Remote Sensing

Tracking deforestation in the Amazon

In this project I make use of USGS Landsat satellite imagery to track deforestation due to human settlement in the Amazon. I began by assigning numerical values to built-up land, water, trees, and deforested land that is not built up yet. These values were embedded within the pixels of each satellite image, which I later classified into hectares to track the change of built settlement.

Location: Amazon Jungle
Date: 2018

Using LANDSAT Imagery

Remote Sensing is a cartographic technique often applied by intelligence agencies and military operations. This unique practice shows the vast application of using satellite imagery to track changes in informal land-use, such as deforestation in the Amazon. This analysis uses 7 bands of color in total, although Red, Green, Blue (RGB ) are used most often. The first series of images shows existing levels of built and unbuilt land in 1997, while the second series shows the same site in 2011. The final series shows the resulting deforestation of the Amazon in the selected site.

1997 LANDSAT Imagery

2011 LANDSAT Imagery

Total Deforestation