Save the Elephants incorporates PCI Geomatics software

PCI Geomatics announced the donation of its software suite Geomatica to assist Save the Elephants (STE) organization in Africa. Geomatica will be used to process and analyze satellite imagery to help understand the movement and ranging behaviour of elephants and to study their habitat.

STE are using Geomatica 10 to classify multi-spectral imagery to look at land use and vegetation types in relation to elephant movements across varied and mosaicked landscapes. High-resolution aerial photos and satellite imagery are being used to map the presence of human settlements in the range of the elephants in both Mali and Kenya. Using radar tools of Geomatica STE will study using radar imagery for mapping livestock corridors in areas vital to the survival of the desert elephants of Mali. Using a wide variety of data inputs STE will model and eventually understand the behaviour and spatial needs of elephants.

Save the Elephants will also be using Geomatica for orthorectifying historic aerial photos for comparison against current aerial photography, and assessment of vegetation degradation. It will also be used to process and analyze Fine Beam Radar imagery acquired over Mali to map human settlements in the range of elephants. Utilizing thermal imagery, Geomatica will help identify water sources, as well as supervised classification of vegetation using Landsat/Aster imagery in areas of key importance to elephants.

Source: www.pcigeomatics.com