Tuesday, July 1, 2014

OGE 223 : REMOTE SENSING AND QUANTITIVE METHODS.

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Lecture Materials

This page contains all information relevant to the topics covered in lecture. Here you will find: (1) materials presented in lecture, (2) required readings for the class from the text and (3) links to additional readings and other web resources that illustrate topics covered in lectures.
Required Text
Jensen, J.R.  2007. Remote Sensing of the Environment - an Earth Resource Perspective 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall. 592 pp.

Additional readings from sources including:
Lillesand, T.M., Kieffer, R.W. and Chipman, J.W.  2004.  Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation 5th ed. New York, John Wiley & Sons. 763 pp
The Remote Sensing Core Curriculum - http://www.r-s-c-c.org/
The Remote Sensing Tutorial - http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Earth From Space - An Astronaut's views of the Home Planet . http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/

In class, I use computer aided presentations. I will place versions of my lecture notes on this page. These materials will be provided as Adobe Portable Document Format files which can be read using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. Some of the files may be password protected. All materials and are for your personal use only and as stated in the syllabus they may not be copied nor distributed without my permission.
Iinformation about the topics will be added as they are compiled. I will attempt to place lecture materials before class so you can bring them to lecture if you wish. However, simply printing out the materials is NO substitute for taking your own copious notes during lecture and lab.
Links are also provided on this page to recorded video of the my lecture materials. The videos can only be viewed by computers within the Texas A&M firewall. If you wish to view the videos on a machine outside of Texas A&M you must install and use the Virtual Private Network (VPN) software available from the University. As with the lecture notes,All materials and are for your personal use only and as stated in the syllabus they may not be copied nor distributed without my permission.
Please note that I have produced these lecture materials at different times and they periodically updated. So while their content is very similar you may note slight differences between the lecture slides presented in class and the notes presented here. Also, each time I present a lecture it differs so there are also differences between what you hear in class and appears on the on-line videos.

Topic 1 - Introduction to Remote Sensing

  • Lecture Materials
  • Lecture Video
  • Required Readings
    • Undergraduate - L,K&C sections 1.1 & 2.2
    • Graduate - Jensen, Chapter 1
  • Recommended Reading Remote Sensing Tutorial – Overview and Quiz
  • Other Relevant Links
    • Remote Sensing Entry from the IAG Encyclopedia of Geomorphology by Andrew Klein
    • Evelyn L. Pruitt's obituary in the Annals of American Geographers.
      She is credited with coining the term remote sensing and was an amazing geographer.

Topic 2 - Brief History of Remote Sensing

Topic 3 - Basic Principles of Electromagnetic Radiation

Topic 4 - An Introduction to Aerial Photography

Topic 5 - Aerial Photo Interpretation

Topic 6 - Photogrammetry

Topic 7 - Multispectral Remote Sensing

Topic 8 - Thermal Remote Sensing

Topic 9 - Radar Remote Sensing

Topic 10 - LIDAR Remote Sensing

Topic 11 - Digital Image Processing

Basics of Digital Image Processing
Introduction to Image Classification
  • Lecture Materials - Image Cassification
  • Lecture Video - Image Classification
  • Supplemental Reading - Image Classification note by Dr. Klein. This is a *very* rough document which I originally wrote as lecture notes for my Digital Image Processing class, but may help flush out some points note in the slides. The notes do not contain a detailed discussion of maximum likelihood classifiers
  • Required Reading
    • ALL L,K&C Sections 7.7-7.17
  • Additional Resources

Topic 12 - Spectroscopy

  • Lecture Materials
  • Lecture Video
  • A good introduction to spectrocopy, especially of earth materials is available at the USGS Spectroscopy wesite
  • The ASTER team also has a spectral libary website
  • The Spectrometer we will be using is from ASD inc. You might wish to check out their website and their support section for documentation on the FieldSpec Pro spectrometer we are using in this class.
  • The book by McCoy, R.M. 2005. Field Methods in Remote Sensing. New York: The Guildford Press. Chapters has quite useful information on taking spectral measurements in the field in chapter 4 & 7. Some of the book may be available online at books.google.com or it can be obtained from the A&M library.
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OGE 225 : POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT.

