Khairulazhar Zainuddin

The potential of mangrove forest as a bioshield in Malaysia

Using mangroves as a potential coastal bioshield has been intensively studied and tested in the past 10 years. Without a doubt, these studies suggest mangroves are able to attenuate waves thus make it perfect bioshield against tsunami, storm surges, erosion and other coastal disaster. This paper synthesis state of mangroves forests in Peninsular Malaysia towards the realisation of adopting mangrove as main coastal bioshield. Mangrove forest area degradation mainly caused by the land reclamation for agriculture and aquaculture. The situation has been exacerbated by the rapid growth of coastal communities that eventually become the potential victim for coastal disaster. Despite the rigorous effort to replant and rehabilitate, the incomplete hydrodynamic study of the site often leads to failure. An artificial structure like seawall and wave breaker for coastal defence are not sustainable anymore with the constant cost increment over the years. Though nurturing mangrove to serve as bioshield already begun before 2005, Malaysia commitment in mangrove bioshield officially become national agenda under “The Tenth Malaysia Plan 2010-2015”, by the bill on “Climate adaptation: protecting the nation from the impact of climate change” and “Enhancing conservation of the nations ecological assets”. Now the implementation period has been concluded, further research in waves attenuation rate need to extend to precisely describe the capability of mangrove as bioshield in Peninsular Malaysia coastal.

Verification test on ability to use low-cost UAV for quantifying tree height

In recent years, there are ample research and development on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for various applications. The significance of small and low operating cost, UAV extensively being used in agriculture mapping. The UAV is suitable for the small survey area compared to the traditional remote sensing application for both spatial and temporal resolution. This research focuses on the uses of low altitude images for tree height 3D reconstruction. Pix4Dmapper software was utilized for canopy height reconstruction applied “Structure from Motion” (SfM) approach for generating high-resolution Canopy Height Model (CHM) from low-altitude aerial images. The CHM height assessment was made by comparing data derived from the UAV and ground truth. The result of the validation assessment conducted for tree height estimation from the CHM yielded R2 = 0.80, and overall root mean square error (RMSE) of 69.9 cm. From the results, it concluded that the usage of consumer-grade drone fitted with ground truth but not gives an accurate measurement.

The feasibility of using low-cost commercial unmanned aerial vehicle for small area topographic mapping

Conventionally small area topographic detail plan is produced using land survey techniques. Various method of modern topographical detail plan however required more cost to speed up the data acquisition process for large data and high accuracy. The recent development in commercial grade Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has the potential to be used as a data capture equipment with low cost. In this study, commercial quadcopter UAV was used as an aerial image data capture vehicle. The images were captured at a lower altitude and then processed by using SfM software. Eight ground control points and a set of 15 and 17 check points was established by using RTK-GPS method. The outputs of this study were Digital Surface Model (DSM) and building footprint vector line. For accuracy assessment, the root means square error (RMSE) was used to evaluate the accuracy of a planimetric and vertical component of DSM. Based on the assessment, the results show the accuracy of sub-meter in planimetric and 5m in vertical. In conclusion, the usage of the low-cost commercial UAV has great potential in topographic data capture for detail plan production.

3D Data Fusion Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Photogrammetry and Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS)

Recognizing the various advantages offered by 3D new metric survey technologies for 3D modelling reconstruction, this study presents a method or procedure of complete 3D data acquisition, using different sensors, and their possible fusion. Besides, this involved a discussion of the capability of UAV photogrammetry in order to collect data for the rooftop of the building with the low cost and combine the data with terrestrial measurement technique. Meanwhile, the aim of this study is to identify the minimum network configuration as to combine TLS and UAV photogrammetry data fusion. Hence, some procedure has been done in the methodology by registering TLS and UAV point clouds by employing multinetwork configuration. Furthermore, the data fusions’ results were evaluated on the registration error of UAV towards TLS coordinate system via the various number of network configuration samples. Based on the experimental results, the sample of network configuration for the three registration points results in a good condition due to the well-distributed registration points and less errors of both point clouds’ registration. As conclusion, a good quality of data fusion between TLS and UAV photogrammetry is determined by a good selection number of the registration points via several samples of network configuration.

