29:00 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

An island located along the western coast of Honshu, near the city of Niigata. The inhabitants make their living off of farming and tourists. Sadoga-shima, at one time, was the location of gold deposits that were worked by exiles.

This island, with it's deceptively simple appearance, consists of 630 unique polygons / lines (not counting 50-meter interval contours). The majority of these vectors are the pinkish areas - which depict either human habitation or denuded land. On my map, they all are rendered the same. If I were to further refine this project, the determination between human and denuded would be made.

I am glad this is finished. I think I'll leave Japan for awhile.

A quick aside - I was able to use my work on this island with my students, as we are studying Japan. They know Sadoga-shima's history and current use and are able to compare and contrast it with the four main islands. Neat, huh?

Enjoy!

Labels: EVS, island, Japan, Landsat, map, Marplot, Pacific Ocean, Sea of Japan

Posted by Mr Minton at 2/15/2007 06:45:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post