#Ucla geo 5 gillespie midterm download#

The natural color imagery provides a general view of entire Los Angeles area. This section presents the results from study, and we also discuss the findings.ДЇig 1: A satellite image of Los Angeles with the focus on UCLA campusДЇig 1 shows a satellite image of Los Angeles with the focus on UCLA campus. On layer stacking window, the band 3 2 1 loaded as Red Blue Green for Natural color display of the imagery.

#Ucla geo 5 gillespie midterm download#

Once the download was complete, unzipped file was opened on ENVI. Landsat dataВ Collection-> Landsat Archive-> Landsat 4 5 TM -> Lat/Long 34.6, -118.3 -> 0 percent cloud The details of imagery is mentioned below To access the spread of Impervious surface in Los Angeles, I navigated to the USGS site Part I : Download and manipulate Satellite images The UCLA campus is being used to verify the satellite data on the ground. The study area covers Los Angeles Metropolitan Area specifically which comprises of Los Angeles County (9,862,049), and Orange County (3,010,759) and is home to 15.4 million people, making it the most populous metropolitan area in the western United States and the largest in area in the United States. According to the study conducted by USDA forest service to assess Tree and impervious cover change in US cities, Los Angeles has topped the chart as a city with greatest annual increase in impervious cover change average 550 ha ( High availability) / year followed by Houston ( 400 ha/ year) and Albuquerque (480 ha / year)(Nowak, and Eric).

According to EPA, the term вЂњheat islandвЂќ describes built up areas that are hotter than nearby rural areas.The Heat Island Group says that the urban heat island around Los Angeles, California, costs the city $100 million a year in energy. Impervious surfaces is also playing major role in urban heat island effect too ( Kent). Not only this, the spread of impervious area in Los Angeles has intensified the speed of water flow causing soil erosion and urban flooding. No doubt urban runoff in Los Angeles has become major source of water pollution. As a result the rainwater does not percolates through the ground slowly rather the water is rushed along the street picking up trash, oils and other kinds of waste into storm drain followed by the ocean. Unlike the soil and vegetation in natural watersheds, most urban areas like LA are covered in impervious surfaces, such as asphalt or concrete. Although the urban development and expansion facilitated the system, its impact on the environment canвЂ™t be justified. To accommodate the needs of growing population requires building of roads, parking lots and paved sidewalks. The population of Los Angeles has skyrocketed in the past 100 years, and itвЂ™s putting a lot of pressure on our environment. Instead, the rain water accumulates and flows rapidly into storm drains. The problem with impervious surfaces is that they prevent the natural soaking of rainwater into the ground and slowly seeping into streams. вЂњImpervious surfaceвЂќ refers to all the hard surfaces like paved roads, parking lots, roofs, and even highly compacted soils like sports fields. The goal of this research paper is to assess the expansion of impervious surfaces in Los Angeles through satellite images, compare the satellite imagery by Landsat and Quickbird, overlaying of GIS data on Satellite imagery to calculate impervious surface of UCLA. The Los Angeles region in Southern California has experienced explosive growth over the last 50 years, and, along with it, large amounts of impervious surfaces have replaced the natural landscape. As cities grow and more development occurs, the natural landscape is replaced by roads, buildings, housing developments, and parking lots. The urban development and expansion has triggered the spread of Impervious surfaces across the nation. TW Gillespie, Department of Geography, UCLA Assessing Impervious Surface in Los Angeles