PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
January 2014
23
BOOK
REVIEW
Remote Sensing: Techniques,
Applications and Technologies
Edited by Enner Alcântara
Nova Science Publishers Inc., Nanotechnology Science and
Technology Series, 2013, 198 pp.
ISBN 978-1-62417-140-6 (hardcover)
$95.00
Reviewed by:
Petros Patias, Professor, Depart-
ment of Rural & Surveying Engineering, Faculty of
Engineering, The Aristotle University, Thessaloni-
ki, Greece,
Remote Sensing: Techniques, Applications and Tech-
nologies
is composed of six chapters, contributed by a total
of 28 experts in the field and edited by Dr. Enner Alcântara
from Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Department of
Cartography - Presidente Prudente, Brazil. His background
is in remote sensing, environmental modeling with GIS and
numerical modelling of water resources. The main aim of
this book is to present techniques and applications of remote
sensing in sorted themes, such as: coastal basins, biomass
estimation, water resource management, particle dispersions
in hydroelectric reservoirs, attitude control of satellites and
urban growth. This focused book can serve as a supplemen-
tary text for upper-division undergraduate and graduate
students. Additionally, the book can also serve as a reference
for researchers, scientists, and engineers, who wish to keep
up with new developments in environmental remote sensing.
In order to fulfill this target the book collects two type of
studies: (a) review articles or theoretical studies aiming at
examining developments in concepts, methods, techniques
and applications in a very focused subfield of remote sensing,
and (b) application studies regarding the latest developments
in a specialized topic with eventual case studies.
The first chapter, “Land-Based Remote Sensing of Coastal
Basins: Use of an HF Radar to Investigate Surface Dynamics
and Transport Processes in the Gulf of Naples”, investigates
the surface dynamics of a coastal area using HF coastal
radar. The radar data are integrated with a transport model
to estimate the residence times of particles and to identify
possible areas of retention and aggregation. Chapter 2, “Re-
mote Sensing Applications of Estimating Biomass for Ener-
gy Crops-Development of Ground-based Sensing Systems”,
focuses on techniques for studying crop status from different
sensors including multispectral cameras, spectrometers, laser
range finders and light quantum sensors. Chapter 3, “Remote
Sensing as a Support Tool for Water Resources Management
in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review”, provides an insight on how
remote sensing technology can provide near real time answers
to hydrological modeling, flood forecasting, water conservation
and efficiency in irrigation. The review is extensive and, in ad-
dition, the seven case studies provide a nice example toolbox.
Chapter 4, “Estimating Particle Dispersion and Reservoir
Transport Processes from Satellite Tracked Drifters Data:
Methodology and Applications”, studies the horizontal transport
and dispersion in large hydroelectric reservoirs through the use
of satellite tracked drifters. A review of methods to estimate the
dispersion of surface water is also presented. Both the theory
as well as the practical applications is well documented. In
Chapter 5, “Remote Sensing and Attitude Control using Intel-
ligent Image-Based Sensors”, the use of an imaging camera as
an intelligent device for extracting relative attitude information
needed for attitude control is presented. The concept is very
interesting and the approach is well explained. Through a thick
mathematical text, the satellite motion and the camera orienta-
tion is modelled, while feature extraction and matching is used
as a means to estimate the satellite attitude parameters. Simu-
lation examples and performance evaluation follows. In Chapter
6, “Assessing Urban Growth and Soil Sealing with Spectral
Mixture Analysis”, a remote sensing technique is presented to
study urban growth over time, by combining unsupervised and
supervised classifications and spectral mixture analysis.
In conclusion, the form of the book (theoretical studies
and reviews accompanied by application presentations), the
extent of its contents (coastal basins, biomass estimation,
water resource management, particle dispersions, attitude
control and urban growth), and the illustrative nature of case
studies, provides an excellent supplementary text for both
undergraduate and graduate students and a concise reference
for scientists and engineers.