Partners in Population and Development

INTRODUCTION:
Partners in Population and Development (PPD) is an intergovernmental initiative created specifically for the purpose of expanding and improving South-to-South collaboration in the fields of reproductive health, population, and development. PPD was launched at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), when ten developing countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America formed an intergovernmental alliance to help implement the Cairo Program of Action (POA). This POA, endorsed by 179 nations, stresses the need to establish mechanisms to promote development through the sharing of experiences in reproductive health (RH) and family planning (FP) within and among countries and to promote effective partnerships among the governments, Non- Governmental-Organizations (NGOs), research institutions and the private sector.
During the five-year review of the implementation of the POA (“Cairo+5”), representatives at the June 1999 Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly not only documented renewed commitment to the goals of the ICPD, but also encouraged intensified support of South- South Collaboration.
According to their website, the PPD is the "only organization in the world fully dedicated to South-South partnerships." [1]

Mission

PPD an Intergovernmental Alliance of developing countries is committed to improving the quality of life of people through sustained advocacy, capacity building, networking, knowledge sharing and management and transfer of technology in the field of reproductive health, population and development within the framework of South-South Cooperation.

Representatives

Representatives of each Member Country on the PPD Board by Region[2]
Region Country Name Position in PPD Position in home country
Asia  Bangladesh A. F. M. Ruhal Haque, MP Board Member Minister, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
 China Wang Xia Vice-Chair Minister, National Population and Family Planning Commission of China (NPFPC), Government of the People’s Republic of China
 India Ghulam Nabi Azad Chair Minister, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India
 Indonesia Sugiri Syarief, MPA Board Member Chairperson, National Family Planning Coordination Board (BKKBN), Government of Indonesia
 Pakistan Javed Mahmood Board Member Secretary, Planning & Development Division, Government of Pakistan
 Thailand Somyos Deerasamee Board Member Director-General, Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health, The Royal Thai Government
 Vietnam Duong Quoc Trong Board Member General Director of General Office for Population-Family Planning (GOPFP), Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Latin America & Caribbean  Colombia dormant partner N/A N/A
 Mexico Félix Vélez Fernández Varela Board Member Secretary-General, Consejo Nacional de Población (CONAPO), Secretaría de Gobernación
Middle East & North Africa  Egypt Fouad el Nawawy Board Member Minister, Ministry of Health and Population, Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt
 Jordan Nayef AI-Fayes Board Member Minister, Ministry of Health, Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
 Morocco El Houssaine Louardi Board Member Minister of Health, Government of the Kingdom of Morocco
 Tunisia Majed ZEMNI Treasurer President, Director-General, National Board for Family and Population
 Yemen Ahmed Ali Bourji Board Member Secretary General, Technical Secretariat, National Population Council, Council of Ministers, Republic of Yemen
Sub-Saharan Africa  Benin Dorothée GAZARD Board member Minister, Ministry of Health, Republic of Benin
 Ethiopia Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Board member Minister, Ministry of Health, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
 Gambia Isatou Njie-Saidy Board Member Vice President and Secretary, State for Women's Affairs, Government of the Gambia
 Ghana Stephen Kwankye Board Member Executive Director, National Population Council, Government of the Republic of Ghana
 Kenya Boniface O. K’Oyugi, MBS Secretary Director General, National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development (NCAPD), Kenya
 Mali Diallo Madeleine BA Board Member Minister, Ministry of Health, Government of Mali
 Nigeria Shamsudeen Usman Board Member Minister and Deputy Chairman, National Planning Commission (NPC), Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
 Senegal Awa Marie Coll SECK Board Member Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Government of Senegal
 South Africa Bathabile Olive Dlamini Board Member Minister for Social Development, Government of the Republic of South Africa
 Uganda Matia Kasaija Board Member Minister of State for Planning, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Government of the Republic of Uganda
 Zimbabwe Henry Madzorera Board Member Minister, Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Government of Zimbabwe

References

About PPD
Creation of PPD
Organizational Structure
How to become a PPD Member
Organizational Priority
List of Partners Country Coordinators (PPD focal persons in the Member Countries)
PPD News
PPD Staff
Contact PPD
  1. http://www.south-south-ppd.org/abtppd_history.asp Partners in Population and Development History
  2. http://www.south-south-ppd.org/abt_gov_brd_members.asp PPD Board Members

External links
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OGE 225 : POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT.

