Noorzalianee Ghazali

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.

Prohibited manoeuvre in automobile navigation system development

The development of automobile navigation system a.k.a car navigation system (CNS) in Malaysia is limited to the development of the basemap only. Until this year (2011), all CNS devices are imported. This paper concentrates on investigation on classification of prohibited manoeuvre in Malaysia to serve as a guideline for CNS map provider in Malaysia. Sanyo CNS unit with a 2007 Klang Valley basemap used to conduct a series of site investigation. Using a CNS as navigation tools, this research able to correlate junction (intersection) and prohibited manoeuvre that must be associate with it.

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.

Appraising effect of environmental parameter toward mangrove area: A review

Mangrove is a valuable ecological and economic resource. However, mangrove is repeatedly being threatened by many ideas such as reclamation including aquaculture, agriculture or development projects. Similar trend is happening in Malaysia that the annual mangrove loss in some major state in Peninsular Malaysia is about 1,282 ha or about 1% a year since 1990. The actual scenario of mangrove ecosystem and what affect its growth are necessary to be study especially in Malaysia. This paper reviews the concept of mangrove study and its potential implementation in Malaysia mangrove area. This review paper aims to provide a short overview on mangrove ecosystem, their benefit and the application of remote sensing in mangrove analyses and monitoring including the technique applied and the output from mangrove study. A suggestion and recommendation for the next study were discussed at the end of this paper. In this paper, a research proposal for the next study was mentioned.

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.

Shoreline siltation monitoring using remote sensing techniques: Study Area: Tg. Dawai, Kedah, Malaysia

Shoreline, which is also known as coastline is the boundary between land and sea keeps changing its shape and position continuously due to dynamic environmental condition. This change is mainly associated with waves, tides, winds, periodic storms, sea level change, and the geomorphic processes of erosion and accretion and human activities. This paper describes the use of Remote Sensing data in monitoring the changes along the coastal zone including shoreline with reasonable accuracy. Remote sensing data helps and/or replaces the conventional survey by its repetitive and less cost-effectiveness. In this study, necessary data representing satellite image SPOT 5 for year 2005 and 2010 with 2.5 m resolution were integrated in order to see the temporal change and analyze the siltation effect over the years. All the processing and analysis were done using ERDAS Imagine 9.2. Monitoring changes in shoreline helps to identify the nature and processes that caused these changes in any specific area, to access the human impact and to plan management strategies. Results from data analysis had shown that there exists a close relationship existed between the open area and sedimentation loading rate, depending on their location of open areas with respect to factors such as availability of sediment, soil type, slope length and slope steepness. Findings from this study will provide the latest information and current condition of coastal Tanjung Dawai, Kedah, Malaysia and support the governments future planning to make Tanjung Dawai as a centers for fishing and enhancing their present role as the main fishing hub of state. Furthermore, this study is intending to explore the usefulness of Remote Sensing techniques in monitoring long term shoreline changes.

Prohibited manoeuvre for automobile navigation mapping industries

Rapid development in automobile navigation system in Malaysia for the last decade were very much influenced by the growth of its intelligent automation mapping solutions. Then car navigation unit equipped with Malaysia maps can only be bought in Singapore but today users can buy Tokyo automobile navigation maps even in Malaysia. These are patterns showing that Malaysian drivers are relying more on this devices to reach their destination. Prohibited manoeuvre in intelligent automation mapping in Malaysia has for long become its biggest challenge. Map provider until now are still depending on ground survey solution to acquire prohibited manoeuvre for complex junction. This manually acquires data need a strict automation quality control (QC) to ensure its integrity. Malfunction on navigation system turning direction has become one of the excuses for accident to happen. The Malaysian transportation system through its vast network of road systems has lead to the need of its own specification when it comes to Geographical Data Format (GDF). Prohibited manoeuvre for junction at Klang Valley has been adopted as research area to define the Malaysian pattern of prohibited manoeuvre. Further investigation on road pattern were conducted to rule out proper model for prohibited manoeuvre and mechanism to detect illogical definition of prohibited manoeuvre as well as flaw in spatial shape of the junction itself. This research were aim to provide guideline for the authority body in Malaysia to set up a clear rules and regulation for map provider that are currently exporting data to overseas for GDF conversion. The findings of this research could contribute in reducing the number of accidents in Malaysia.