Mangrove area detection by using high resolution satellite imagery

Mangrove usually found on the outfall or along the beach and commonly the area is a mudflats area. Mangroves have many important roles to the environment and to the marine ecosystem and also protect land from the erosion, flood and even tsunami. Mangrove can be a shelter when there is tempest that come from the sea and can reduce the erosion to the land that cause from the wave. Mangrove have main important role for ecosystem, mapping of the mangrove should be done. But to get the information to map the mangrove area might be difficult since the area of the mangrove is a mudflats area and might have constraint to get the information to map the mangrove area. In this study using remote sensing technology, mapping for mangrove area are easier since it is use satellite image and no need to go to the field which might have difficult and probably have to take longer time to get the data. This study is about to detect mangrove area by using high resolution satellite imagery. Since this study is to detect mangrove area by using high resolution satellite imagery and there are many types of satellite imagery are available, Quickbird images have been used to detect mangrove area. Visual interpretation technique being used to choose the training area and supervised and unsupervised classification will be performed.

The Unmanned Aerial Imagery Capturing System (UAiCs) flight planning calculation parameters for small scale format imagery

Decision making and planning is an integral part in Unmanned Aerial Imagery Capturing System (UAiCs) operation, it is important to plan dynamically negotiable collision free path. In order to ensure the UAiCs operates safely, effective path planning and also any rules of regulation governing flight within the Department of Civil Aviation need to consider. The first step in photogrammetric project is a flight planning. In order to get an optimum profit by using the new technology, good preparation of an efficient flight plan needs to be implemented. When planning a flight for aerial photography purposes, GPS technology cannot be considered separately because, as shown in the market today, GPS technology has proven successfully used in photogrammetric project. Nowadays, mostly all the small unmanned aircraft has designed for aerial photography attached together with GPS and also flight computer that used as control station. In order to use this system effectively, first and foremost the basic principle in calculating and preparing flight lines needs to be excellent [1]. The aim of this paper is to analyze the important parameter in order to show the computational step for UAiCs flight mission planning. Then, as a result this paper look into the analysis of flight path planning parameter more detail and deeply and determine the important parameter that need to emphasize in order to implement a good flight planning.

Utilizing quadcopter as LARS image platform to determine the paddy spectral and growth parameter

Low Altitude Remote Sensing (LARS) images from the unmanned radio-controlled quadcopter platform has been utilized in assessing relationship between paddy production and paddy spectral by using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) classification method. Sampling result from six well distributed area were the main feeder in establishing the relationship of paddy growth parameters (paddy age and coverage) with NDVI. Quadratic equation is the best fitted equation to describe the relationship between NDVI and paddy age with R2 values ranging from 0.960 to 0.974. Relationship between paddy coverage and NDVI by linear equation with correlation coefficient (R2) from 0.734 to 0.861. From both relationships, it shows that NDVI has the same proclivity with the paddy coverage in its life stage. The climax of paddy index in NDVI is 2 months paddy age. This period is the transition from vegetative to generative stage. Two growth variables were assessed in this research with the total NDVI presented the strongest exponential relationship to paddy production with an R2 value of 0.947 and the percentage of paddy estimation precision to 92%. This research enable the prediction of paddy production by using y = 0.0496e0.0978x equation, with x is the total NDVI and y is the paddy production. The result obtained reflect parameters sufficiency thus acknowledge the potential of light platform Unmanned Aerial Imaging System (UAIS) to estimate paddy production.

Classifications of prohibited manoeuvre — Malaysia road network

Car navigation system (CNS) has become one of the popular accessories among driver in Malaysia. Currently, all CNS components are imported except digital maps that been produce by local map provider referring to document ISO 14825:2011 - Intelligent transport systems - Geographic Data Files (GDF) - GDF 5.0. Even though the document has an intensive guideline but most of it does not suit Malaysia road network. This paper discussing about the type of access restriction and prohibited manoeuvre classification that exists in the Klang Valley road network. Data collection and investigation were done using Sanyo CNS preloaded with 2007 digital maps. A result from the investigation shows that there are six (6) type of prohibited manoeuvre exists in Klang Valley. The intention of this investigation is to incorporate the Malaysia road models with the GDF document so GDF conversion and quality checking tools can be developed according to Malaysia road model. This can avoid an error in CNS maps due to the human operator interfere.