SGER: Using Photogrammetry to Assess 50 Years of Change in Arctic Vegetation: A Feasibility Study

Department Of Army Cold Regions Research & Engineering Lab, Vicksburg MS

Investigators

Abstract

This project will collect low altitude aerial photographs at sites in northern Alaska where photographs were previously taken in 1948 and 1949. The new photographs will be examined for evidence of decadal changes in vegetation and landscape that may have occurred in response to a significant climatic warming that has taken place in the Alaskan Arctic over the past two decades. The purpose of the comparison is: 1) to determine if ecological change has occurred and 2) if oblique aerial photography can be used to detect the changes. The results of this feasibility study could be useful as demonstration of a technique that could be applied to a widely distributed set of aerial photographs taken fifty years ago over much of the Arctic Slope in Alaska.