This report is submitted to the Resources Inventory Committee (RIC) by the Coastal Task Force.

The Resource Inventory Committee members are resource specialists from a wide variety of professional disciplines and represent provincial, federal, aboriginal and private sector agencies and other resource interests. RIC’s objective is to develop a common set of standards and procedures for provincial resource inventories.

The Coastal Resource Task Force has identified a number of projects to develop a common set of inventory standards for the coast of British Columbia. This manual provides documentation and recommendations for aerial video mapping standards.

Funding for the RIC work including preparation of this report, is provided by the Canada-British Columbia Partnership Agreement on Forest Resources Development: FRDA II. This is a five-year (1991-1996) $200 million program cost shared equally by the federal and provincial governments.

Funding from FRDA II does not imply acceptance or approval of any statements or information contained herein by either government. This document is not official policy of Forestry Canada or any British Columbia government ministry or agency.

This report provides a review of Aerial Video Imagery (AVI) surveys in British Columbia and was supported under contract by Coastal Task Force of the Resource Inventory Committee (RIC) and administered by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Technical Authority, Mr. Joe Truscott). The project objectives were to: (1) review existing AVI survey applications and techniques, (2) review equipment presently being used in AVI surveys and (3) provide recommendations for standardizing AVI surveys.

A review of AVI surveys currently being conducted in BC reveals a wide range of applications, although coastal biophysical inventories in support of oil spill contingency planning and stream inventory surveys in support of habitat characterization are most common. Other applications include: forestry cut-block planning, shellfish habitat inventories, powerline surveys and coastal charting. The surveys can be characterized in terms of three general categories

• reconnaissance surveys - provide a general overview for orientation surveys but imagery/tapes are not used to extract specific inventory data.
• planimetric surveys - aerial video imagery is used to map features and boundaries in a geo-referenced framework (e.g., vegetation mapping or coastal charting).
• inventory surveys - aerial video imagery is used to catalog landform or vegetation features but features are not specifically georefenced from the imagery.

A review of equipment is provided to assist potential users with identifying the most appropriate and cost-effective approach to meet their needs; commercial services are also identified. No single suite of equipment is appropriate to all applications. The listing provides a review of advantages and disadvantages of various equipment components, which will allow users to evaluate systems to match their specific requirements.

The evolution of AVI surveys over the past ten years has led to a wide variety of techniques being used, and some standardization is appropriate. A recommended standards classification for AVI is developed based on four important factors: resolution of the imagery, positioning information, documentation and supplemental data. It is also strongly recommended that AVI data be cataloged through a designated coordinating agency; the agency would maintain project data sheets initially and, if sufficient demand existed, could expand to include: GIS-based reference maps, a documentation library and tape duplication services.

Acknowledgments

Funding of the Resources Inventory Committee work, including the preparation of this document, is provided by the Corporate Resource Inventory Initiative (CRII) and by Forest Renewal BC (FRBC). Preliminary work of the Resources Inventory Committee was funded by the Canada-British Columbia Partnership Agreement of Forest Resource Development FRDA II.

The Resources Inventory Committee consists of representatives from various ministries and agencies of the Canadian and the British Columbia governments as well as from First Nations peoples. RIC objectives are to develop a common set of standards and procedures for the provincial resources inventories, as recommended by the Forest Resources Commission in its report "The Future of our Forests".

For further information about the Resources Inventory Committee and its various Task Forces, please contact:

The Executive Secretariat
Resources Inventory Committee
840 Cormorant Street
Victoria, BC V8W 1R1

Tel: (250) 920-0661
Fax: (250) 384-1841

Abstract

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

1.1 Background

1.2 Objective of Study

2. Review of Survey Techniques

2.1 Approach

2.2 Overview of Techniques

2.3 Costs of Survey Techniques

3. Review of Equipment

3.1 Video Camera Systems

3.2 Video Recording Systems

3.3 Communications Systems

3.4 Aircraft

3.5 Special Equipment

3.6 Approaches for Meeting Survey Objectives

4. Recommendations of Survey Standards

4.1 Factors Affecting Survey Quality

4.2 Recommended Standards Criteria

4.3 Recommended Classification of Standards Criteria

4.4 Other Recommendations

Appendix A–Project Summaries

Appendix B–Contacts

Appendix C–Video Equipment Database

Appendix D–Commercial Suppliers & Services

Glossary

Table 2 Comparative Costs of Survey Techniques

Table 3 Summary of Camera Systems

Table 4 Summary of Recording Systems

Figure 1 Typical videotape recording layout

Table 5 Summary of Communications Systems

Figure 2 Schematic diagram of procedure for "burning" GPS to the video image or recording GPS to the close-captioned video track (Techniques 1 & 2)

Figure 3 Schematic diagram of procedure for recording GPS data to an audio sound track on the video tape (Technique 3)

Figure 4 Schematic diagram of procedure for recording GPS data to a laptop/ datalogger (Technique 4)

Table 6 Examples of AVI Approaches for Meeting Survey Objectives

Table 7 Factors Affecting Aerial Video Imaging Survey Quality

Table 8 Summary AVI Classification Standard

Table 9 Explanation of Rating Criteria for AVI Survey Classification

Table 10 Example of AVI Classification of West Coast Shoreline Surveys

Table 11 Suggested Format for AVI Datasheet or Data Fields