International Conference on Population and Development

INTRODUCTION:
The United Nations coordinated an International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt from 5–13 September 1994. Its resulting Program of Action is the steering document for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Some 20,000 delegates from various governments, UN agencies, NGOs, and the media gathered for a discussion of a variety of population issues, including immigration, infant mortality, birth control, family planning, the education of women, and protection for women from unsafe abortion services.
The conference received considerable media attention due to disputes regarding the assertion of reproductive rights. The Holy See and several predominantly Islamic nations were staunch critics and U.S. President Bill Clinton received considerable criticism from conservatives for his participation. The official spokesman for the Holy See was archbishop Renato Martino.
According to the official ICPD release, the conference delegates achieved consensus on the following four qualitative and quantitative goals:[1]
  1. Universal education: Universal primary education in all countries by 2015. Urge countries to provide wider access to women for secondary and higher level education as well as vocational and technical training.
  2. Reduction of infant and child mortality: Countries should strive to reduce infant and under-5 child mortality rates by one-third or to 50-70 deaths per 1000 by the year 2000. By 2015 all countries should aim to achieve a rate below 35 per 1,000 live births and under-five mortality rate below 45 per 1,000.
  3. Reduction of maternal mortality: A reduction by ½ the 1990 levels by 2000 and ½ of that by 2015. Disparities in maternal mortality within countries and between geographical regions, socio-economic and ethnic groups should be narrowed.
  4. Access to reproductive and sexual health services including family planning: Family-planning counseling, pre-natal care, safe delivery and post-natal care, prevention and appropriate treatment of infertility, prevention of abortion and the management of the consequences of abortion, treatment of reproductive tract infections, sexually transmitted diseases and other reproductive health conditions; and education, counseling, as appropriate, on human sexuality, reproductive health and responsible parenthood. Services regarding HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, infertility, and delivery should be made available. Active discouragement of female genital mutilation (FGM).

ICPD and abortion

During and after the ICPD, some interested parties attempted to interpret the term ‘reproductive health’ in the sense that it implies abortion as a means of family planning or, indeed, a right to abortion. These interpretations, however, do not reflect the consensus reached at the Conference. For the European Union, where legislation on abortion is certainly less restrictive than elsewhere, the Council Presidency has clearly stated that the Council’s commitment to promote ‘reproductive health’ did not include the promotion of abortion.[2] Likewise, the European Commission, in response to a question from a Member of the European Parliament, clarified:
“The term ‘reproductive health’ was defined by the United Nations (UN) in 1994 at the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development. All Member States of the Union endorsed the Programme of Action adopted at Cairo. The Union has never adopted an alternative definition of ‘reproductive health’ to that given in the Programme of Action, which makes no reference to abortion.”[3]
With regard to the US, only a few days prior to the Cairo Conference, the head of the US delegation, Vice President Al Gore, had stated for the record:
“Let us get a false issue off the table: the US does not seek to establish a new international right to abortion, and we do not believe that abortion should be encouraged as a method of family planning.”[4]
Some years later, the position of the US Administration in this debate was reconfirmed by US Ambassador to the UN, Ellen Sauerbrey, when she stated at a meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women that: “nongovernmental organizations are attempting to assert that Beijing in some way creates or contributes to the creation of an internationally recognized fundamental right to abortion”.[5] She added: “There is no fundamental right to abortion. And yet it keeps coming up largely driven by NGOs trying to hijack the term and trying to make it into a definition”.[6]

See also

References

  1. "Report of the International Conference on Population and Development", UNFPA, 1995
  2. European Parliament, 4 December 2003: Oral Question (H-0794/03) for Question Time at the part-session in December 2003 pursuant to Rule 43 of the Rules of Procedure by Dana Scallon to the Council. In the written record of that session, one reads: Posselt (PPE-DE): “Does the term ‘reproductive health’ include the promotion of abortion, yes or no?” - Antonione, Council: “No.”
  3. European Parliament, 24 October 2002: Question no 86 by Dana Scallon (H-0670/02)
  4. Jyoti Shankar Singh, Creating a New Consensus on Population (London: Earthscan, 1998), 60
  5. Lederer, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 1 March 2005
  6. Leopold, Reuters, 28 February 2005

External links

  • UNFPA: ICPD
  • UNFPA Summary of the ICPD Programme for Action: [1]
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